Friday night and you’re sitting around the house wondering why nobody is calling you. You think about those crazy friends of yours who seem to be out ALL THE TIME. “How do they do it?” you wonder. Well, without straining my brain too hard I can venture there’s one huge difference between what they are doing and what you are doing. It’s about being accessible.

There are a few prerequisites to being the social beast that everyone knows and loves. You’ll probably read through this list and go “no shit Sherlock” but often times people forget these things. I’ll be that happy little angel sitting on your shoulder reminding you of these things.

1. Be geographically accessible – It helps to live near all the activity. It really does you no good to live an hour or two from where you want and need to be for all your social activities. There’s a reason people chose to live in the city and why certain parts of the city command more of a premium than others…accessibility to the hot spots.
2. Make the time to be accessible – If someone calls and asks what you’re doing tonight or tomorrow night, realize they are asking this because they want to do something with you. If you’ve got plans to cut your toenails you can easily postpone that task and head on out to be with your friends. The more you’re out and about, the more you’ll be seen and the more people you will meet.
3. Make yourself accessible – Expand your horizons, try new things. You prefer indie rock shows but a friend calls and wants to hit a metal show with you. Go! You never know who you’ll see there and you’ll more than likely enjoy the atmosphere and being out and about anyway. Open yourself to all sorts of new activities and save your judgement for later.

Granted there are other things that need to happen to be the social beast that you crave to be but this is all about accessibility. You’ve got to get out and about, you have to be in the mix of things. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…you DON’T need loads of money to be the social beast. Since when did socializing be a money-oriented sport? You’ve got friends…see them! Buy a 12 pack of cheap swill and enjoy a day at the pool or a night shooting the shit. It’s THAT easy. You’ve got friends…enjoy some quality time with them all around town.

I know you’re out there! Come out come out wherever you are!

As I sit on this cool cloudy day writing (already finished one post to ChiaTown.com and getting ready for some deep ponderings on WaxPorhetoric.com) and listening to music I wonder where the rest of my social beast brethren are. I’m jonesing for a mountain bike ride. Or road bike ride. Or to play some soccer (ok, maybe I should hold off on that a bit longer as I figure out what my knee is doing). Ya know, there are plenty of things for us to do out there so why aren’t we doing them? You gotta get out and about to live life to the fullest. Sitting around at home does nothing for your health, your sanity, or your social well-being.

Last night I was out at a meeting planning Jakestock (a summer festival in Atlanta that will feature some local bands and some big players, have some good food, artists, etc) and met a few more people. People that also enjoy getting out and about and making things happen. I fear that people assume you’ve gotta be throwing money around to be social. People assume you’ve gotta have an entourage, high-profile status at the clubs, wads of money to hand to doormen and bartenders, and so forth. No…no, you don’t have to be in the Paris Hilton crowd to enjoy a vibrant life out on the town. I’ve done it for years on a shoestring budget. I find it to be more fulfilling actually as you can see who appreciates you for who you are instead of for the money you throw around.

So to my fellow social beasts…screw the recession! Get out! Socialize. Mingle with the people. Make things happen. I plan on it. Hopefully I’ll see you out there.

What does it mean to be a social beast? I won’t even begin to claim that I’m the most social person out there. However, I do consider myself a social beast and I thrive in interacting with other social beasts. Creating a community of social beasts is the one goal in life that I’ve got. To all of you social beasts out there it’s time to step out and start congregating so we can enjoy life to the fullest. There will also be a bit more business-focused narrative on the following events on Chia Town.

This past weekend epitomized why I enjoy doing what I do and being who I am. It started out simple enough…I was supposed to meet with a friend who also does promotions. We were going to discuss the upcoming Jakestock Festival (June 20 and 21 in Atlanta, celebrating Jake’s Ice Cream’s 10 year anniversary with bands, food, art and other goodness) and what to do. We met at a local bar with a couple other friends. Suddenly I’ve got a couple other friends showing up, I talked to a guy who wants to help me get Sweetwater Brewery there (he’s also a pretty cool music producer) and another friend who is darn good at doing video work. I started getting everyone tied together and now we’ve got my video guy partnering up with Brass Knuckle Surfer to do a music video. Soon I was talking to another guy who popped up to say hi to my friends and he was telling me about his new venture of offering a culinary treat of Persian/Southern fusion. I totally enjoyed chatting with my new acquaintance and am looking forward to adding him to the list of Jakestock vendors. Awww yeah! And to think…this was just my first stop…

Next up was us heading to Fox Brother’s BBQ to meet with a couple other friends. While there I met the owners (damn nice guys) and talked to them about the festival. Hopefully they’ll buy into it and join the fun. Next up was Front Page News to see a manager friend there. Chilling for a bit there and talking to her…again, hoping to get them involved in the fun too.

As the night progressed we continued bouncing around meeting people. I was in my element again. After a few months of being holed up in the house (grrrrr…pesky economy) I was out and about, being the social beast that I am, meeting new people, making new connections in both the personal and professional sense and enjoying life to the fullest. All this bouncing around was nice and cheap too…it pays to be social, know the people and partake in the give-and-take goodness of good people taking care of each other.

That was Friday night. Good times…good times. Well, that was until Saturday morning when I was feeling just a wee-bit less than perfect and was prepping for a soccer game (I’ve taken a couple months off to let my knee heal…oh how I miss my soccer). It was truly awesome getting back out on the field…my teammates were happy to see me (and somehow I ended up as captain again…not sure how but it was fun) and even guys on the other team were saying “nice to have you back out here again…we’ve missed ya”. Awww…rock on…
(for those that are interested, we lost in a close game and the knee is still a bit tender)

Saturday evening was a bit more mellow as I went to meet a few new people. I was tired but sleepiness does not deter a social beast! Had an enjoyable evening chilling with them and getting to know them.

Then on to Sunday…hitting the town a bit for some food and then meeting up with some friends at Noche. Worlds colliding! I went there with one group and was hanging with them as I saw another one of my groups coming in to celebrate a friend’s evening before he was to depart for Kuwait. As I’m intermingling with these two separate groups I see my new Persian buddy pop in with his business partner and entourage and started chatting it up with them a bit. He’s totally stoked about the ideas I’ve got for his business and my new business of event planning and such.

Such is the life of a social beast. A busy life, a fun life, one that I embrace fully and was so happy to be back into after a bit too much time off. Time for me to get back to who I really am! It’s time for you other social beasts to come out of the woodwork, say “screw you” to this recession crap and enjoy life for what it is. No need to go broke…it’s totally possible to enjoy being social at a friend’s place, at a park, or drinking cheap swill somewhere. Be the social beast…live it…love it!