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!