I’m thinking that what I should do is start up a freak breeders play group that meets up every so often. That’s what I should do! I can advertise on the local freak lists and groups and such. It’ll be awesome! Well, if anyone decides to come. 🙂 I’ll hopefully get to hang with some of the freaky sorts I know already and meet new ones! Yay!
I’m thinking a trip to the zoo. That could be a neat fairly neutral first trip. I don’t know much about local zoos. Is the San Francisco Zoo or the Oakland Zoo noticeably better? I propose November 15th because that is far enough out to make it on to calendars and before the holidays. (And uhm, it’s after my Comp Exam. 🙂 Given the schedules of young’uns I think 10am is probably a reasonable starting time but I’m open to feedback. This isn’t the official announcement, I’m giving my friends a chance to suggest a different date, time, or activity before I solicit the larger freak community.
For ya’lls general information I am defining freak as: kinky, poly, pagan, burner, goth, punk, trans, queer, bisexual, industrial, hippy, or if you just feel like you don’t quite fit in at the local mommy group. You can be any of the above or none of the above. If you think you qualify as a freak, come on down.
Any feedback before I do a larger scale announcement?
Oakland zoo is much better. I haven’t been to either one, but I keep half an eye on zoo politics, and the SF zoo is largely seen as one of the worst and most old-fashioned zoos around, while the Oakland one is considered one of the best in this part of the state (Read: no San Diego Zoo or WAP, but still damn good).
Also, Oakland Zoo is actually easy to get to from the East Bay. Getting to the SF zoo is a huge pain to get to even for some who live in SF.
Homeschooling groups may already exist in your area and have a decent number of non-normal parents. (with at least one older kid, of course, but many will also have babies.)
We’ve been to both zoos this season, and I think they’re both good. I didn’t find the SF zoo to be the bad-old-zoo way that ribbin described. Their old exhibit areas (labeled pachyderms, for example) are shuttered and most of the animals are in naturalistic settings.
If you have a favorite zoo animal, you might want to check to be sure that those are available at the zoo you choose. Oakland has elephants and camels, but SF does not. SF has kangaroos and several kinds of bears, Oakland does not.
If you really want to play up the breeder angle, the Feb/Valentine’s Day night tour at the SF zoo may be intereresting….
But if you’re trying to plan a “families with kids and people who will be friendly to them” outing, I’d go to either zoo. They both have cute little trains, and our Kidlet is very interested in trains just now.