Omigod I'm a yuppy

My knitting date forgot to bring her supplies (I'm trying not to drink so much hence knitting on a Friday night) so I ended up going to my friend's place because her sister was making Indian food and "having a couple of friends over." I was in a sort of 'shoot the shit' mood, plus, it was Friday and I was pooped from the week, so figured this would be a chill activity.

A couple of friends ended up being being twenty or so barefoot hippies, many of whom were ex-heroine addicts turned yogis, who are friends through yoga (of course) and gardening. The occasion was a farewell send-off for one dude leaving for India. Everyone was super friendly and nice, but I could tell this was a gathering of hippies.

Asking a simple question like "Oh, how do you guys know each other," resulted in a twenty -minute pontification about the "AMAZING , BEAUTIFUL connections in life and people, and how DO we know each other? Oh from everywhere, from nowhere, from yoga, from gardening, but just, you know, from AROUND." RIGHT. OK. My ADHD brain stopped listening after the first sentence (because, really, that's all it should've taken right??).

Suddenly, all conversation was interrupated, as the dinner party was co-opted into a "circle" by the dude going to India. (YES, like a women's "circle", not to be mean but...just the thought of having to be in one makes me want to kill myself). We were supposed to go around the circle and each person would share their "thoughts" and "feelings" about the dude's "spiritual journey" to India, so that everyone can "share the energy" and "expand their thoughts". One woman talked about having a women's circle on the same day he was arriving in India, and how he would be in their thoughts, and how they (the women) would "connect" with him and his hippy friends in India. Another woman talked about "when you go there as a white man and are the minority amongst the COLORED people, remember how that feels and come back with that FEELING, and remember it." OH BROTHER. Then the long, white-haired, Willie Nelson-look alike played the guitar and sang a song. Each 'sharing of thoughts' was punctuated by long periods of silence.

OH
MY
GAAAAWWDDUUHHH

This was driving me over the edge. Specifically, words like "beautiful", "amazing", "spiritual", "connection" and "energy" used in one run-on sentence drive me over the edge. Why can't I just continue in the conversation I was having with the musician dude next to me about Charlie Hunter? Or the conversation I was having with my friend about her great aunt's deceased ex-husband, a famous Spanish painter? I mean, I'm not anti-hippy by any means, and if people want to talk in meaningless circles about nothing, by all means please do. But, COME ON, I shouldn't have to be forced into talking about "energy" on a Friday night. Even still, I knew I was being mean-spirited but felt somewhat redeemed when my friend's hippy sister pulls me into the bathroom and confides "I hate this sh*t."

I couldn't take it anymore, and went home to salvage some of the evening. Now I'm relaxing on my Mies van der Rohr Barcelona chair, knitting and watching Cecilia Bartok and Bryn Terfel sing excerpts from Marriage of Figaro and Magic Flute. I'm a yuppy, damnit, and proud of it.