Covered in a big scarf and my umbrella held above my head I walked towards the carefully chosen venue... Nice and spacey and a wide variety of items on the menu both food and drink wise, so everyone could have something of their liking. Also: very close to the train station for those who had to travel far and had to catch a train back home at night.
The tram driver told me to get out one stop before the stop I needed to be because of maintenance. So I had to walk, through the rain, through the wind... Knowing I would be just a few minutes late which I didn't like. I had planned to be there a few minutes beforehand so I could welcome the Steemians attending.
I told myself it was okay: if they were inside already I would just be able to pick them out of the crowd as they surely would probably be keeping an eye on the entrance door to see if they would recognize me?
I turned a corner, totally expecting to have to push open the door to the venue... Only to see there were no lights on and all chairs were put upside-down on the tables.
Nooooo!
I was late, I saw no-one waiting in front of the door, and the venue was closed!
What now?
In that moment my hope was no-one had arrived at the venue yet - as they would surely believe my whole Steem meet-up was a joke! I decided to leave a comment quickly on my meet-up post to share a new location - and then walk towards that venue while trying to message some people I knew would come on Discord.
Would all work out and would people be able to find me?
Of course it did. I sat down at the 'new' Café and it took only a few mintutes before I saw someone looking around, clearly searching for 'people'. I waved and asked if he was looking for Steemians - which he did. It was @alfonzo, driving quite a distance to Rotterdam, he totally believed he was being catfished when he found the venue was closed! I'm glad he found my updated blog post before he turned home again, maybe only a few minutes have made the difference between him still finding us and getting back to his car only to find out at home a meet-up did take place anyway.
Ofcourse @pundito arrived shortly after, he's turning out to be the most loyal of all Steemians to join the meet-ups, and when the three of us were busy chatting about Steem witnesses and the changes after HF21/2, @pacolimited and his non-Steemian companion joined us for a beer as well :D
We had a blast chatting and drinking, even after we had to change venues again because this one closed super early. It was a shame our dear @verhp11 wasn't able to join at the last minute because his son had to be checked in the hospital after a blow to the head which turned out to be a mild concussion - all the best wishes for your son and see you next time, Peter!
All in all I am super excited that two new people showed up at the Rotterdam meet-up, and I heard both @alfonzo and @pacolimited say they were interested to join us again another time!
Thanks for showing up and sharing your stories - to me these little meet-ups are very meaningful, getting to know faces behind the profile pictures, getting to know motivations behind being on Steem (@alfonzo more investment oriented, @pacolimited very much @steemmonsters oriented for example :D), and through talks opening up opportunities to work together or educate each other or just spread a little bit of our enthusiasm for this weird en sometimes puzzling place called Steem.
Cheers and until next time!
Return from A Sunday afternoon Steem meet-up that almost didn't happen to Rosanne's Web3 Blog
