Today’s the day the atheists have their picnic

So last night I went on a bad date and came home early to consider what the weekend had in store.

While the hotel is very nice I didn’t want to spend the weekend watching TV and drinking beer. I’m here for a year and it’s time to get out and meet people. So I got on the internet (what did we do before it?) and had a look around.

For Saturday the options didn’t look good. One of my favourite pubs here, the Irish Bank, was hosting a mixer organised by Urban Diversions that involved a series of challenges like using a cheesy chatup line etc over six pubs and two nightclubs but I’m not in the mood for Club 18-30 frolics.

However a Google search for SF Atheists bought up their calendar and the group was holding a summer picnic in a park near the ocean. I was a little apprehensive; as an online friend Del pointed out it might consist of “Yeah, I have no divine guidance...ooh! is that three bean salad?”

Nevertheless I though I’d check it out and popped onto a MUNI train to head over to the area. That was an experience – the MUNI starts off as an underground train – just like the Tube but with air-conditioning. But after a point the train emerges into daylight and starts rolling down tramlines on the street. What a brilliant idea.

The downside it that it stops everywhere like a normal tram so I got a bit lost but saw a library and went in to ask where I was. What is it with librarians; they must be the nicest people on the planet. I’m sure there must be the odd axe murder or two who works in a library but everyone I’ve met in one, including this one, was nothing but helpful.

So I found the park where the party was being held, braced myself and wandered into the fray. It’s always a bit tricky introducing yourself to a large crew of people who you’ve never met before but it has to be done if I’m going to avoid being a loner.

As it turns out it was a really fun afternoon. After some initial awkwardness I started to mingle and tucked into the barbecue. This was a revelation – public parks over here have barbecues built into the parks that anyone can use. Just turn up with charcoal and start grilling. Add in a Frisbee game and we all had a really good time.

The group had had to reserve the place, but that only cost $55, and everyone brought a potluck dish so there was more than enough food and plenty to drink. In the hot sun (spf15 got slapped on but I’m still slightly burnt) it was a very nice way to spend an afternoon and I met some fun folks and one or two really interesting ones.

I was a bit perturbed by some of the activities. There were two bible throwing competitions – one for distance and the other for accuracy. I didn’t take part. First off no matter how you feel about Christianity a lot of people care about the bible and you shouldn’t disrespect those feelings even if you don’t agree with them.

Secondly, and more importantly, it’s a book dammit. You don’t wilfully damage a book – care went into it and you should no more fling a book than burn it. It was interesting that very few people took part in this activity and it was mainly the older crowd. I suppose they may have had more problems with the religious folk and so have demons to exorcise.

There was also an atheist band (see picture) singing for a while but to be frank they were really not up to snuff. They needed more practice – the rhythm guitarist was groping around for the melody with more desperation than a blind monk in a strip club. Nice idea though.

But as I say there were some interesting people there and I hope to see some more of them soon. On the way back we crested the hill into the San Francisco downtown area and the view was truly beautiful, with the sun shining off the buildings and the bay surrounding the urban centre, with the two bridges like antenna leading to the north shore. What a wonderful city.