r/LongIslandIRL

I run a Long Island social group for adults who want to make friends and actually DO things together, and October has gotten delightfully weird.

Tomorrow we're literally meeting up to go pumpkin picking and turn it into a completely unnecessary competition. 🎃

Think pumpkin challenges, cider, donuts, photos, wandering around, and a group of adults taking agricultural activities significantly more seriously than required.

But that's kind of the point of the group.

We do a mix of:

• Suffolk meetups
• Nassau meetups
• occasional NYC adventures
• coffee / food hangs
• seasonal stuff
• craft meetups
• weird little local adventures
• movie nights
• anime nights
• game nights
• book club
• Discord-only events for people who don't always want to leave the house

And you absolutely do NOT need to come to everything.

You can join, lurk for a while, talk when you feel like it, come to one event every six months, show up alone, bring a partner, or just wait until something appears that makes you go "okay fine, THAT sounds fun."

A lot of people join because making adult friends on Long Island is weirdly difficult when you're no longer being automatically placed in a building with 300 people your age every day.

We're trying to make that part a little easier.

October alone has pumpkin picking, a thrift-store costume challenge, cryptid field research, paranormal Long Island stuff, an NYC weird-things side quest, online Halloween activities, movie/anime/game nights, and a Halloween costume hangout.

We're 18+ and the server is meant to be friendly, low-pressure and actually local.

If you're from Suffolk, Nassau, Queens/NYC or close enough that you'd realistically come hang out with Long Islanders, you're welcome.

Discord:

https://discord.gg/WQkAnWCTtw

And if Discord isn't normally your thing but one of the IRL meetups catches your attention, you can message me here too.

Also because I know somebody will ask:

YES, showing up to a meetup alone is normal.

That's basically the entire reason this exists. 😂

If you’ve been wanting to meet more people on Long Island but every suggestion seems to be either “go to a bar” or “join a run club,” hi. We’re doing something different.

We’re a Long Island social Discord for adults who want actual things to do and people to do them with. We have members across Suffolk and Nassau, and we also make occasional trips into NYC.

October’s theme is:

WHIMSY MODE: ENGAGED.

Basically: spooky season, weird adventures, fall stuff, creative nonsense, local oddities, costumes, games, food, and events where there’s an actual activity to focus on instead of being dropped into a room and expected to magically make friends.

Here’s what we’ve got happening this month:

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3
CABINET OF CURIOSITIES CRAWL
Manhattan • 1:00 PM
We’re heading into NYC for weird shops, strange objects, curiosities, wandering, photo missions, food, and anything else that makes the group collectively stop and ask, “What the hell is that?”

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10
PUMPKIN PICKING, BUT MAKE IT COMPETITIVE
Suffolk County • 1:30 PM
Yes, we could simply go pumpkin picking like normal adults.
We will not.
Pumpkins, cider, donuts, fall farm stuff, and a series of completely unnecessary pumpkin-related challenges.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15
$20 THRIFT STORE COSTUME ROULETTE
Nassau County • 6:30 PM
You get $20.
You get one thrift store.
You have to somehow turn whatever you find into a costume/look.
Whether the result is fashionable, cursed, or both is between you and the thrift store gods.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17
CRYPTID FIELD RESEARCH DEPARTMENT
Suffolk County • 3:00 PM
A fall nature walk conducted with the seriousness of a federally funded paranormal investigation.
Bigfoot?
Probably not.
Suspiciously large raccoon?
DOCUMENT IT.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22
PARANORMAL NASSAU: LEGENDS & LORE NIGHT
Nassau County • 6:30 PM
An evening built around strange local history, folklore, creepy stories, and Long Island places that feel slightly different once the sun goes down.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24
NYC SIDE QUEST: WEIRD NEW YORK
Manhattan • 1:00 PM
Basically a giant wandering side quest.
We’ll be hunting for weird architecture, gargoyles, suspicious doors, unusual signs, tiny details people normally walk past, ridiculous photo opportunities, and anything else that earns points solely because we decided it should.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31
WHIMSY & WEIRDNESS: THE COSTUME HANGOUT
Suffolk County • 6:00 PM
This is the big October finale.
Costumes.
Themed snacks.
Games.
Photos.
Ghost stories.
Weird little activities.
Ridiculous costume categories.

And, most importantly, somebody will receive the prestigious:

“I HAVE SEVERAL QUESTIONS” AWARD.

Costumes are encouraged, not required. You can absolutely show up in a Halloween sweater and just hang out.

And that’s only the in-person stuff.

We also have regular virtual activities throughout the month:

• Sunday Movie Nights
• Wednesday Anime Nights
• Friday Game Nights
• October Book Club
• Halloween digital decorating
• random conversation nights
• spooky/fall prompts
• our month-long Whimsy Board side quests
October’s book club pick is The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix.

We’re reading it throughout the month, so nobody needs to destroy their sleep schedule trying to finish it in three days.

We also have a month-long Whimsy Board with optional little challenges like finding something that looks haunted, spotting aggressively decorated houses, doing tiny fall adventures, making something weird, giving your pet an unnecessary Halloween title, finding Long Island oddities, etc.

You can participate in those even if you never leave your house.

A couple things about us because I know joining an established group can feel awkward:

You absolutely can come alone.
A lot of people do.
You do not need to already know anybody.
You do not need to attend every event.
You do not need to be super outgoing.
You can join the server, lurk for a while, talk when something catches your attention, come to one meetup six weeks from now, or immediately decide you desperately need to participate in a cryptid investigation.

We have quieter people, louder people, gamers, anime people, artsy people, outdoorsy people, food people, people who mostly show up for events, and people who mostly hang out online.

The whole point is having enough variety that you can find YOUR way into the group.

We also deliberately move events around.

Suffolk gets events.
Nassau gets events.
NYC gets adventures.

We’re not trying to run a “Long Island” group where somehow every meetup happens in the same five-mile radius forever.

For IRL events, we post detailed information beforehand including timing, cost, parking, what to bring, what to wear, food plans, accessibility notes, weather plans, and carpool information when available.

So if you’re the kind of person who needs to know exactly what the hell is happening before agreeing to go somewhere:

same.

If you’re somewhere in your 20s/30s/40s on Long Island thinking, “I really need more people to actually DO things with,” this is exactly what we’re trying to build.

Come hang out.

Discord:

https://discord.gg/c4ZJzUtpB

You can also comment/message me if you have questions before joining.

And if your first contribution to the group is identifying an unusually large raccoon as a potential cryptid, you’ll fit in just fine.