Have you had any luck meeting other Aspies?

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I'm not talking AIM or people on WP (no offense chatting is ok) I'm talking one on one talking and getting to know each other and how your traits are alike or different and such. I'm not sure if I'd like it or not since I tried a group therapy and thought OMG I'm not like these people!! ! I feel like meeting people at a job or school not meetings although maybe Aspies are different in person than my one time group therapy experience. (I also did a class type thing also stupid BTW)

I don't know anyone in real life with an official diagnosis. But, i have a friend who i strongly suspect is somewhere on the spectrum.. I'd guess either AS or PDD-NOS. I don't know when he learned to speak, but he's not very good as carrying on conversations with people, despite getting into random conversations with just about anyone. He seems to know a lot more people than i do, though. I don't know if he'd say any of these traits he has cause problems for him, though.. So this is all just a guess. He doesn't seem at all NT, though.
I'd like to meet some people with AS/Autism around here.. I think it might be neat to start a support group or something.

I do know a person my age who is on the spectrum, not an Aspie, something else... He is very talkative and friendly, and frequently tries to get me to socialize. We get along great.

Hopefully other Aspies in real life don't make me think OMG I'M LIKE YOU s**t! (no offense but people online is different than meeting them face to face and getting to know them) Your friend sounds similar to me I try to be talkative and such.

Back when I was meeting men, it seemed like some of them had AS traits in them or other problems. They were also not quite "normal" and one of them actually had Asperger's but I already knew before we met. It was a good thing I knew because he started talking about sex right when we met and I might have thought that was all he was after and wanted me for. But I noticed we had this in common, we didn't care what people thought or what attention we get so we were discussing our fetish in public in the streets. I couldn't really tell he had it but he was follow the rules freak. He refused to cross the street if the thing didn't say you can walk, even if there were no cars coming. He also didn't like it when people threw their trash away in other people's trash cans that were residential. He also got irritated if people changed their plans unless they had a really good reason why they did it. So at least he wasn't that black and white. He had gray. If I didn't know he had it, I might have labeled him as aspie like or as having aspie traits.
I seem to do good with meeting quirky people. Well this is Portland so of course. "Keep Portland weird" is our motto. I bet it's more likely I will run into people who are accepting of differences and will also agree normal is over rated and everyone is normal for themselves. I say "That's Portland." It even seems like there is a AB/DL community here and it seems like there are lot of us here. I knew a man who used to run his own AB/DL group and one day I figured out if he could have AS just by the things he was saying about himself. So when he was giving me a ride home one day, I told him if he has ever heard of AS and he said he hasn't and I told him he should look it up sometime and see if he does or not and he said he has enough problems already and he doesn't need another one. He had other medical conditions and the last thing he needed was to know he has a mental one too. So he was scared to look it up.
Then I met my husband and the things he was saying about himsel, I wondered if he had AS too so I asked him about it and he never heard of it so I linked him to the aspie quiz and he asked if I had it and I said I did. He scored aspie, one point below my score and he said we both think alike even though we both have our own thoughts and opinions. I label him as aspie like. He said he used to be a lot like me so that's why he can relate to me and to my problems and thinks that's why we both make a good couple.

I meet lot of aspies in the autism groups too.

Aspies are everywhere so you could be seeing them all the time when you go to places and you don't even know it. Not all aspies avoid malls and parks and stuff. And when you talk to random people, some of them could have AS and you might not even know it because we don't go around saying out of the blue we have it. When I did the Autistic Pride Day with my ASAN group, there were these girls holding up a sign protesting the Iraq war and it turned out one of them also had AS and I couldn't even tell she had it, especially when she talked. We tried to get her to join our group but she was from the Seattle area unfortunately. She was just down here visiting.

I mainly use online forums to meet other Aspies. I am on several other forums in addition to WP.

Spokane_Girl, it's interesting that you mentioned "Keep Portland Weird". For about a year and a half, I lived in a town just south of Austin, Texas and Austin's slogan is "Keep Austin Weird".

That's exactly how you do it, though. And I can relate, but I think we all can - just because we're all supposedly on the autism spectrum doesn't mean we're all the same.

I've been to a few group therapy sessions for people on the spectrum, and one of the assistants once remarked to us, "you know, you're all very different people." There was a silence; I found that silence interesting. Of course we're different people, but that we have something in common may lead us to forget this for a moment.

I generally don't talk to people anymore except online. I can't seem to find any real groups that seem worthwhile outside of the internet around here.

I know loads from school, college and other places, both aspies and auties. All diagnosed. Quite a few I am/have been friends with.
There's only one or two I really have lots in common with, the others are all pretty different from me.
I'm an aspie magnet, they all seem to be where I am. It's like some sort of magical force that pulls me towards them or them towards me, it's always "oh another one "

I raraley go out looking for spmeone based on a specific characteristic

No luck. I find every possible method of meeting other people, even aspies to be very disadvantageous for me, because I am so socially awkward and cannot think of anything to talk about. I don't know how the hell I can go on like this... Especially when I read posts from aspies saying that they have seen a lot of aspies in real life and/or have friendships with them, which sounds really cool to have someone to hang out with.

I used to have someone I could hang out with, but circumstances would come to terminate that. The happiest years of my life are over. Now I have to deal with all these real world problems and there's just no good in my life whatsoever. I just cannot bring myself to accept this. I might be going off topic, but honestly, I do not care. Once I know that someone cares for me, I might start caring again.

I used to work with someone diagnosed on the spectrum.... he had some very obvious characteristics... I think he was at least moderate, he's the first one that suggested I had traits, though in his words "you're not as bad as me!" He had a very monotone voice, and couldn't handle if he had to work at another cash register, and made social errors I wouldn't make.

There was this one guy I met in a hospital... he said outright people thought he was autistic, and I found out first hand why that was so when I had to listen to a monologue about how tornadoes work... this guy talked about the weather every single chance he got.

And maybe one guy I knew in college.

Thinking back I had an obsessive friend who would chat about one type of game franchise FOREVER!! !! ! Not sure what other traits he could of had but he had the talk about your special interest 24/7 issue LOL!

I've met about 50 aspies now, and have one good friend who is the same 'flavor' as I am. I've found that I'm a lot more comfortable with aspies because I don't have to 'translate'. On the other hand, I don't have that much in common with the aspies I know, even my friend.

There aren't many aspie specific social opportunities so I'm trying to start 'Aspie Mondays' at a local bar during 'Big Bang Theory'. Not just for us, but also for other people who are neurodiverse or just understanding.

50? That's amazing. I have met 12 total.

I knew a boy in my elementary school who might have had AS. He hated being touched and he couldn't understand rules and understand other kids and he wasn't considerate of peoples items. He talked about what he wanted to talk about and when he tell you about his GameBoy backpack, he wouldn't answer your questions when you try and ask him about his bag. He ignored you. I would say that was the severe case he had of AS. I noticed I used to be a lot like him in my early years but hey that's probably toddler behavior I did. You expect that stuff in them.

He had zero friends. I don't know if he preferred it or he just didn't know how. When I did try and be his friend when I was 12, he pushed me away so I thought then he didn't want me. Now I realize maybe he had trust issues and thought I was one of those bad kids. Kids and staff were mean to him, even our bus driver. He was in my class when I was 9 and we rode the same bus when I was ten and I saw how much he was picked on and the bus driver getting mad at him and I was left alone because the other kids were focused on him. I felt sorry for him then but yet I was happy I was normal for once because I was being left alone. But I never stuck up for him because I didn't want to get bullied. Just as long as he was on the bus, I was normal. So how could he trust me? For what I did. I was one of those bad kids for trying to stay safe.

I have always known he was different from the first day I saw him. He appeared shy and then I realized he was different because he had an aid. I then realized by age 11 he had something but I didn't think he was normal and I was happy I wasn't like him. It's funny now because I didn't know I had the same condition as him except I wasn't badly effected by it as he was.
I realized when I was 14 he might have had autism and then I went onto thinking he had AS and I was just glad I didn't have that much as him.