Thanksgiving Holiday 2022 the family was watching sport-ball all-day-long while I was watching Twitter crumble.  The name Mastodon kept coming up.  Like many folks, I was curious but mostly confused.  All the public sites were closed due to high demand, none of the special interest servers called to me.  I'd remembered talking to a friend at Bitforest Game-Devs & Friends Coffee meetup who said flat out "If there was a local server I'd join".  I looked and didn't find anything local and inviting so I said the infamous "how hard could it be?" that always gets me in trouble.  Six hours and $60 later I was up and running.  Here is my personal invite to go on this adventure together: https://eug.social/invite/zGDNx3nS