Group dialogue—creating something that isn't crap

There are times I wish I could record the conversations I have with my friends and recount them back in writing just as they were in real life. You know the ones—where everyone around the table is laughing so hard their stomachs hurt and there are tears rolling down their faces. The ones that start out with one person bringing up an odd idea and everyone adding to it until it has snowballed into the strangest thing you've ever heard. The ones that make you feel lucky to have such amazing friends who don't judge you, who have your back and make you laugh. 

I so want to be able to write these types of conversations. I want to learn how to capture the joy and abandon in words on paper (or a computer screen). I want my readers to read these scenes and feel what I feel when I am part of them. 

This is the assignment I am giving myself for the weekend—writing dialogue in a group setting that sounds genuine and gives you a little view into each of the speaker's personalities.