There is no such thing as planning too early!!
Last night while having a lovely conversation with Jakey, I realized, you know, we always talk about how we need to visit each other, and I say we plan a big ol' get-together. I was thinking perhaps it would be best to plan around the people living outside the US, since they'd have to travel farther than everyone else. I know Bruce is visiting sometime next August, he said maybe somewhere around the 14th... Are any other Orange Beltians living outside the US going to be in the states anytime in the next year?
The 14th of August is an alright time for me, it'll be right before classes and I'm pretty sure, if I got the money to travel, I would be able to meet somewhere. We need to figure out where to hold this meeting, for how long (I figured maybe one day of hanging out and into that night, everyone leaves the next day), and what day specifically. We don't really need specifics just yet, but I would like to have some idea. Seriously; you guys are awesome, I'd like to meet up with you guys.
I think Bruce and Ryan are the farthest members on the Belt (unless you count Jon, but I haven't seen him around in a while)... hey Ryan, think you might be able to be in town sometime around mid-August?
And where should we have this. I think I'm one of the only members (if not the only one) who lives in the South, so I'll be willing to travel a little bit. Should be gather where a lot of people live? I figure there are quite a few folks in California, but I don't know!
Give me some input people!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~UPDATED 3/24~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Updated list of people saying they're up to going to Michigan (Andrew's place):
Ryan
Bruce
Jake
Andrew
Mario
Jacqueline
Adam
DATE: weekend of August 21st to the 24th
LOCATION: Kalamazoo, Michigan, with Andrew and Megan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~3/23~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since Ryan is the only person to put down any specific times that work for him, he's listed the absolute earliest he can arrive is August 22nd, and he can stay til Sept. 3rd. For me, since I'll be traveling with Eric, his first day of classes actually starts on the 24th, meaning.. I would actually prefer to leave sometime on the 22nd. I propose a compromise! If all of this is okay with Andrew... maybe we could just have that weekend designated to all meet up, whenever we can. Eric and I can show up and mingle with everyone all Friday night (the 21st), sleep in Saturday until Ryan gets in, briefly meet him, and then we'd have to leave to drive all night and pretty much all day Sunday. MEANWHILE everyone else can continue the get-together until... well, I was going to suggest the 24th, but that's really up to Andrew.
This is assuming everyone else would be okay with at least one of the days that weekend. Maybe to make things easier, people could meet up in Chicago either Friday or Thursday or something and then take that train to Andrew's place? I'll be wanting to drive myself, but that might work out better for others.
The 14th of August is an alright time for me, it'll be right before classes and I'm pretty sure, if I got the money to travel, I would be able to meet somewhere. We need to figure out where to hold this meeting, for how long (I figured maybe one day of hanging out and into that night, everyone leaves the next day), and what day specifically. We don't really need specifics just yet, but I would like to have some idea. Seriously; you guys are awesome, I'd like to meet up with you guys.
I think Bruce and Ryan are the farthest members on the Belt (unless you count Jon, but I haven't seen him around in a while)... hey Ryan, think you might be able to be in town sometime around mid-August?
And where should we have this. I think I'm one of the only members (if not the only one) who lives in the South, so I'll be willing to travel a little bit. Should be gather where a lot of people live? I figure there are quite a few folks in California, but I don't know!
Give me some input people!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~UPDATED 3/24~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Updated list of people saying they're up to going to Michigan (Andrew's place):
Ryan
Bruce
Jake
Andrew
Mario
Jacqueline
Adam
DATE: weekend of August 21st to the 24th
LOCATION: Kalamazoo, Michigan, with Andrew and Megan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~3/23~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since Ryan is the only person to put down any specific times that work for him, he's listed the absolute earliest he can arrive is August 22nd, and he can stay til Sept. 3rd. For me, since I'll be traveling with Eric, his first day of classes actually starts on the 24th, meaning.. I would actually prefer to leave sometime on the 22nd. I propose a compromise! If all of this is okay with Andrew... maybe we could just have that weekend designated to all meet up, whenever we can. Eric and I can show up and mingle with everyone all Friday night (the 21st), sleep in Saturday until Ryan gets in, briefly meet him, and then we'd have to leave to drive all night and pretty much all day Sunday. MEANWHILE everyone else can continue the get-together until... well, I was going to suggest the 24th, but that's really up to Andrew.
This is assuming everyone else would be okay with at least one of the days that weekend. Maybe to make things easier, people could meet up in Chicago either Friday or Thursday or something and then take that train to Andrew's place? I'll be wanting to drive myself, but that might work out better for others.
Comments
Living in California already, I of course would opt for us meeting here, but I think it's a valid argument anyway since a lot of other folks live here too. Funny thing is, even the California co-residents haven't gotten together (unless they already knew each other). Mid-August seems like a decent time, since it will fall at the tail end of schoolgoers' vacations. I'm hoping I'll own a couch by then to better aid in the crashing of forumites in my living room.
Should this meetup be arranged around some kind of already-existing event like a convention, or just be for the sake of Orange Belt meet-up-ing? I'm cool either way.
Tentatively, I am planning around the end of August to go back for a vacation. Just as this year, next year I plan to attend a wedding in early September, so I was planning to come for the last week or two of August to float around, and then hit up the wedding on my way back to Shanghai.
Ideally, I'd like to arrive sometime around the 23rd or so of August. My vacation days this year were very few, but flying to the US is expensive as hell, and I don't intend to return back to China before beating jet lag, like I did this year (I crashed shortly after sunset on the night of Andrew's wedding
What does everyone's school schedules look like? I know a lot of people are starting classes by the end of August, so I might be too late.
Again, this is all very tentative. I'm bouncing around ideas, and a major factor of this will be how much vacation time I get next year.
So! Who's interested? And what is everyone's schedules like in August? And where will you probably be at that time?
Edit: During my time in the US, I will probably be around the Chicago-ish area, going a couple hours west to the far east side of Iowa to see my family, and a few hours northeast to Michigan to hang out at Andrew's.
Edit edit: Mario, I'd prefer an OB-specific get together instead of a convention, just for the sake of money. Although if there's a good convention for a good price, I'd be open to it.
As for where, well I plan to arrive in Maine to take in New England, and then intend to head in a general westwards direction, inevitably ending up somewhere in So. Cal, so wherever you guys wanna meet is fine with me, as long as someone is willing to let me crash somewhere. I promise I won't go all 24601 on you and steal your silver.
Oh, and I also hope none of you mind underage drinking, the hell am I going to be in America for two weeks/a month and not drink! I'm gonna get me a shitty British fake ID, which will be loved by Americans for it's quaint Britishness.
As for location, there's a good possibility Megan and I would go to California, it's a place neither of us has been, so it would be a good vacation destination.
I also offer up our humble abode in Kalamazoo, MI. It's a really nice town, lots of good beer to be had, and Chicago's a short drive and a train ride away, and we have a spare bedroom and a comfortable living room with lots of movies and video games. I'm just offering this up as a suggestion for a meeting place, we should decide democratically, of course. Either Chicago or California sounds fun to me.
Also, if California is our final destination, perhaps Ryan, Bruce, and any other people on the east coast could meet here and we could make a road trip of it, if driving is our preferred method of transport.
But we can be sure to take lots of pictures for us to show during the very short period of time we can expect Jakey to keep a pair of pants on.
Some underage people bring their parents. There are plenty of photos of our under-21 crowd with mom or dad tagging along for a holiday as they meet crazy internet people. Then again, mom or dad may not want to get into an underage drinking roadtrip, seats being at a premium and all...
I was thinking more of the Zords in Power Rangers, but sure, why not?
On Sept. 4th Tanya (shakeycat) is getting married to her boyfriend of forever. Thus, around Sept 3rd I intend to have a 2 day layover in Vancouver, then leaving for Shanghai on the 5th or so.
Therefore, when I book my plane ticket, I need to know well in advance where I'm going to fly out from. And preferrably I can fly United Airlines, because I've already got an account with them with enough miles for a free plane ticket. I'm going to look at plane tickets later just to see what flights are available.
Possible locations: If I am going to look at plane tickets from somewhere in the US to Vancouver, I need to know where we might be meeting and what airport I might use.
1. Michigan: Andrew offered up his place. If we stay there, then I can fly out of Ohare in Chicago.
2. California: Where does everyone in California live? I'm thinking tentatively that if we do California, I can stay at my parents' place in Iowa for a few days (it will have been about 18 months since my last time at home by that point in time), then I can convince Andrew to swing by my place to pick me up on the way, since he might pass that way anyway if he does the roadtrip. If we do San Francisco, I can definitely fly out of SFO to Shanghai through Air Canada with a layover in Vancouver, which is almost perfect (not United, but convenient nonetheless). The same goes for Los Angeles out of LAX.
3. Are there any other people who would like to suggest other locations for a get together? If other people have ideas, please share!
Edit: Just want to emphasive everything is tentative. I have no idea what I'm doing yet, since this is 9 months in advance, and some airlines don't have complete flight information yet.
Step 1: We collect giant saws, as shown here:
We saw away at the thinnest part of Mexico, and we do the same in Panama, as shown here:
Step 2: We use a series of giant windmills and fans, as shown here:
And we use them to push Central America into the Pacific Ocean:
Step 3: We use more of these giant windmills and fans to push South America up into North America. We might lose Florida, but Florida sucks anyway.
Step 4: Ecuador is now much closer! Roberto can hop a short flight up to Texas, then carpool with Lauren.
Problem solved.
Early August would be better I think, since a lot of schols (including mine) go to school late August.