We talked a little about meeting up maybe around the first or second weekend of April in Salem.
There is a great little coffee/tea place we could start at:

Gulu-Gulu Cafe

There is this crazy bookstore down the street where the books are new and discounted and piled up so high they look like they are going to tip over. It's kinda fun and they do have a new age section for those of you interested. (I can't think of the name of the store right now)

Then there are tons of places for lunch afterwards.

What does everyone think?

Are you interested in coming?

Is Salem a good location for you? If not what do you suggest?

Does the second or first weekend in April work for you?

I think at that point my days off will change to Sundays, is Sundays good for everyone else?

I would absolutely love to go but will need to hitch a ride with someone close to me. I don't think my car could make it that far.

Yes to all of the above!! :grin: :bananadance:

I lurve Salem!!! :wub:


Terra, I know that all the others there yesterday were interested in doing Salem so I'm sure you'll be able to hitch a ride up with one of them. I got your voicemail last night but I wasn't answering the phone cuz The Tudors were on, and we were eating a (light) dinner. (I was still a bit full from my raviolis, but Mike hadn't eaten anything.)

Just don't tell Lemmy okay. If she finds out she will want me to find a store that sells postcards and buy her a good $50 worth. The girl is psycho I tell yah when it comes to postcards. :rofl: Luv yah Lemmy! :hug: :kiss:

That all sounds good to me, apolonia. Sundays, Salem and both weekends are fine with me! I'm looking forward to it already!

If you decide you want to bring the BF along, I can drag Mike too, and the guys can entertain themselves while we swap or do other "book-ish" things. Heh, we could make them keep track of steals. :P

In any case, I just didn't want you to have to leave him out if he's never been up to Salem, and Mike likes it there himself, though I wouldn't invite him if it was just us gals. So just something to keep in mind if he gives you the sad pouty face. :pout: LOL

You. Got. That. Right.

:coolwink:

I am thinking maybe we can rotate this around every time. I feel bad for poor Liz, she had 2 hours last time and if she comes to Salem that will be 2 hours 20 minutes for her. I hope you can make it Liz.

Apolonia :wub:

I am undecided at this point. It is quite a hike for me and I am always
alittle nervous about driving on Hwys/roads that I am unfamiliar with.

I'll think on it.

This would be a Sunday?

Well it is open for discussion but Sundays seem to work for most people.

Hi there!

I think that I should be able to do a daytrip to Salem on one of those Sundays in April. I previewed it with my husband (who will be on kid duty all day) and he was good with it.

I'd be happy to drive folks from Marlborough if anyone's interested..... liz, joy? Terra? Anyone else? That way, it wouldn't feel quite so far to drive and we could start the "meet-up" earlier! :lol:

I'll take you up on that ride and chip in for gas. I can drive to your house and then we can go from there.
Liz if you want to drive to my house then you can hitch a ride with me to rootmartins. That way you don't have to drive all the way either.

Yay! I'm glad this is all starting to come together! :bananacheer:


ETA - BTW, Ap, I looked at the webpage and yup, now I know where Gulu is now since I know Essex St. Part of Essex is pedestrian traffic only though it looks like this is the part where it isn't, but yeah, I know a few ways to get to that part of town myself. :)

Me too, cause I think Salem will be a really fun place to meetup.

BTW all of you who are coming make sure to enter my rabck contest in the giveaways and bartering section. :whistle:

Shall I throw my name back into the hat? Or am I expired now that I already won once? :P

No throw your name in the hat again. I don't have a limit per person. Plus I have to start to but down on my shipping costs so I'd rather give someone the books in person rather than mail them.

Speaking of which, if I decide to go to London (it's about 50/50 right now) I'd be happy to take along any books anyone want to give or owes to anyone going to convention.

We are bidding for our new schedules in the next 2 weeks. So I should know then what days off I have, and if I don't have Sundays I can start to work on getting a specific one off.

I should know tomorrow if I have every Sunday off or if I need to get someone to work for me. So I will post tomorrow night and see what weekend we can pick. Also I have decided that I cannot go to convention so any weekend in April is open (pending the bid and the whole day off business.)

Okay Sundays are my new offical day off starting April 1st so what Sunday works for everyone?

As of right now, any Sunday except the 6th. :) And end of month we should be working towards warmer weather too... :whistle: :whistle:

It doesn't matter to me. Does anyone else have any prefrences or days they cannot make?

The 13th is not good for me unless we do activities where my dog can come too. :giggle: We're staying on the cape that Sat. night so we would have him with us.

Okay so then we are looking at the 20th or 27th. Does anyone have a prefrence or problem with either of these days?

The 27th sounds better to me but it's up to all of you.

Either or... pick the sunnier of the 2 days, how's that? :wink:

I have a preference for the 20th but could probably make either one.

I pm'ed Herbwench and Ixion to see if they were interested.

Anyone else who we should ask?

Terra and Root I think it comes down to the two of you, Cherie, Joy, and I can do either (I'm pretty sure) so what do you guys think?

I hope I am not being too much of a planning nerd, :blush: I just like to know in advance (sometimes) what I am doing.

I'd be happy to do the 27th if that fits better with terra's schedule so we can go ahead and plan on that.

Will y'all still do it if I can't make it? :unsure:

I hope to, but it's just that we cancelled last month's trip to California because we had too much going on at home and Mike at work too. So we were going to go this month sometime after the 18th. So there's a slight chance it might be the 19th thru the 26, in which case I'd probably be back in time, albeit just a day back and probably wicked tired. But I'd still come. But even just one day later and I wouldn't be here.

I just bring this up cuz I need to talk to Mike and see if it looks like we really need to make the trip to CA this month if the house isn't ready to go to market yet here anyway. I know we still have lots of logistics to get in order out there such as moving companies, real estate agents, etc. but at the rate all this is moving, that might even be able to be put off until May at this point. :shrug:


Anyway, I just thought I'd throw it out there so you aren't waiting on a definite from me. I'd really like to try to come so if Mike thinks that we can put off the CA trip another month, then I'll just do that. If we don't, it's possible it could conflict. :erm: I'll keep you informed.

Awe Cherie, I for one want you to be there as this might be the last time we get to see you. Even still if it can't be done then maybe you and I can hook up some time before you leave for the west coast. Whatever everyone else wants to do is okay.

Well I would love to still get together since it has been a while since the last one. Of course we'll just have to do another one in May... :whistle:

Well I have a couple ideas.
I was hoping to meet up with everyone every month or 6 weeks or so because I had such a great time last time. So I still think we should go ahead with the 27th, and I know Cherie loves Salem so maybe we can change the location and do Salem in May if that works better for Cherie.
I have two other destinations in mind that I was going to suggest in the future. Actually one was Lizabeth's idea. It's kind of a long haul, but when you see it you will :drool:
Free Books With Your Meal!!!

The other Suggestion I have is:
The Melting Pot
I have never been but heard about it and always wanted to go. They have locations in Bedford/Burlington and Framingham.

What does everything think?

Okay, I'd be fine with either one. I love the Melting Pot!!! But, I'm very, very taken with the idea of the restaurant with books. That would be so much fun and so very fitting.

So, I suppose that's my vote. Talk about soulmates. That restaurant and bookcrossing should cross advertise. :rofl:

Okay, I talked to Mike, and cuz he has to go out to San Jose next week anyway for work, we figured we can push our trip to the first week of May or thereabouts.

Besides, I'm quite taken with the idea of being in Salem the Sunday before Beltane. I wonder if there will be a Maypole there we could play at?? :rolleyes:


ETA - Though reading Melissa's message above, I wonder if the plans officially changed yet. I was kinda just putting my stuff out there because it was about 50/50 at that that time that I might not be here, but Mike agreed that we should be fine to go first week of May anyway. :shrug:

Nope, I don't think that anything officially changed. I'm super happy about going to Salem that weekend. I think that ap put that out there if you weren't going to be able to go. So, I'm good for Salem that weekend! This is going to be a lot of fun!!!! :bananadance: :bananacheer:

Yep so I think we are officially set for Salem now that we know Cherie is coming. :bananadance:
So the 27th of April in Salem.

What time do we want to get started? I am the closest so I'll leave it up to the rest of you.

I also like the idea of this group trying to meetup fairly regularly (like every 6 weeks or so). I will probably not be able to make every meetup due to my distance but hopefully I'll be able to make a few.

I think the Melting Pot sounds like fun and probably doable (distance wise) for me. We should definitely consider that in a future meet-up.

Hopefully the one I suggested to Apolonia we can do at some time. I know its been a spot that some bookcrossers have released book and would love to take a visit there sometime.

It doesn't look as though I'll be coming to the Salem meetup. I am having been having some long overdo work on my teeth which will probably continue throughout April so I just don't feel like I can fit this in or feel up to it.

I hope everyone has fun though.

For those of you attending, I am brining a bunch of books again. So check out the reserved books on my shelf that are journaled with the entry that I will be bringing them to the Salem, Mass. meetup. I will mark the book(s) you are interested in.