organize a 43Things meetup in Atlanta

K, folks…Inman Perk Coffee in Inman Park is going to be dishing out free ice cream next Friday, August 25, from 6 to 11 p.m. Anyone interested in meeting up? I can reserve a table if there is interest in gathering a group of 43Things users.

Oh yeah..the ice cream is good. You can ask james – the I can never keep up with his screenname. ;)

Some of you know that my dad had a heart attack and passed away on March 30. It was terribly unexpected, and my life has been turned upside-down, but I know he would want me to have my photography opening anyway. The show must go on.

I am going to try to have some of my favorite photos that my Dad took framed and on display during my photography opening reception. He was a very talented photographer. He had the Nikon F - a legendary SLR camera first introduced in 1959. In fact, he let me borrow that same camera a few years ago when I was really getting into photography. Of course, I opted to stick with digital, but I have to admit that paging through the aging black and white prints - that he developed himself—has been one of my favorite pasttimes for as long as I can remember.

I really hope to see you next Saturday, April 22! (It’s Earth Day too…you can celebrate by observing some of nature’s beautiful flowers at my opening.)

Saturday, April 22
7-10 p.m.
Inman Perk Coffee
280 Elizabeth St. NE
Atlanta, GA 30307

Hey, y’all…I have unfortunately missed all the meetups since the first one. :( But I am so impressed that the meetup idea/goal has taken on a life of its own! :)

I’d like to proclaim a 43Things meetup at the opening of my photography show at Inman Perk Coffee in Inman Park on Saturday, April 22, from 7 to 10 p.m. Sure, it’s a little self-serving, but since I honestly have been too busy to make the recent meetups and I was the first lonely person to suggest an Atlanta meetup in the first place, maybe you can cut me some slack and get on board? :)

There will be yummy treats and perhaps a drawing for a one-hour massage…to be confirmed. But I will definitely be there, I promise! :P

It’s nearly a month away, so perhaps Nikster’s bowling or movie night ideas would be good interim meetup date too! Heck, there can never be too many meetup opportunities in my opinion.

It was so cool meeting everyone today! For those of you who couldn’t make it, hopefully you can join us next time.

I would like to thank all of you who signed up for this goal and helped make my dream come true. (sniff sniff)

I am hopeful that those of us who met can stay in touch—it is very cool reviewing your lists now that I have had a real conversation with you in person!

And look at us…we’re a good-looking group, if I do say so myself! :)

(We missed catching Gina in the group photo before she had to leave, but she’s just as beautiful too!)

I’ll let everyone know when and where the rest of the pics are posted as soon as I’m able to.

Now check this off your list and give yourself a slow clap! :)

I can’t wait to meet everyone! Thanks to everybody who posted suggestions and offered to help. We’ll definitely have to plan another meetup—hopefully we can do this a few times a year!

From all the responses I’ve seen, it looks like Sunday, December 11 at 2 p.m. is the favorite day/time.

JavaMonkey has a few votes, so let’s meet there.

Here is a link to their site for directions.

Those of you who can’t make it this time—I think we’ll definitely want to try this again in a few months. When I added this as a goal, I was so surprised that nobody had already tried it! There seems to be a lot of interest, so maybe we can try to do this once a quarter or so.

Please leave a comment if you think you can make it to the December meetup. And should we try doing something fun? Nametags listing your favorite goal instead of your name? I dunno…something like that to break the ice might be cool. :)

Regardless…yaaaaaaayyy! I’m so excited!!

We’re currently the #2 most popular goal on 43Things today!

Be sure to read barbarino’s entry and give your input on our meeting time/place.

So far, it’s sounding like these are the favorite days/times:

Sat, Dec 10th at 11am
Sun, Dec 11th at 2pm

Then again, we’ve only heard from a few people. Let’s get this on the calendar and make it happen. Then we can mark it done! Hopefully, though, each of us will be able to make a few connections that live beyond our little meetup. How cool would that be? :)

I have really appreciated 43Things lately as I’ve been going through some hard times. The support I’ve gotten from this site has been so wonderful. I also have found writing words of encouragement for other people to be really therapeutic too. And now I want to meet some of you Atlanta folks. Let’s take this offline. Let’s get together for a bit—something informal. We could meet at a coffee shop and get some hot drinks since it is getting cold here now! Come on, I don’t bite…I promise!

Besides, if you’ve got “meet new people” or “make new friends” on your list, how much easier does it get than this? :)