Are you coming to St. Pete/Clearwater with ILIASM?

Hi All!  I'm new around here; and a relative stranger, so I don't want to give the impression that I'm wanting to crash anyone's private party. I've been so out of the social loop, that I'm not sure if I'm following good social etiquette.  Anyway, I came across this post (and the other one), and I couldn't help but to become excited about just the idea of socializing with ILIASM members (in a state that is near and dear to my heart). In fact, I have a couple of relatives that recently relocated from South Florida to the Orlando area.  My mother and a sister's birthday is coming up on March 19th and 20th.  I was making plans to travel down there from NJ to surprise them.  Sooo ... if I receive an invite, I'll do anything in my power to join you.  And if I happen to be refused ... well, I've been refused before, so it will be nothing new.  ;-)  In the meantime; and hopefully it's OK to do so, I'll add myself to the 'are you coming' poll.     

IMD

If y'all set it up the first week in June, i could use the family timeshare in Passe-A-Grille.

Wish I could, but I will be on a family cruise at the time. I hope everyone has a blast, though, and let's keep the key parties to a minimum, shall we?

Wait... is this a ruse? A Scientology conference?

As of now, we have 4 definites and 5 maybes, which is not too bad for such short notice. But I am wondering if I push the date out a bit, would more people show?

I chose the month of March because the weather is unbelievably glorious in Florida at that time of the year. Florida weather is usually pretty good, except from July to September. That's when it's unbearably hot and humid through the morning with thundershowers every afternoon. It's also hurricane season, so we envy those in the North. But in March, it's almost perfect here and crappy almost everywhere north of us. So much happens here in March from art festivals, spring training baseball, PGA golf, bikers, spring break, and seafood in season.

In short, March is the perfect time to send those "Wish you were here" postcards from Florida. It's also the most expensive time, too. Hotel rooms and flights cost more.

I noticed that of the four definites, three are from Florida. That's not surprising, as three of us don't need to buy airline tickets. But we could come just as easily in April, when hotel prices drop. I'm still on for that weekend, but I can move it if everyone agrees. Plus, I don't want to mess up Easter and Mother's Day plans for anyone.

In another matter, several people have shown me the following video on other social media. I must confess that it was taken about 5 miles from the house where I grew up. But there are no gators on the beaches in St. Pete, other than those who went to the University of Florida. Trust me, reptiles are easy to deal with. If you leave them alone, they will leave you alone.

Oh horror! I read a rumour in the local press that they have a new HQ building in our country and the Big Bozo
himself will come to the opening. Cringe. I was hoping that THAT cult might be on the wane after Elron kicked
the bucket. Seems not only are they continuing on, they seem to have a fat wallet   Yikes.
They're definitely at the bad end of the bell curve, as far as I'm concerned.

I did go to Univ of Florida...Go Gators!!