Second Annual Ontario Blog Squad Meet-Up!

On Saturday November 3rd, the Ontario Blog Squad held their annual blogger meet-up at the Watermark Irish Pub in Toronto! I had been anticipating this event for months, and I still can't believe it's already happened!

The Friday before the event, us Ottawa Bloggers (consisting of Katie, Kathy, Meaghan and Emilie) and our insane amount of books squeezed into a car and started the road-trip to Toronto! The ride up there was tons of fun, although I could've done without all the Taylor Swift *looks at Katie*. We chatted about books, had a dance party to 90's boy bands and Sean Paul, and laughed so hard we cried. We were all pretty squished though and were pretty happy when we arrived in Toronto. Our hotel room was fantastic, although Megan had to squeeze onto a chair the first night!

The Ottawa Bloggers!

On Saturday morning, we all woke up early so we could get ready before the event! Between all the hair curling (thanks, Katie!) the outfit picking, and the book packing we were lucky the five of us made it out in time! We wanted to get there early, which was good since we got a bit turned around due to the construction. I was a ball of nervous energy when we arrived at the pub, practically bouncing up and down. As we lined up I heard my name called and saw my awesome sauce blogger friend Liz from Midnight Bloom Reads run up to me. We hugged and gushed about how happy we were to finally meet! We've been talking online for probably about four years and had never met before! It was so fantastic to meet her, and she was just as amazing in person as she is online! 

Liz and I!

Ottawa Bloggers plus Lesley Livingston and Elizabeth Miles

The Ottawa Bloggers (and honorary Ottawa blogger Lindsey) grabbed a seat in the exact middle of the room, right near all the action. The next little while was spent socializing with awesome bloggers, having gushing book talk with some publishers and chatting with amazing authors! There were nine authors in attendance: Lesley Livingston, Maureen McGowan, Elizabeth Miles, Grace O'Connell, Susin Nielsen, Joanne Levy, Brian Francis, Allison Baggio and Cinda Williams Chima. Although I didn't get to meet all of them, I want to say a huge thank you to them for coming! And I want to give another huge thanks to the publishers who attended! Loved getting to chat with them!

Jen & Wendy doing trivia!

I don't want to single out too many bloggers (cause I know I'll miss someone) but I was so ridiculously excited to meet some of them! Jen from Lost in the Library (one of the organizers), Chandra from Indigo Teen Blog (my fellow #TeamTodForAfterlife and Gansey lover), Avery from Avery's Book Nook, Ashely from Book Labyrinth, Michele from Just A Lil' Lost (another organizer) and Chrystal from Snowdrop Dreams of Books were just a few of the many lovely people I got to meet! I wished I could have met everyone, and I hope to meet tons more next year!

Me...and salad

After some mingling (which continued on throughout the day) food was served. The picky eater in me came out and I got razzed by my table mates for my messed up eating habits. I will say I loved the fish and chips and the ice cream was delicious! After the event was over (which I was so sad about! We stayed until the very end and I kept saying "I don't want to leave!") we headed back to the hotel. Meaghan, Katie and I took the subway, while Emilie and Kathy took a cab containing all our books back to the hotel. The sight of them squished by all our books was hilarious!

Meaghan, Katie and I at the bar!

At the hotel, we had some book exchanges and excitement over some of the ARCs we got. I love talking books with these gals, and it was so much fun to have three days of it! Katie, Meaghan and I decided we wanted to go out and took a cab to a local bar (hey, we're only in Toronto for one real night!) I could go on for so long about how much fun we had! It was so great to go out with these gals, enjoy the live music, and laugh all night. We grabbed a bite to eat after, and then headed back to the hotel.

The next day was a bit more subdued (partially due to this thing called a "hangover"). We all slowly got our stuff together and piled back into the car to head home. Overall, I had a beyond spectacular time! I love the Ottawa Blogger gals, and was so glad to be able to let my book nerd flag fly for an entire weekend (with people just like me)! I'm already looking forward to next year! 

As a final thought, I want to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to the organziers: Liz, Michele, Nicole, Wendy, Angel, Jen and Christa! You guys rock my socks! 

- Ciara (Lost at Midnight)

P.S. If you want to see my insane book haul check out Saturday's Stacking the Shelves post!