Where I'll be next monday night.

p.s. I'm back from Ojai (O-HI!) and I'll actually write something later.

Too old for krumping.

On Friday morning I was scared I couldn't make it out of Chicago. I missed my flight by mere minutes because of long lines, residual of weather cancellations, but I made it standby onto the next flight without much issue. I arrived with enough time to still eat brunch with another Antioch writer friend before meeting up with the CrAcc folks to drive up to Ojai. Even with traffic, it only took about two hours and it was sunny and almost warm, so much so that immediately after checking into the hotel we all changed into swimsuits and went to the pool. I was the only one who jumped in, not caring that it was cold or that it was a little dirty. It was clean dirt. Bits of leaves, nothing smelly or slimy. Mostly it felt good to have sunshine touching so much of my skin. I am not quite completely comfortable and confident walking around in merely shorts and no shirt, but I'm getting better.

After a trip to the store for supplies (food for dinner and snacks), we hit the ground running with the retreat. In 36 hours, we did five seminars, a workshop, two 'open mics' and two writing sessions. There were handouts and gifts and seven bottles of wine. There was Lollipop Theatre and a nap and a pitcher of margaritas. And there were creative revelations. Lots of them. The order of everything is mixed up, but it doesn't really matter.

Driving around L.A. this weekend, I kept getting the strangest feeling. At first I thought I was sad that I didn't live there. But later I realized it was almost more nostalgic sadness. Part of it might be that I was just in need of some travelling and change of scenery and I only got small dose of it. Luckily, June is only two months away. I need to look into plane tickets.

Tomorrow begins the Three Week Challenge, a plan created for us all individually in overcoming our writerly obstacles. Oh-HI!!

( group picture!! )