Retreat! Day One!

Hallelujah!

We are here! Actually, I've been here since about 9:15 this morning. We drove through torrential downpours and tractor trailer traffic and construction, but we made it!

I woke up at 3:30 (that's a.m.)and after staring at the clock for about forty minutes, forced myself back to sleep until 5:30.

The picture is our snack table. Everyone brings snacks to share and we pile the goods in our conference room, which is located a floor below our rooms - a little bit of exercise going up and down the stairs.

We had a brief period of sunshine and during that time I was the passenger in a Porsche Boxster - convertible - while on our way to lunch. That was very beautiful. I finally got to work and am doing pretty well despite a slow start.

Now that all of my Thursday attendees have arrived, I can take off my retreat chairperson hat and screw down my writer hat. The new story is going well.

Here's an unedited snippet for you:

She sat up, pain ripping through her. Nausea turned her stomach. She swallowed it back as she swung her legs over the side of the small bed. Her clinic in New Hope. At least she knew where she was. Now if she could only remember how she got here. She sucked in deep breaths to calm her stomach, the effort failing when she turned her stinging hands over and realized there was a good reason she was in so much pain. Her palms and fingers were covered with deep red lines that hurt like a son of a bitch.

I haven't found the right song to write to yet...you know that song that pumps the blood in the right direction and makes my fingers fly. I'm looking for it.

More tomorrow.

Behave!