Birthday Wrap-Up

Sigh. I admit I really enjoyed being, mostly, tech-free for a few days. I've been re-integrating into the real world... the mainland... for a few days now and the island retreat already feels like a dream. Maybe doing this catch-up post will help to make sure it stays fresh in my memory.

Lori (our leader) gave me a quote and some chalk markers and let me draw on the Board!

Aaaah.... the beach was only two blocks from the cottage. Well, we WERE on an island, so there was probably some kind of beach in any direction...

One day was so perfect - sunny and warm - I lay on the sand, writing in my journal. Then, I got distracted by all the beautiful stones (OMG, I love stones).

The stones formed themselves into a spiral and then came right out of the notebook!
Cool.

I could have stayed on the beach all day. But as always happens, my super pale skin started to feel crunchy... and I had to pee.

One evening, we took the nightly wine and cheese party down to the beach and watched the sun set.

I walked downtown every day and wandered through the cool shops...

...and drooled at the amazing colors and woodwork on the cottages.

Another day, we took a field trip to the other side of the island. Edgartown is like a different planet from Oaks Bluff! Like Martha Stewart and Mary Engelbreit - one is all perfect white Captain's mini-mansions with stores selling crazy expensive clothing - and the other is all multi-colored, frosted, tiny Victorian cottages with towers and balconies and shops selling chai lattes and sea glass jewelry.  Crazy expensive clothing? Yes, for example, I found myself petting the softest sweatshirt ever. An ordinary gray hoody with hand warmer pockets. But REALLY-REALLY soft. Oooo, I want that - but the tag told me it was a $400 cashmere hoodie. Drat. But, seriously. WHO buys a $400 cashmere sweatshirt?!

And in between field trips, I drew journal pages...

This one shows the contents of the goodie bag that was on my bed. (I did finally open it!) Mismatched colorful socks, cool pen, mug, set of Staedtler fine tipped colored pens, cute post-its, and most importantly, CHOCOLATES!

This one is about thinking. Thoughts Ghosts...

A metaphor for how I have spent this past year. It's a lot of work to clean up a messy spill. It seeps into everything and you can't exactly fly...

I bought a Mr. Sogs bumblebee doll at the craft shop and drew my customized version of him - I want to turn him into a Bumblebat. I love the way the ghost page is "ghosting" through here!

I was so excited to discover a tiny photo printer, like the Polaroid Pogo that I used to take on trips with me, but one that works with my iPhone! It's an LG printer and I had to order it from Korea or somewhere, but it uses the same Zink ink technology as the Pogo, so I can use up my huge stash of paper.

This one can be thought about two different ways... the stories we tell ourselves, that we need to rewrite in order to move on... and also - the stories that I can use to create books.

And, when lying near an ocean, most of the silly things I worry about - seem SO unimportant!

Oh - and that page above was done using the lovely pens from our goodie bags!

And then I have a random page of tags!

Oh yeh - and I did a lot of work too! I spread out all over the dining table, or across the two beds in my room, and wrote out notes on index cards for all the different projects I could think of and added notes from a bunch of sketchbooks and journals...

About 80 index cards!

I discovered - I have a lot of ideas!! And a ton of book ideas. I also started blocking out text and thumbnails for a kids' book I am working on with my daughter.

And then it was time to go home. We were all sad to be leaving.

This heart was on the steps outside.

Onto the ferry...

And then the island disappeared on the horizon.

I'm already thinking that I need to go back next year. If you are also intrigued by this retreat, it was called "If I Just Had Some Time" and this was our colorful, joyful leader, Lori Stone.

In her real life, Lori does web site SEO and content management stuff that helps to keep her left and right brain balanced.

Meanwhile... back in my regularly scheduled life...

I had a great end-of-Birthday-week-Weekend. And Sunday was pure Nirvana. (Is that a paradox or oxymoron or something?) Alex went off to NYC to march with other HS kids to save the environment. And I was very proud of him. Lilah and I went to church, then to Gould Hill Orchard for cider, an apple pie, maple sugar candies, AND a couple of pumpkin whoopie pies. No, we didn't eat them all at once!

At home, we changed back into comfy clothes (pjs!) and started a Lego building frenzy.
Then Bonnie, my Main Minion, stopped by with another, even better, more juicey, cinnamony apple pie! And she found herself wishing she'd brought her glasses so she could build with us.

My mom posted us on Facebook...

The Lego Grand Emporium has three floors, so we still have a lot of work ahead of us. But we built the escalator and display cases and revolving door... the whole first floor. There's even a Lego guy trying on pants in the dressing room!

I can't think of anything that I love that I didn't get to do this week!