I'm back!

Oh, by the way, I've been in Oregon. (For those of you who missed me mentioning it in previous entries.) I'd meant to make a posting Wednesday night, but I got a bit too busy, and my flight on Thursday morning was at a seriously ungodly hour, so I pretty much blew it off. Ah well.

So, Wednesday was spent running around doing errands, and that evening I dropped Zeus off at Doggie Camp (i.e. the kennel.) I now know how parents must feel when leaving their children at day care, because I absolutely hated leaving him there. And it's a nice kennel, with big runs, out in the woods, with a good caretaker, so I really had no reason to worry, but still I figured I'd stress over it anyway. Zeus wasn't at all happy to see me go. (Note: I'm writing this portion of the entry while on the return flight, so right now I'm not sure how he'll react to seeing me come back.)

Thursday morning I woke up at a ridiculous hour and drove to the airport. As soon as I got on the freeway I realized that I'd forgotten the light jacket that I'd planned to wear on the plane and in Oregon. I'd packed mostly short-sleeved stuff, with the thought that I'd simply wear the jacket if it got chilly.

One of these days I'll learn that the Pacific Northwest is Really Friggin Cold all of the time. Just because it's a nice balmy 80 degrees when I leave my house doesn't mean that just throwing on a light jacket will render me comfortable. I should have packed sweaters, and flannel, and lots of long-sleeved shirts. I'm just glad that I did pack my heavy leather coat in my suitcase. I'd felt silly when packing it, but it was very needed in the evenings.

Actually the weather was really beautiful, but it was just a heck of a lot chillier than I'm comfortable with. Ah well, next time I pack as if it were winter!

So, back to the plane trip. In Minneapolis I met up with Tamela and we sat next to each other on the leg to Portland. There was actually a person between us, but she was more than willing to switch. Good thing since otherwise we would have talked over her and around her. That part of the flight was nearly four hours, but it went fast with someone to talk to. It's been a long time since I've had someone to talk to while traveling, and it was fun catching up with Tamela. I made her read a couple of my stories, and she made me read one of hers. :)

When we landed in Portland, Eric Witchey, one of my Clarion alums, was there to meet us, along with his wife Julia. Then as soon as we did all the hugging, we moved to the next gate down to meet Kent, Chiara and Sunish. Still more hugging, and even some kissing there. Then we went down to baggage claim and hooked up with Susan Fry, still another Clarioner. Then rides and rental cars were arranged, and everyone except Kent and I took off while we waited for Daniel (still another Clarion alum!) and his girlfriend, Alexis, to arrive. Their flight had been changed due to snow in Denver, so they arrived a bit earlier than originally planned. However their luggage failed to show, and in fact did not arrive until late Friday night. Aiiiee!

Then we got into the rental car and on the road to the Sylvia Beach Hotel. It was supposed to be a 2 1/2 hour drive or so, but our directions were slightly fuzzy and we missed a turn, so it ended up taking us almost 4 hours. Fortunately it was really beautiful country that we were driving through, so it wasn't too awful. Still, it was a relief to get to the hotel and checked in.

That evening we had a wine and chocolate tasting, and we got to meet the other people there. I think there were about 25 people total-- a real nice mix of people too, from all over.

And Friday I went fishing! Lance, Devon's brother-in-law, took me out to the north jetty in Newport. The weather was spectacular, and I'd managed to borrow sweatshirts and jackets so I wasn't cold. On one side of the jetty the surf crashed with amazing force and beauty, with the wind whipping fiercely and numbing hands and faces quickly. The other side was sheltered from the wind though, and the water was relatively calm and smooth. The trek out to where we actually put lines in the water was tough, since the jetty is comprised of hundreds of man-sized rocks, and we did much clambering. But it was all worth it when I managed to bring in a 26 inch Lingcod! It's a seriously ugly fish, but extremely good eating. Unfortunately that was the only bite we got all day, but it was still an enjoyable time. Lance was a great guide, and showed me all sorts of wildlife in and around the ocean and rocks. I saw hundreds of little rock crabs, all skittering away when you stepped on the rocks, and I saw sea anemones, and starfish. But of course catching a really big fish made the day for me. When I got back to the hotel there was hardly anyone around; they'd all gone for a walk along the beach, but Julia came out and saw the fish, and then woke Eric up so he could admire it properly. He's really into fishing, so he was properly appreciative. Then finally all the others came in and there was much oohing and ahhing over my fish, and many pictures were taken. We had the chef in the kitchen filet it up, and it was big enough to make eight decent sized steaks which we put in the freezer.

But that was really the only "activity" that I partook of this weekend. The rest of the time I just lazed around and relaxed, which was the whole point of the retreat--relaxing. Bruce Holland Rogers did some writing exercises in the mornings, but I've never really been into exercises, so I passed. Saturday morning when the others were doing the exercises, I took my laptop up to the attic where there's a low daybed by a window with an incredible view of the ocean. I sat there without typing for about half an hour, just looking out at the water, and then some inspiration crept in and I not only got the premise for a new story, but I got about 500 words written on it by the time the others finished up with the workshop. Then later in the afternoon I had an absolutely wonderful massage for well over an hour. There were two licensed massage therapists staying there with us and they brought all their equipment and had sign-up sheets for massages at very reasonable prices. Dejsha worked on my shoulder for about forty minutes; it's always somewhat tight and sore from being a dealer for so long, and it was even more tight and sore from all the fishing. But after Dejsha finished with it, it didn't hurt. Probably the first time in five years that my shoulder hasn't hurt. Ahhhhhhh!

Sunday morning we made our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I gave the fish to Eric, since I was planning on spending the night at his house, along with Tamela and Susan. Besides, I sure didn't want to cook it. I'm no cook and could certainly not do it justice.

Daniel and Alexis rode back with us, and since we had proper directions the drive only took 2 1/2 hours. We got back to Portland several hours before anyone's flight was due to leave, so we did the only logical thing: we went to Powell's bookstore.

Unbelievably huge bookstore. I've never been in a bookstore before where they had maps at the front door. I ended up dropping about $40.

Then we went to the airport and saw Daniel and Alexis off, and then I waited with Kent for his flight. Some seriously sappy goodbyes were made, and then I drove to Eric's house where he and Julia had done wonderful things with the fish. We had an excellent dinner, and then watched X-files. Or rather, they watched X-files and I tried not to doze off. I finally gave up and went on to bed, after making my goodbyes with the others. Once again my flight was at a ridiculous hour in the morning, and for some reason none of them wanted to wake up at 4am just to say goodbye to me. Go figure.

The flight itself was long, boring, and uneventful. I napped or read most of the time. I picked up my dog from the kennel on the way home, and he was extremely glad to see me. I got my face slurped a great deal.

Then finally home to collapse on the couch and avoid doing laundry.

Today I'm trying to catch up on errands and laundry and other stuff. I dropped the film off this morning, so I'll hopefully have pics tomorrow. Luckily I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday night, so I might actually get caught up on everything by then.

And one of the projects for this afternoon is to clean up and finish the edits on the story I finished last week. Several people read it over the weekend, and most of the comments were the same, so I think the fixes will be fairly simple. I still haven't received any word on the story I sent to the Avon anthology back in January; I was hoping to send that one to S&S if it got bounced at Avon, but it doesn't look like there's going to be time. But at least I am writing more. I had a pretty long dry spell for a while, but this weekend was nicely inspiring.