Whirlwind Weekend

We flew to Ohio this weekend for my cousin Amy's wedding. It was a simple wedding and reception, but filled with elegance and sophistication. My wedding was sort of "I get to play princess for a day" and I had the poufy dress, the 5 bridesmaids, the bridal bouquet to toss, etc.

 There was nary a princess moment in site for Amy. Instead, she looked like she should be on the cover of Vogue. Amy is stunning anyway--tall, thin, long blonde hair, looks like a model. Put her in a sleeveless lace form fitting wedding dress with champagne sash, hair twisted up, and makeup that looked like Bobbi Brown herself dropped in to do it and oh-my-God. Stunning.

Ben, her husband, has a host of interesting friends. So the person who did Amy's hair has also done hair for Miss America pageants. The person filming their wedding video is an Aussie who does work for National Geographic and PBS documentaries.  The ceremony was in a beautiful church that didn't need any flowers to "dress it up" and so they had none. The rain held off until everyone was inside (it was an early evening wedding) and then a thunderstorm started so there was the distance sound of rolling thunder and rain streaked the simple stained glass windows as they said their vows and it was incredibly romantic. The rain stopped again as we all left the church and for 1 minute, right as Amy and Ben walked outside and into the car and we all tossed rose petals at them, the sky turned a blossoming cherry pink.

None of our pictures turned out--all too dark. I'm hoping the relatives come through and send me some of theirs and I'll post a few here when I'm able.

Although it was fun seeing everyone, it's good to be home.  Our flight this morning left at 7 am so for the 2nd night in a row, we got about 4 1/2 hours sleep.  We were like the walking dead at the airport. A three-hour nap has helped. 

I'm going to go shower the "airport goo" off me (Even if I just sit in a chair at an airport, I feel like I'm covered in grime by the time I get home), eat dinner, conduct a phone interview and then collapse with the cats, Blair, and a new episode of "The Amazing Race."

Hey--you relax your way and I'll relax mine.

Turns Out It Was the Sobbing Thing...

I'm back and so glad to be home! My house! My food! My husband! My cats! My TV! All here waiting for me... Life is good.

I'm laughing to myself as I think about composing this blog entry. What to say and how to say it so I don't come off appearing shallow and um, shallow. Oh, there's no hope for it. The truth will out!

I arrived Monday morning and settled into the cabin. Adorable, as you can see from the pictures. Snug, cozy and best of all, there were two full journals of entries from prior "cabin dweller's" as we're referred to by the people on top of the hill who run the non-profit corportate retreats.  I read a few entries and was comforted by what I found--prior artists just like me who were worried about wasting their WildAcres opportunity, were wondering if they really had anything to say and--also like me--were wondering if it was entirely safe out there in the wild? (There were also numerous entries about the little ring snakes and carpenter ants those in the summer months had to contend with. I wrangled with a beetle and a spider large enough to topple King Kong but other than that, the critters gave me the all clear).

It felt..odd...being in the cabin. I didn't know where to sit or what I should do with myself.  I decided I would spend some time just reading over my work so as to get in the groove.  I found myself in an intense hour-long writing session where the words just flowed. And had the added benefit that even 5 days later when I read them again, I still liked them.

The next day, Tuesday, was a good day. I got up and went straight to work. Worked unti about 2 then went for a two hour hike. (Why do forest people put smiling little cartoon snakes on path signs? If they're trying to make us feel welcome, it's not working...)  Came back, showered, a little more work and then dinner "up the hill."

It was 7:30 when I arrived back at the cabin. Still early. I tried to work a little more but felt burnt on that so I read. Lots of reading. And went to bed. Pretty much the same pattern on Wednesday except I noticed by Wednesday afternoon I was starting to view the cabin not as a hiatus, but as a prison.  More on this later.

I'd mentioned in my previous blog entry that I was looking forward to this time away as a means of finding out my "real" work schedule. Turns out my natural rhythm is in harmony with how my life is currently set out. I am not a late night writer. There were no 3 AM "Eureka!" moments.  I was still up early and exercised a bit before work. I was not interested in working much past 7 PM (although I did have one productive night where I made it until 9:30). But it turns out I am an early morning/early afternoon writer after all.

The biggest benefit gained from the cabin is learning how much time I take away from my writing due to distranctions.  At the cabin, there were 4 options - work, read, sleep, hike.  And at nighttime and on the days it rained, there were three.  Many was the time I didn't feel like working. I'd already worked 5 hours--I deserved a break, right? But there was nothing else to do so--sigh--I pulled the lapout back out. And accomplished a ton of work.

That doesn't happen at home where if I don't feel like working there is e-mail, TV, radio, I-pod, cats, laundry, mail, etc. to grab my attention. What I found is that even if I didn't feel like working, quite often once I sat down and got into it,  I didn't mind.  It made me realize just how often I don't "sit down" and give myself the chance to get into the work.

Even with that being said, nighttimes were rough for me. I longed for distraction and conversation. I was essentially alone 22-23 hours of each day.  By dusk, I was ready to talk and laugh and just be mindless. I almost broke down and drove to the nearest Wal-Mart 30 minutes away to purchase a video to watch on my laptop.  I intensely missed Blair and the cats. I took my cell phone up the hill where there was reception and left messages on my home and best friends answering machines, begging them to call me. When my friend Trisha called Tuesday evening she remarked, "I heard a little Jack Nicholson from The Shining in your tone. Everything okay there up in the hills?"

Tomorrow: How I became one with the spirit of early settlers who experienced the malady known as "Cabin Fever."

I'm Back!

Back from lovely Cincinnati, Ohio and 4 days spent with my best friend Trisha. We had great fun (other than the fact that we spent yesterday at the pool with her son and my skin is so fried my clothes are sticking to me). 

Friday we drove to our alma mater, Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. (My favorite T-shirt: "Miami was a University when Florida still belonged to Spain.") The campus itself doesn't change. Beautiful brick buildings, slant walk, the Upton Arch where it's said you will marry whomever you kiss under the light there. 

Uptown had changed quite a bit, with several of our favorite pubs no longer there. (A moment of revered silence, please, for Hole In The Wall and Attractions.) But enough was still the same that we felt not too far removed from our time there.

We visited our old dorm, McFarland, on South quad which is where Trisha and I met our sophomore year. Being summer, the dorms were locked. But I spied an open window at basement level and was all ready to climb through and open the door for Trisha.  Saving me from breaking and entering, however, was a staff woman who exited the dorm and agreed to wait the 5 minutes it took for us to race upstairs and visit our old rooms and the hallway where so much of life took place sophomore year.  We also ran into the bathroom and screeched at the community showers where we used to bath and which haven't changed a whit in the 15 years since we left them. (Communal showering...sounds bizarre now, doesn't it?)We visited the apartments we lived in junior and senior year then headed to Skippers for beer and the best fries in town.

We packed a lot into one weekend. More shopping then two women need ever do, LOTS of eating, no exercise, one pool party, one fine meal out, bowling with Max, having friends over, walking her ENORMOUS and perpetually shedding 70-lb Huskie (Bear), 3 Starbucks visits, 2 grocery store runs, 1 video rental, and other miscellaneous moments.  

As with any vacation, it seems like you lost double the number of days you were gone when you return. So I'm off to go through a stack of mail, miles of e-mails, and try to reorient myself to this whole "work" thing again.

Happy Monday.  

England Diaries - Conclusion

I think it's about time to wrap this travel blog up and start writing again about the important things in life. Namely, my cats.

So. It's Tuesday, May 23rd and we've spent close to 7 hours hiking that day but it's still only 5 pm. We go back to the hotel to shower and decide to see a movie. The Da Vinci Code has just come out and is playing at the small little theatre in Keswick. The doors opened at twenty till 8 for the 8 o'clock showing and you paid at the snack counter for both your tickets and your snacks to the same kindly man who owned the place. On his advice, we shelled out the extra money for the balcony tickets. We also bought a large popcorn but--alas--English popcorn is sweet, not buttered. Less need for napkins, though.

The theatre was packed.  Some seats were reserved in advance and had 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper taped to them, marking them as such. The owner closed down the snack area and turned on the projector. After 15 minutes of straight commercials, no previews, the lights came back on. This was so everyone had a chance to buy ice-cream from the girl who had magically appeared in the balcony with a full tray of ice-cream. I'm telling you, it was like chow in the water.

So everyone is fed and the 8pm movie finally starts at 8:22. (Good movie, btw. Go see it).

The next day, Blair is sick. (This is the day I popped in on the blog to say hello to you all). He skipped breakfast and stayed in bed until 10:30 checkout. He rallied though, and pulled through it. We grabbed the train back to London  and just missed getting inside our hotel with all our luggage before the rain started.

The next day, Thursday, was our last in London. We went to Hamleys Toys where the staff is encouraged to play with as many toys as possible and which is MUCH fun.  Blair wanted to visit the Sherlock Holmes museum which explains the accompanying photo.  I was frankly sick of touring at this point and was being a big poop and refused to get in the picture and be Watson. Shame on me.

We hit Harrods, looking for gifts for people and as so often happens when it finally comes down to buy things, found absolutely nothing  we wanted.

Here's where the benevolence of the Universe comes into play. I was tired and grumpy and wanted to go back to the hotel and nap. We went to our room--and by this time it was 2 o'clock--and room service hadn't come yet. I was already not happy with the accommodations as they'd placed us in a corridor with construction going on. I called the front desk and they sent someone immediately to come clean. Not wanting to be in the way, we left.

Blair wanted to ride a double decker bus and coaxed me along, which I'm glad he did. We sat in the front row up top and it was fun. We got off at a stop and noticed a large crowd of people around The Theatre Royal Haymarket, advertising the Noel Coward play "Hayfever," starring Dame Judi Dench and Peter Bowles.  The play started in 30 minutes. "Want to go?" said Blair.

I love Judi Dench. "Yes," I answered. But when we went to buy tickets, only first row side balcony seats were left. "They're pretty bad," said the ticket seller. We bought them anyway and are so glad we did.  All it took was leaning forward on the rail for the entire play for us to have a PERFECT view of the play. Dench was right in front of us for several scenes.  We immensely enjoyed the play and it was just the icing on the cake for our trip.

We went back to the hotel and I was done. I was ready to pack and go home. Blair had seen a steakhouse he wanted to eat in near the theatre, so we picked up some groceries for me for dinner in the hotel room, and he walked back out to the theatre district for dinner.

Friday morning we left in pouring rain to walk to the Underground. We were hauling the luggage and so couldn't carry umbrellas, so we just had the hoods of our jackets pulled over us and got thoroughly drenched.  I'm an early airport arrival person and thank God I am--the lines were huge both to drop off luggage and for security.  We had left almost 2 hours early and only had 35 minutes to wait before we boarded our flight.

Once back state side, our flight from New Jersey to GSO was cancelled and we had a 4-hour delay. I was almost numb by that time and both of us felt sick by the time we got to GSO, just because we'd been up almost 22 hours at that point. SO happy to be home.

And thus ends the adventures of Dena and Blair in the UK. Thank you for your patience in sticking with me through this. One thing we did decide is that a 2-week trip is too long for us. Future trips will only be 8-9 days. 

And what was the first thing I did when I walked in my front door? That's a no-brainer.  Kissed and cuddled the girls, of course.

Ah yes, all is now back to normal.