I'm Home!

I made it back just after noon today.  I've unloaded my car and some of my crap is put away.  First I babbled to Durwood about how I actually wrote 5 scenes to stuff into my novel while he told me about how he tangled his foot in his O2 hose yesterday and fell.  He showed me his bruises and I asked two hundred times if he was sure he's okay.  He is.  I showed off that my birthday carnations have survived the trip to The Clearing and back just fine--and that on September 10th I finally found the spatula he'd tucked into them on September 1st.  (I've told you before, I need a keeper)  I managed to get out of The Clearing today without running off the exit road like I did on Tuesday morning when I hit a rock and gave myself a flat tire because I wasn't paying attention and was driving too fast.  God, I hate that I'm such a moron (see above parenthetical comment re: a keeper).  On a related note, evidently someone in Fish Creek driving a white car/van/SUV turned a bit too closely past my car because there's a smudge of white paint on the right rear fender and there might be a companion dent.  I need to take a closer look.  Gah!  It was a great week up at The Clearing with a great coach/teacher and eleven good writers for classmates.  We had roundtables where we took turns reading and getting comments in the mornings and Quiet Writing Time for no-talking concentration on our writing projects in the afternoons.  My roomie, cda, and I kept the momentum up in the evenings, reading to each other, making suggestions and helping each other with word choices, etc.  Lots of words were typed and scribbled, much red ink was expended, lots of big "X"s appeared on my pages as I crossed things out when I got wordy.  Our teacher had private consults scheduled during the afternoons so we each got half an hour to talk about our individual projects and goals.  Judy is excellent at helping me see what I need to do to reach my goals and how to take another look at what I have.  Even if I don't use any of her suggestions just talking to her helps me to see how to implement what's in my mind.  The rest of the students and instructors were fun and friendly too, the food was outstanding as usual (who doesn't like homemade bread at every meal?), and the staff couldn't have been better.  Oh, and the weather cooperated too, except for a bit of rain late on Wednesday night (it was so soothing to fall asleep to the sound of light rain on the leaves) and a bit of drizzle on Thursday morning, the days were bright, sunny, and warmish.  Absolutely perfect.  Now I'm home.  There'll be laundry soon.  But first here are a few photos from last week.  I hope you enjoy them.  (Sorry, I didn't save you any hot fudge and strawberries and I didn't take their picture either; I was too busy eating.)