You know what I just realized as I sat down on my couch and started thinking about what I was going to write about?
That I took NOT EVEN ONE picture this entire weekend.
So the question becomes “If a blogger goes into the woods and doesn’t post a photo on Instagram, did it really happen?” because I was in the woods on Friday night and Saturday morning. Specifically, I was at Crier Creek right outside of Columbus, TX because I was the speaker for the Kingsland Baptist Women’s Retreat.
I invited my sister, Amy, to go with me for the weekend to keep me company and we had the best time. We left San Antonio about 1:00 on Friday and made our way to Columbus with a stop at DQ for a blizzard. This is where I have to tell you that the mini Blizzard has kind of changed my life. I always felt the small Blizzard was just more than I could eat for a road trip snack, but the mini is just sheer perfection. It’s like the tapas version of an ice cream treat.
Once we arrived at Crier Creek, we made our way down the country roads until we arrived at the General Store for check in and to figure out where we were supposed to go. And that’s when the sweet women in charge informed us they’d had a couple of women drop out because they were worried about the tornadoes.
Well.
I’d never wished more that maybe I’d thought to check the weather forecast. Especially when we arrived at the little log cabin where we were staying for the night. It was so quaint and very Little House On the Prairie which you know I’m a sucker for…except in the event of possible tornadic activity. So I began to read the instructions in the Camp Booklet that serve to inform you what you should do in case of a tornado – because apparently this isn’t an uncommon occurrence – and it advised that we should get under a mattress, away from the windows and should under no circumstances stand under a lone tree.
But I still couldn’t help but believe there appeared to be a better than average chance that in the event of a tornado I was going to find myself in a real life reenactment from the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy Gayle finds herself in a flying house.
Fortunately we just had a couple of downpours, some lightning and a few claps of thunder that caused the whole log cabin to shake, but no tornadoes. I spoke at the evening session and then Amy and I went back to our cabin and stayed up way too late talking and hanging out. It had been forever since we’d had that much time together and I loved every minute of it.
I slept like a rock in the log cabin because it had a/c window units and I do love a window unit. It makes a room super cold and provides just the right amount of ambient noise. And I also brought a big oscillating fan from home because I am working on ways to become even more high maintenance about my sleep habits.
On Saturday I spoke a couple more times and loved my time with the women from Kingsland Baptist, then Amy and I headed to Houston because I had a book signing that night at Barnes & Noble. We were originally going to head straight to Bops and Mimi’s house but made a quick detour to Anthropologie because I’d ordered a shirt that I was planning to wear that night but it hadn’t arrived in time. Plus Amy volunteered to drive around the crowded parking lot while I ran in the store to try it on to see if I wanted to buy it and then return the one that P informed me showed up at our house about fifteen minutes after I left on Friday. But Amy managed to find a parking place right up front and so we spent a few minutes looking around. Since you didn’t ask for the epic three-part novella version of this whole fascinating story about a blouse, I’ll tell you that I decided against the shirt on Saturday afternoon but continue to have conflicting feelings about it so I may still end up keeping the one I originally ordered.
Once we arrived at Bops and Mimi’s we visited with them until it was time to get to the book signing. We were about 30 minutes early because my dad always worries about traffic and he felt we needed to leave the house by 6:15 and Mimi believed we could wait until 6:30. And then they compromised on 6:22 because that’s normal, yet we ended up leaving as early as 6:10 because we are apparently all a little compulsive and then sat in the parking lot for about 15 minutes until it was closer to time.
And then I signed books and got to visit with so many fun people. I’d been so tired after the retreat, but totally got my second wind and loved meeting everyone that showed up and catching up with old friends and family that I hadn’t seen in a while.
Remember when I said earlier that I didn’t take one picture this weekend? That’s the truth. But you know what I just did? Stole this picture off my cousin’s Facebook page. Behold the power of technology.
This is Mimi, Bops, Amy and a bunch of our cousins. It’s sad that I’m the only one who seemed to believe the camera was in a different location. Well done.
Sometimes I’m not my sharpest after I sign books for a while, as evidenced by the fact that I started to spell my own name wrong before it was all over.
Afterwards we went to go eat a little Italian food before we all went home and crashed. Then I was up and ready to head home by 9:00 a.m. on Sunday which isn’t normally my way, but I was ready to see my people and have a little bit of downtime before the week started.
As soon as I got home, I unpacked my suitcase because I can’t stand to leave it packed and then did some laundry, swept the floors and went through the mail before I finally sat down on the couch – mainly because I suspected I was so tired that once I sat down I may not be able to get up. It turns out that my suspicions were correct.
On a totally unrelated note, I just texted Gulley to tell her “Absolutely!” to answer a question she asked and it autocorrected to “Avail Purely!”. Best of all, she texted me back to tell me she thought I’d come up with a new saying and was going to start using it.
AVAIL PURELY!
And have a great Monday.
Just a quick reminder! Don’t forget about the Nobody’s Cuter Than You bookstore contest. You can find all the details here.