Finished teaching my morning session on plot, and I think I’m unscheduled for the rest of today, though I have to spend some time catching up on reading student manuscripts, and there are various optional activities I could attend throughout the day.
Yesterday went pretty well getting here, though I did manage to slash my knuckle with an Exacto knife doing some resin work in the morning, making me briefly worried that I might need stitches, but thankfully not. Packing went very smoothly, with Anand to help me empty all the bags of mulch out of the car and load my baggage in. (He’s getting strong! Kavi complains that he has more upper body strength than her and he’s two years younger and doesn’t even work out. I sympathize, and hand her the weights.)
It’s new to me having a workshop like this that I drive to — I could just throw everything in the car. Fun. When I got here, I was able to almost immediately loan someone a charging cord and battery for their dead phone, and I also pulled out my bottle of crushed red pepper for dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, with caesar salad, because this is Wisconsin, and there is nothing spicy on the table.
The food is otherwise fine, and plentiful, and they have snacks and beverages available 24-7, which I really appreciate, but I think I might do a run out to a grocery store at some point to just get some green chili I can add on occasion. 🙂 (If any retreat people are reading this, I’m happy to share….)
The Siena Retreat Center (just outside Racine, Wisconsin) is an interesting place. It’s run by nuns and is very Catholic — the WiFi password is the name of a prayer!
The workshop itself is entirely secular, so it mostly doesn’t affect us, except that a lot of people come here to practice silent meditation, and so the guest rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floor are all quiet space. They ask you to use headphones if you’re going to listen to music or watch TV in your room, and to take cell phone conversations to the first floor or outside.
It’s been a little weird for me, because I’m used to moving through my life to a soundtrack (music or podcasts generally), and it feels strange to get dressed in the morning in silence. But I’m trying to treat it as an experience, and maybe I’ll learn to appreciate silence more this week. We’ll see!
I’m not sure if I’d be comfortable hosting a writing workshop in such a religious space myself. Maybe? Something to think about.
All that said, they have a thermostat in every bedroom, plus extra blankets AND a fan, which let me set everything to my preferred sleeping conditions, so I slept very well on my spare single bed last night.
I’m half-listening to my co-teacher for the week, Hank Schwaeble, who is teaching the second session on plot, while I try to catch up a bit on posting and e-mail. After lunch with the students, I’ll likely retreat to my room (since we’re at a retreat!) and try to get some writing done.
Pictured — one of the silent sitting rooms with a bit of a view of the lake. I might walk out to lake this evening, but right now, it’s very hot, so I’m going to stay in this nice air conditioning. There are also hiking trails, which normally I’d be all over, but there are apparently a lot of ticks up here, and I admit, I’ve never had to pull a tick off me, and I’m not really excited about adding that experience to my life…
