Wildacres Day 2

 This was the first full day at the writers’ retreat, so we began writing. I slept until the breakfast bell awoke me. Then I joined my fellow writers for breakfast in the dining hall. I am glad they had oatmeal.Then I walked back to my room in the Guest House and got scared about the necessity of having to write. My room is in a loft area overlooking the living room of the house. The living room has large picture windows facing a spectacular mountain view, although it was completely enveloped in fog this morning.

At a dining table at one end of the living room, a man was sitting with his laptop, writing. I asked him about outlets for charging his computer, and he agreed that the two-prong non-grounded outlets in the house would not accept his charger’s three-prong plug. I said there is a grounded plug in the bathroom, but I didn’t want to write there. A woman I had not seen called out from the kitchen that there was a grounded plug in there. She was writing at a counter there while charging her laptop.
Since I had charged up my laptop in the bathroom overnight, I set up shop on a side table near the picture window. It is an intricately carved wooden table that looks like an antique. I worked on Chapter 8 of the academic book, on how to write a paragraph or “chunk.”

The man at the table was working away on his project, as was the woman in the kitchen. It felt good to be a writer working among other writers. I fell into a very productive morning. By 11 a.m. I had finished Chapter 8.

Before noon I wandered up to the main lodge and sat on the patio. I tried to write there, but there was too much glare on my laptop. Later I found a good shady spot on the porch of the lodge. I could see that other writers had found their own places to write.

After lunch I made the 15-minute drive down the mountain to the Wal-Mart in Spruce Pine mostly for a rain jacket. I did bring a poncho, but it didn’t quite suit my needs here. While there I picked up some soft drinks and an adapter so that I can charge my computer in my room.
In the afternoon I finished up Chapter 10 on the Five-Paragraph essay. For part of that task, I was lying on the tan leather couch in the big living room of the Guest House. I skipped Chapter 9 for now, but I can easily go back to that. Around 4:30, people seemed to be breaking out wine. I guess the serious writing is over for the day!

We all met for dinner at 6. In addition to the writers’ workshop, there are also retreats for storytellers and musicians, and we all eat together at 6 and then the writers reassembled in the lodge for an evening of readings. About 15 people or so read from their new works between 7:30 and 9, while the rain poured outside. I hope we get sunny weather tomorrow.