Get thee to a nunnery!

Not just ANY nunnery, though. This one used to be a swanky mansion in Wheeling, West Virginia. It's still swanky (well, in a "we're retreating from the world" kind of way), but now it's the St. Joseph's Retreat Center. Nine other teachers and I drove up here for a writing retreat last weekend. Notice my car in the front drive (the red Bug); does that show how much I belong in a mansion, even one now run by nuns? And when I say we "drove up," we really drove uphill; I ran the hill Saturday morning and was very unhappy with my choice to do so. WAAY too steep for these legs!

Our agenda for the retreat: eat, write, eat some more, write, eat some more, get together to share what you wrote. I wrote FOR FUN-- no article deadlines, no practicality at all-- for the whole day Saturday. The picture above is where I spent the afternoon writing. Not very many people come here, and those who do are really quiet, so the deer-- and there are TONS of deer-- aren't quite sure what people are. All morning while I was writing deer kept creeping up to figure out what I was. One even settled down in the grass to watch me. A woman with a pen and a legal pad, scribbling away; fascinating viewing, I'm sure. So I ended up sunburned and with sap in my hair from sitting under a pine tree all afternoon, but it was worth it!

This was another coveted writing spot. As soon as we arrived we got a tour of the grounds, and you could almost see the wheels turning in people's eyes, scoping out potential writing spots. I actually thought the porch swing was too high off the ground for me to write comfortably, but I swung in it Saturday evening after dinner.

Here was our group gathering spot. The picture's a little dark, but look at the big windows. Each of those windows had a very deep window seat in it with a heater installed underneath the seat. Anyone remember the opening of Jane Eyre where she hides behind the red curtains in the library? You could totally do that with these window seats.

This place had beautiful carved fireplaces and ceilings, lots of comfy furniture to sit on, and it was just plain peaceful. When we gathered together to share our writing, it kind of felt like a cross between a slumber party and one of those soirees Gertrude Stein was known for hosting. Hmm . . . an academic slumber party? What was most interesting to me was that every single one of us almost backed out of coming because we were too busy and then every single one of us talked about how grateful we were we came. I felt like I went back in time and walked into a Jane Austen novel for a couple of days. I gotta do this again sometime. Anyone own a beach house I can invade for a few days?