LadyLee Retreats Part V: Leaving there

All I know...

I already miss cabin #85!

My coworker Cowgirl Cre said, after looking through some of my photos

"Gurl, that don't look like no doggone cabin!"

Shut up, Cowgirl Cre... with all that doggone wood- wood floors, wood ceilings, wood walls...

It was a cabin!

Overall? I had a nice time.

We even got nice parting gifts like this lovely purse/carry-on bag:

Now when I got my bag, it contained a set of car keys! You know me, I was like

"GLORY, I done won a CAR at the retreat!! GLORY!!!!!"

*Ladylee having visions of ditching the zoom-zoom and leaving the mountains in a brand new CAR!!*

But I'd gotten our leader Kat's bag by mistake. Too bad because she is kicking the PHAT Maxima! I would have GLADLY traded cars with her!

But like I said, I had a good time.

And on the way back, I didn't harass author Dwan Abrams too much. But we did have a wonderful discussion about how to name characters and a few other writing technique issues. Man, I keep running into interesting people, dropping SERIOUS knowledge. I MUST go invest in a tape recorder so I can record and transcribe some of the wisdom I am soaking up... GEEZ!

On the way back, we also stopped by BabyLand, home of the Cabbage Patch dolls! Cabbage Patch dolls were all the rage back in the 80s and I had no idea they were still around. I even witnessed the birth of a cabbage patch baby... Oh my!

I didn't take pictures because I forgot to charge up my camera. ~sigh~

Overall the retreat was something I really needed. I was able to unwind and come out of my shell. I met some new and interesting people. It felt good to get away from home!

Seriously, I think I learned something there: We all have our issues, things that bother us, things that we are going through... things, problems, people and situations that we need to release and let go of.

There were ladies there with struggles similar to my own. I even got a chance to sit down and talk with a few about our similar issues. I learned a lot, and I can now work on being proactive...

All in all, it let me know that I am not alone...

Will I attend next year?

60 bucks for 2 days with a crew of phenomenal women?

Heck yeah!!

And you know I will have my music, a deck of cards, and my camera in tow! LOL!!

LadyLee Retreats Part IV: Cardsharking!

I had this post ready yesterday, but the Blogger monster ATE it!!!

Alright, I am almost done with my retreat recap. Here's part IV and part V, the final installment, will be up tomorrow!

Now you know how us black folks are...

We can't get together for any long length of time and a deck of cards not magically appear out of thin air!

Now, the cards didn't show up in my cabin, cabin #85... we were over there watching movies, etc.

They were playing cards across the road in cabin #75.

Now, from what I hear, after some of the journaling and sharing exercises that we did on either Friday or Saturday (I can't remember which day), some of the ladies went over to cabin #75 and played spades. They were gone for awhile, and I hear there was some serious sharing and bonding going on...

I didn't get in on that... I think I was watching movies and writing...

Anyway, they said they were going to hook up another Spades card session on Saturday night...

And you know I had to go and take pictures.

Like I said, I wanted to take pictures. I don't know how to play spades...

"LadyLee, you wanna play spades?"

"No. I don't know how to play spades. I play poker, man. Ya'll gotta break out some chips and cash for me. A girl gotta make some money to pay some bills or something."

I was more content to just hang out and observe.

Anyway, before the card game, I'd been burning a few CDs for people, and was making deliveries between cabins IN THE DARK, by myself. I got over my Jason, Mike Myers, and Blair Witch fears... A sista had to get the product out.

But I went to cabin #74 and picked up my fellow retreaters, who'd been playing cards earlier, "Quiet Storm" and "Mia X", and headed over to cabin #75.

When we got there no one was playing. Everyone was waiting on Supa Star, who was hiding somewhere in the upstairs loft.

"Yo, STAR!"

She appeared at the banister. "What?"

"Come on, now Shawty, come on now," I yelled. "Ya'll need to go ahead on and play so I can't take some pics and go back to my cabin."

"Just chill, just hold on," she said.

"Come ON now, man! I don't have all night."

"Just chill girl. I'm trying to handle some business. Just chill."

She disappeared back into the dark recesses of the loft.

*crickets*

Now, Star is a bit crazy and unpredictable. She wouldn't tell us what she was doing. I don't know why I got visions of her sitting at a table chopping up rocks like Cain was doing at the kitchen table in the that movie Menace II Society.

Let's just say I would never go to a bank with Star. She seems to be the type that may try to Set it Off, if you know what I mean.

Anwyay, Star finally came downstairs and they got started...

There was a lot of action, although everyone was a bit low-key at first... a lot of laughter and cheering if someone won a book.

Now the teams were "Us" and "Them"... I am not sure who was who, but it looks as if the "Them" team was winning. (And by the way, I just KNOW that's not the paper from our journals... Shame on them for using that paper for scorekeeping!!)

They'd ran out of wine earlier in the evening at dinner, and the Smirnoff was now flowing, so you know when peeps get liquored up, there are bound to be a few problems.

Perhaps everything was a bit low key because "Mia X" was carrying the 10 pound, 2 foot long black steel policeman's flashlight. She needed that just in case she needed to see you clearly while she knocked you upside the head if she thought you were cheating!

The action heated up when the "Old school Sistas" from my cabin came up for their turn on the card table. There was a bit of debate over some of Star's rules for the games. I thought one of the Oldschool sistas would grab Mia X's flashlight and knock Star upside the head, but the arguments subsided. (I still think Supa STAR is a cheater.)

But something interested happened. I knew there was going to be a battle when I heard one of the sweet quiet Oldschool sistas yell "Don't start no sh**, won't be no sh**!!!"

*Ladylee quietly grabbing laptop and quietly tip-toeing into the living room*

Let's just say the Oldschool sistas opened a huge can of whoop ass on the young bucks.

One of the sweet Old School sistas was having such a joyful time beating the brakes off of Supa STAR and the young buck crew that I had to hook her up with one of Supa STARS slow groove CDs.

That was hilarious to see her jump up and yell and high five her old school partna a few times! Miss J, I didn't know you had it in you, Old girl!!!

Now, Kim, one of the young bucks was saddened by this terrible hand. She made sure I took a picture of it... Of course the Old School sistas shanked Kim and her partna during this round...



Kim had an excuse. You know, when there are a bunch of people out on a trip somewhere, someone is bound to be sick as a dog... That someone was Kim... She was all nasally, full of snot, achy, and racked with pain. She'd even loss her voice. I don't know how she mustered the strength to play cards. I'm sure the ass-whooping dealt out by the oldschool sistas didn't help her feel any better!

But Kim is my age, and she loves that old 80's pop music... you know, the music that came out when music videos FIRST came out?

Yeah, that music! It is a bit cheesy, but we loved it back then.

Kim sat there and sneezed and screeched out in a thin voice what she wanted on her CD...

*LadyLee scooting as far away from her as possible during one of her sneezing and nose blowing fits. Ladylee having visions of running up on Kim and smacking her if she catches Kim's cold!*

Kim and I looked through my 80's music and came up with the cheesiest compilation...

Kim's Cheesy 80's Pop Flashback!

Addicted to Love - Robert Palmer
Don't you Forget about Me - Simple Minds (Breakfast Club)
Careless Whisper - Wham!
Cruel Summer - Bananarama
Let's Dance - David Bowie
Don't You want me baby - Human League
Here comes the rain again - Eurythmics
Everything She wants - Wham!
I ain't Missing you - John Waite
Love is a Battlefield - Pat Benetar
Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes
Promises, Promises - Naked Eyes
Who's gonna drive you home - The Cars
The Reflex - Duran Duran
Wake Me up Before you go-go - Wham!
Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler
She Blinded Me with Science - Thomas Dolby
By the time we finished the CD (and sang every song waaaay off key), the young bucks had had enough of the pumped up Oldschool Sistas... They were all running for the hills, scattering like roaches! LOL! I escorted the Oldschool Sistas back to our cabin. For some reason the Oldgirls started running, laughing that if anyone got snatched into the woods, it would be me, since I was bringing up the rear...

I didn't find that funny AT ALL!

We got back to cabin #85 around one in the morning. Everyone was sleep. Kee-Kee, my roommate said "Ya'll sound like some loud sailors coming home with all that yelling!"

She went back to sleep, and I got dressed for bed. In the middle of the night, Kee-Kee comandeered the middle of the bed. I slept good, but let's just say I was hanging onto the edge of the bed by my buttcheeks, man! LOL!

So that was my adventurous Saturday... stay tuned for my final thoughts on the retreat...

LadyLee Retreats Part III: Adventures in Bootlegging

Okay, like I was saying...

While some of the ladies were doing their yoga thang in the living room...

And while some of the ladies were in the kitchen, preparing Saturday evenings dinner of chicken corn chowder, chicken lasagna, and vegetable lasagna...

...There was some SERIOUS bootleg going on in the back bedroom, in the bedroom that I shared with my roommate "Kee-Kee".



See, what had happened was...

Well, let me back it up a day.

When we arrived at our cabin, there was music playing on the stereo. Some pretty good old school mixes, I must say. So good that I didn't even bother pulling out my laptop or the set of mega speakers I'd brought with me. I decided to sit back and relax. Several of the ladies were, um, sippin' MUCH wine and were dancing a bit hard. That's just how good the music was.

So I started getting all kinds of questions on Saturday...

"LadyLee, that music was good last night! Were those your CDs?"

"Um, no," I replied.

"LadyLee, can I get a copy of that CD that was playing last night?"

"Um, those weren't my CDs. And I have no idea whose CDs they were," I answered.

I really didn't know whose CDs they were. I was silently wondering to myself if I could catch up with whoever brought them and rip a couple of them.

Well, I didn't think much about it. All I know is that i didn't have to take care of the music, and that was fine by me.

So on Saturday afternoon, I was off in the back bedroom relaxing, engrossed in a book. My laptop was sitting on the dresser and I was burning a few CDs that had been requested by a few of the ladies.

In walks my roommate Kee-Kee.

She starts busily fumbling through a stack of CDs in blue jewel cases. I didn't pay her much attention until she hit through there for the third time, and she started bringing people with her.

*Ladylee peering curiously over her eyeglasses at the action*

When we were alone, and she was still fumbling through those CDs, I got nosy.

"Kee-Kee, what are you doing?"

"Looking through these CDs."

"What CDs do you have?"

"Oh, my boyfriend is a DJ, and he made a few CDs."

So that's where the CDs that were playing on the CD player in our cabin's living room were coming from.

I threw my book on the bed and went over to the dresser where my laptop was charging and where she had her CDs stacked.

"What you got, girl?"

"I got a bunch of stuff. My man said 'Yo, you going to that retreat this weekend, right?' I said yeah. He said, 'I need you to push some of that product for me.'"

"Really?" I asked, my eyebrows raised in pure wonderment and awe.

Now the "product" that he was talking about was a load of bootleg CDs. I started fumbling through some of her stuff. She had it ALL: oldschool classics, juke joint music, babymaker music (you know, that old slow stuff), jazz, house.

She had it ALL!

And she was selling out, at a rate of five bucks a CD. I watched a couple of transactions. It got to a point where we didn't really know what was on what CD, so I had the laptop handy.

"LadyLee, play this CD right here so we can figure out what's on it," Kee-Kee ordered.

I did what she said.

I was a bit scared, though. I was afraid our leader Kat would come in and bust us and beat us down. But Kat was busy in the front room doing yoga.

Every time the bedroom door open, you could best believe I was catching a crook in my neck trying to see who it was.

"Yo, close that door," I whispered loudly.

Now, I don't sell my CDs. I made it known when I got there that I had all my stuff with me, so if anyone wanted CDs should just let me know, and I will see if I had anything they wanted. As a matter of fact I had arrived with two CDs worth of Run DMC's greatest hits for the Oldschool loving Viv, and a Chaka Khan compilation and Disco CD for our leader Kat.

I make CDs for fun. And I know how I am. If a sista try to come back complaining about a bootleg CD that I sold to them, I am liable to knock them upside the head (LOL!!). I've never had anyone come back and complain about a FREE CD and that's the way that I like it. If I made a mistake, fine... Throw that ish away (like I do constantly), give me a call, and I will gladly hook you up that next time I see you! No problem, er'body happy!

But you know how peeps can get. I don't ever want to have the attitude where I HAVE to go make CDs. That'll piss me off. So for me, it is something I do for fun.

Anyway Kee-Kee was making much bread.

"Girl, my man DJs, writes poetry, writes manuscripts, and details cars. I gotta push this product. This is our date money!"

Heck he do all that? I don't blame her. I would be pushing the product too!

"Yo girl," I asked, while looking through some of her CDs. "You gonna hook me up, right? You got me, right?"

She nodded.

I was a CD ripping fool. I ripped from her and several other people that weekend. I added approximately 300 songs to my playlist.

When the Oldgirl catches a hook-up, she catches a HOOK-UP!!!

Really though!!

As you can see, we had all we needed. Kee-Kee even sipped some white wine, white Zinfadel, whatever was in the wine glass, during this process. I brought about 80 blank CDs with me, a half a box of CD sleeves. I think I ended up making about 30 CDs total for the ladies. I even ended up burning a couple extra for Kee-Kee when she ran out of the more popular bootlegs.

The most popular CD that I made that weekend was one that I made for the Supa STAR. She was talking about needing something to help her get her freak on or something. Anyway, on Saturday night she came up with her own custom CD, and I made it for her. (We argued a lot over this... Much of it was me yelling "STAR, could you act like you got some sense and please write the right title and artist down for me!? Damn!") A heavy card game was going on around that time (upcoming post), and more people requested it. So I think I made a total of 6 copies of this one here:

Supa STAR's Slow Grooves

Cause I Love You- Lennie Williams
Would You Mind - Earth, Wind, and Fire
Sail On - Commodores
Voyage to Atlantis - The Isley Brothers
If Only You Knew - Patti Labelle
Love, Need and Want You - Patti Labelle
Love's Train - Con Funk Shun
Fire and Desire - Rick James and Tina Marie
Reasons (Live Version) - Earth, Wind, and Fire
You are My Starship - Norman Conners
Adore - Prince
Choosey Lover - The Isley Brothers
Piece of my Love - Guy

Overall, we had much fun pushing product!

Now when I think of all the money I could have made on this trip?

Nah, I don't even want to THINK about it... LOL!

LadyLee Retreats, Part II: Being There.

Ahh... the retreat...


The drive up was slow, but nice. The mountains were oh so beautiful, especially with it being autumn and the leaves changing colors and all... I didn't get a lot of good pictures due to the weather.

I know we left Atlanta around three in the afternoon and arrived around six o'clock due to CRAZY Atlanta traffic. When we actually got to Helen Georgia, it was pitch black all along those back roads... Apparently, they don't know what a street light is up in those parts of Georgia.

We stayed at Tan.gle.wood cabins. We had to travel down some dark gravel covered back roads to get to our cabins... Both me and and my riding partner were a bit unnerved by it all.



I was like...

"Ya'll got me caught up in some ole Jason,
Michael Myers, Blair Witch craziness!!"

But we finally found our lovely cabin...

Now, there were approximately 25-30 of us, and we had two 5 bedroom cabins and one 4 bedroom cabin.







The big cabin, the second one pictured above, had a hot tub, but no one used it. I wouldn't have, with it being 30-40 degrees outside. My best friend LadyTee has me jaded. She said before I left, "Ya'll fools can mess around and jump in a hot tub if ya'll want to... Ya'll will catch pneumonia!" LOL!

The cabins were nice... I loved the ambience!

Candles on the balcony...

Fireplace roaring...

There was A LOT of food. Breakfast was the best part of the day for me...

All the bacon, eggs, sausage, grits, biscuits, orange juice...





French toast, waffles, warm fruit, Ray-Ray's insane hash brown casserole... All you can eat... Goodness! Nothing like having that "itis" first thang in the morning! I don't usually eat like that in the mornings! I know my cholesterol went up a quite a few notches. Oh my!



There was MUCH wine flowing...



There were even champagne laced strawberry smoothies served with breakfast...



I don't drink, but there was a lot of drinking going on!! Let's just say when the liquor gets to flowing, watch OUT now! LOL

Friday evening was nice... Everyone hung out at their respective cabins, getting settled in. I stayed at my cabin, hung out in the living room around the fireplace with a few of the ladies, all of us clad in our pajamas, and watched a movie.

You know me though... I was perched on the sofa, watching the movie, pecking away softly on my laptop, working on the last couple of chapters of my manuscript (Didn't I tell you? I am almost DONE! GLORY!)

Now Saturday? Saturday was... interesting.

First of all, my girl, Supa STAR, who comments here from time to time, showed up at my cabin wearing one of her many eclectic t-shirts.



Now, Supa STAR finds and wears some of the most bizarre t-shirts. This one is um, self explanatory, but there have been quite a few that I have seen her wear that left me scratching my head, slowing backing up, and tip-toeing away, too afraid to ask what the t-shirt meant. She seemed comfortable. STAR hates to write, and I silently chastised her during the Saturday's journaling exercises for not participating. She would give me the evil eye and then point defiantly at her t-shirt, sliding her finger across the words on front...

Hmmm... I didn't understand that. I am a girl too, and I have a...

Okay, I'm thinking too deeply...

Moving right along...

A Yoga instructor, Mechelle of The Yoga Hive, traveled up on Saturday to teach us a bit of Yoga. She gave a very interesting talk, and we did some very interesting breathing exercises during the morning session. The best thing I learned from her is that this Oldgirl has been breathing wrong for years!

I gots to learn how to breathe correctly!

Really though...

Anyway, later on, Ms. Mechelle got into the groove and started dancing to the music.

This confused me a bit. I was like "Hey! Um, those aren't yoga moves!!"

"No they're not," she yelled, still grooving to the music. "But not all of yoga is slow, now!"

*crickets*

That was waaaay too much for me to comprehend. I think I will stick to learning how to breathe correctly.

Oh well, I guess yoga instructors get their dance on from time to time too, hunh?

Anyway, I didn't participate in the afternoon yoga session. I got caught up in one of the back bedrooms, spending some time alone reading my travel partner Dwan Abrams' book Only True Love Waits (which happens to be VERY good! Look for a review next week!).

Now while yoga was going on in the front living room...

And dinner preparations going on in the kitchen...

There was some SERIOUS bootleg "pushing of product" going on in the back bedroom:



Now see... Don't trip...

Uh, now look, see...

What had happened was...

To be continued...

LadyLee Retreats, Part I: Getting There

Last weekend, I went on my first ever retreat!

Now the big thing about me is this: I rarely go anywhere outside of work or home. As a matter of fact, I haven’t even taken a vacation as an adult. Oh, I have traveled, but it was always on someone else’s dime and not my own, which means I was off somewhere to some chemistry conference, and while there, I better take in some of the sights.

But I have never, as an adult, said, “Gee, let me pull some cash out of my own pocket and use it to go somewhere…"

The HORROR!

Hey, I’m all about the reimbursements and per diems, babe!!

Anyway, I went on a retreat with my Book Club sistas to Helen, GA, a big Alpine village up in the Georgia Mountains…

It was quite nice, yes it was…

So I thought I would detail some of my adventures while there.

Getting there. First of all, Helen Georgia is approximately 90 miles from the city of Atlanta, and we had to figure out the logistics of getting there. No one was suppose to ride alone.
Now, I wanted to drive my car. Why? Because I rarely drive my car, and every since I had the new CD Player installed, I’ve wanted to drive my doggone car, and play my music LOUD. I have several CDs with 100+ songs on them, and heck, I want to hear them ALL as loud as possible!

So, needless to say, I knew no one would probably want to ride in my compact Zoom-zoom, which was cool, but the rule was that no one was to ride alone. So, I reluctantly
sent an email out that stated that I was driving and could accommodate one other person.

Now, I get a call from two ladies, one I know and one I don’t know…Both wanting to ride. One said she was having some sinus isshas and was still deciding whether to go, and was having to decide what to do, while the other, who I didn’t know, was going to go ahead and roll with me.

Now the young lady I didn’t know seemed nice. Very mannerable on the phone and what not. Her english was good, not all ebonically inclined like my own, and I figured I would have to come up with my good educated english during this ride, LOL. I know a lot of faces at the book club, but not many names, so I was wondering who she was. I thought I’d probably recognize her when I saw her. I personally was looking forward to meeting her, because lately, whenever I meet someone new, they usually solve some type of issue I'm struggling with.

Okay, didn't mean to go to deep on you... back to the story.

Well, we were to leave that Friday afternoon for the retreat. Now, I do some odd stuff before I leave on a trip, whether it be overnight across town or something longer. I like to wash up EVERYTHING in the house-clothes, linen, etc.- and I like to thoroughly clean my house. I like to pack and unpack at least three times. My poor cat, Oscar-Tyrone, just stood in a corner watching me in all my obsessive compulsiveness.

So after cleaning and packing for several hours, I was bone tired.

There were suppose to be three folks in my Zoom-zoom, which was gonna be a bit TIGHT, to say the least, but we could do it. Well, I went to pick up the lady that I didn’t know, and when I got there, it turned out that we both had a whole lot of stuff… In particular, she had a WHOLE suitcase full of books. A HEAVY ass suitcase at that, and I am thinking to myself “How the heck is she gonna read ALL these damn books in two days?”

Well, I wasn’t gonna ask. If I don’t know you, I don’t shuck and jive with you. I probably won’t even talk to you.

My biggest concern was that she would object to me playing my music. I wasn’t gonna play it loud, but I did not want to hear “Hey LadyLee, I like jazz. Can we play some jazz?”

*LadyLee hurling herself out of the window at the thought of playing some slow ass jazz in her zoom-zoom*.

And she was diva-down... I'm talking full make-up, dressed nice. Cute, casual, and comfy, but all in all, dressed nice.

I had on the usual: t-shirt, sweats, and sneakers.

Had visions of going to the retreat, walking in and er'body diva-down.

Humph. Like Mary J. Blige says... Take me as I am. They would have to be alright. All I brought was sweats and jeans and that was all I was wearing...

I digress...

Anyway, we get settled in, and head for the interstate.

We were just driving… just chilling… I called the other young lady I was supposed to pick up and told her that we had entirely too much stuff, but we would hook up with her and see if we could squeeze everything in. She opted to drive her own car, a PHAT Infiniti, and trail us up to the retreat. (She followed me, not the other way around. I didn't think my zoom-zoom could keep up with her sports car. This ain't the Fast and the Furious!)

Now my book club sisters know me to be unusually quiet. Some of them read my blog, and are now like “Yeah right, LadyLee ain’t all THAT quiet.” I'm silent around them. It’s just that they be dropping so much knowledge that I have to sit still and be quiet and listen so I won’t miss anything.

So I decided to do something different. I asked Dwan Abrams, the young lady riding with me, a question.

“So, uh, how long have you been in the bookclub?”

Oh, I’m not in the book club. I’m an author. I write full-time. I'm currently working on my second book.”

*big giant crickets*

*Ladylee resisting the urge to slam hard on the brakes in the middle of the jam packed interstate*

“Oh,” I finally said. “What kind of books do you write?”

“I’m currently working on a romantic suspense. I have written Inspirational and Romance also.”

*LadyLee ears getting hot, heart beating faster, face flushing red*

*LadyLee QUICKLY turns the CD player waaaay down and seriously contemplating yanking it out the dash and throwing it out the window*

Now, ya’ll KNOW I am working on a manuscript right now. I am almost done. My manuscript happens to be romance (I DETEST romance), but has turned into a romantic suspense, which is fine by me. I have a bit of technical writing experience but not much creative writing experience. So when I meet a writer, I take the opportunity to ask a whole BUNCH of questions. When I hung out with my favorite author Tayari Jones a couple months ago, I asked a zillion questions concerning my trouble areas. I mean, it ain’t everyday that I actually get a chance to sit down and have a talk with a published author about the craft of writing.

So, um, don’t think that I didn’t do the same thing here.

Man…

I picked that poor woman’s brain like a slave picks the cotton… I asked about everything: about how she researched her characters, her methods of writing, her methods of character development, her experience with editors…. I asked EVERY possible question I’d been whining to myself about for the past couple of weeks, and she answered each and every question I had. And even offered a good amount of advice. I mean, she unraveled some craziness I am dealing with right now in my writing.

Um, let’s just say, I didn’t really have to go to the retreat after that.

Shoot, we could’ve turned my zoom-zoom around and headed back to Atlanta.

I was refreshed and renewed…

And ready to write.

And you know what was interesting? One of the male characters in her next book is a chemist. So she asked me a bunch of questions about a chemist’s personality, and I broke a few things down to her.

Let’s just say that the two hour trip to the north Georgia mountains felt more like a 10 minute trip to the store or something. LOL!!

So I was all smiles by the time we got to our cabins.

When we got there, someone asked me, “So, how was the drive up, LadyLee?”

I was like, “Man, I rode with an author!! I know she’s tired of me because I yacked a lot! I don’t know who set that up, but thank ya’ll for that!”

Anyway, I was all geeked, to say the least...

Now as for the retreat itself?

That was a whole nother story...

They were running around there screaming...

"What happens in Helen stays in Helen!!"

But you know your Oldgirl...

I had my camera and all, so you know...

to be continued...