Retreat

I’m off today for Healdsburg, a picturesque northern California town in the Russian River valley where the Episcopal Church has a retreat center. I’ll work on my book and attend a weekend of Benedictine prayer. I have only two chapters left to do on this draft, and I have hopes of finishing the penultimate one this week.

We had a nice soaking rain that lasted about 12 hours longer than forecast -- the first rain we’ve had since the beginning of November and only the second of the season. It depressed me briefly yesterday while I was downtown shopping, but in the evening hours it was comforting.

In fact the real reason I was depressed is that I was shopping for a sportscoat and had to deal with how fat I’ve gotten. Even though I’m regularly using the treadmill, I haven’t lost any weight, and I’m afraid Cris is going to make me to go Weight Watchers. I hope to avoid that indignity but looking at myself in a three-way mirror at the Men’s Warehouse was undignified enough.

My friend Sara is back from a vacation in Ghana. She brought me a couple of booklets that are part erotica, part sex manual, and part sex education. There is a long section in one, for example, about how women may avoid and treat yeast infections. The drawings look like they were done by a high school freshman, and the whole effect is rather sweet. She also brought back a garish rendering of the Holy Family, a gift to her church from the Episcopal bishop of Accra. It’s done using lots of colored glitter and is really something.