Fun and Games and Writing in Amish Country

It's Sunday, Day Three of the Labor Day writing retreat. My Wilkes writing pals and I are having a fantastic time! We have an overstocked refrigerator, lots of coolers and the entire dining room table is covered in a Junk Food Buffet-- about a dozen kinds of chips (Lay's, Dorito's, Sun Chips, Fritos, Tortillas and more), rice krispie treats, pretzel rods, cookies- lots of cookies, and oh god, so, so much junk food.

Friday, we were up late catching up and there was a major dent put in a bottle of Jagermeister. We did a reading-Mike shared from his amazing story and then we played some games. I learned a new one, "It's true for me that...." which is kind of like a cross between Musical Chairs and Truth or Dare. It was after 4 a.m. before the last of us hit the sack.

Saturday, we slept in a little and enjoyed breakfast on our own and then my contribution to the food was lunch. We had a "Build Your Own Bob" lunch, where I had chicken, shrimp, green peppers, red peppers, onions, squash, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. The grill at our rental house was a little slow, so the cooking of the bobs took longer than expected, but it was a fun project. On the side we had Sweet Baby Ray's barbeque sauce for the chicken, Amish potato salad, coleslaw and pickles. Mmmm!! After lunch, my hangover dwindled- thank goodness.

Carol, Viannah and I took a field trip into Intercourse and stumbled upon Kettle Kitchen- a quaint, well-kept tourist-y village that had closed at 5 p.m. that day- so we missed seeing the insides, but we are going back Monday (they are closed today) to check everything out. I already took tons of pictures- there are 42 shops, a petting zoo and lots of cool things. So, so cute! On the way back, we got our picture in front of the "Welcome to Intercourse" sign and bought some baked and canned goods from a roadside stand-- the Shoo Fly pie was amazing! Just had another slice!

Later, we started to have some beverages, did some readings- Carol and I- played Balderdash-- but we were all starting to crash- long day and we up so late from the night before. I hit the sack around 2:30 a.m. Angie and I are sharing a Beauty & the Beast themed bedroom. Too cute.

This morning, Cory & Sara were in charge of breakfast- Eggs in a Nest (which I grew up with, calling them picture frame eggs) and mimmosas. Now it's about noon and we're getting ready to do some readings. We're having Taco Lunch and another grilled dinner- steak and corn and fruit salad.

As far as my reading went, my classmates gave me some great advice. I can't say enough about this group of people!