Retreat. Part II.

Yup, we're still on Thursday.... I retired to my room after dinner for a little more reading and then availed myself of the therapeutic pool housed in a building beside us. The pool is what I would guess to be about 10 -12 metres long, 2.8 feet at one end, 7.8 feet at the other and kept at a balmy 32 degrees (89.6F). A treasure for late-nighers here, both the pool and the library are open 24 hours a day. At one end is a sitting area with plants and a skylight. It's an incredibly relaxing thing to get a noodle, wrap it around your neck and just float in a dark warm pool looking up at the sky.

By this time, of course, it's only 9 pm so I plugged in my earphones and watched "Whip It" before reading a bit more and heading into sleep.

Okay, now it's friday and I awakened on the ungodly hour of 715 to my cell phone alarm, I decided that it was way too early for breakfast and rolled over to go back to sleep. Considering that I was starving by the time I went to sleep last night (and even ate quite a few mints to try and head off my impending death) I reasoned that my stomachs capacity could probably use a little shrinking after the last three weeks of constant eating and that I really would like to lose that 20 lbs I'd put on in those same three weeks. (A side-effect known as hyperphagia due to a new medication) Although the effects of the medication become less the longer I take it, I think my stomach needs a little re-education on 'normal' meal size and meal times.

So, I slept in until 1030, showered, went for a walk and hit the silent lunch (salad bar, lentil soup and veggie bruschetta followed by carrot cake and lemon square for dessert), wrote the previous blog post, had a hot stone massage at 130 and a swim/float bring me to here.

My word at lunch was "Power".

It's 345 so I'm going to wander around and see if I can find a nice comfy spot to plunge back into the books for an hour until dinner and then starting at 630 pm is my first class with Sister Eileen.

I do miss coffee though, as I haven't had any today, but not in that physical withdrawal kind of way, just in a 'it'd be nice to have a warm cuppa' kind of way and although I do feel a bit of a need to check my email for things I've been waiting for, I don't feel any need for the social aspects of the internet. This place is silent and I like it.

Sitting beside the window in my rocking chair, I can hear only the clicking of keys and the gurgling sounds my water bottle makes through its mouthpiece after I've had a drink.