Retreat

We went to the 'retreat' held by the Alpha class we've been taking at Heartland lately. I hadn't planned to go, when they'd talked about it in previous weeks, I tuned out assuming it was something that involved spending a bunch of money. 'Retreats' churches hold, in my previous experience, have been at facilities far from the church (which I suppose is semi-implied in the name), and often cost as much as dinner at a tony restaurant.



I like a good meal as much as the next guy... Looking at my gut, I think maybe I like a good meal more than a lot of guys, but I don't eat in a lot of upscale restaurants. If I had that kind of money, I could skip a dozen or so of those suckers and buy a 17-55mm F2.8 lens for my D7000. That's a value I'll get more than a day's use out of, and which will leave me with more than something to flush as a keepsake.



But no, there was no extra charge for the retreat, we just had to get up and out the door early on a Saturday. Which isn't in my nature. We used to like to do the Three O'Clock Ride, but when its founder broke her leg, the remaining folks started riding at ten in the morning and me and Corinna kind of quit making it there because we're often still in bed at that time on a Saturday.



Which was going to be my vote today, but Corinna was so excited to go to this class. It was part of the reason she used to justify her 170 mile bike ride finishing off this past week. She and Brian rode from Cincinnati to St. Louis through rain, snow and I don't know what else to make an Amtrak that got back late Friday evening.



That's right, 170 miles without sleep. They took breaks to warm up, eat, hydrate, but they randonneured their way across all of Illinois to make that train. They returned home about 10:30 Friday night high as a freed balloon on adrenaline and accomplishment, and I think it was midnight before anyone was asleep, so that 6:45 alarm clock, damn. It was going off before seven in the morning for crying out loud.

When I suggested something last night to the effect that we didn't need to go to the retreat, Corinna said something about how she rode 170 miles nonstop to make this retreat. To which I said, No, you rode 170 miles to prove to yourself that you could. Which is true up to a point, but she obviously wanted to go retreating.

And it turned out to be the right move on every level. My kiddos where not even remotely pleased to be getting up and out so early on a Saturday, but even they found a groove and managed to find their happy heads by the time we got to Heartland. I had to leave the retreat after lunch to take Em to play rehearsal, but that wasn't a hardship really either because Corinna was getting so much more out of the retreat than I was and I'd have been playing Daddy's Taxi anyway by then. Em even thanked me for driving her, and let me tell you, that's a lot from a seventeen year old.



Oh, and pictures. You may have noticed I took a few pictures, mostly of the band. I don't know their names except the bassist since he's one of the leaders of our table/group in the Alpha class. I had my Nikon with me, of course, I rarely leave the house without it. But I often leave it stashed in its protective bag, a bag which doubles as a man-purse for me. I'm an enthusiastic photographer (if not a great one) but I notice a lot of people get nervous when you whip out an SLR and start taking noisy pictures (the artist formerly known as Frau Lobster asked Em one time if I could turn off the sound on my camera, but in the case of a D7000 it's a mechanical shutter, not an electronic simulation of a mirror flipping up and a shutter opening).



But after seeing a fellow traveler with a D90 taking shots earlier, I had to shoot some, too.

But rather than just shoot the band, I remembered a photo guru's line about how you should always look behind you. Well, this was really beside me but it still counts. The band is quite photogenic, especially the lead singer, but the people listening and singing along were interesting, too, especially this group of women who were, I realized later, all from the same table who got arm-in-arm to sing along with the band.



I had some trouble narrowing down the pics I wanted to include in this post. I had several of the band that appealed to me, one would have more dramatic gestures but something/someone else wouldn't be as clear or would have a funny look on their face. Or in the group of women locking arms, one you can see the second woman's smile and the motion of an arm on it's way to grab on, but in another they're all much clearer and the lighting has more dimension. I'm no expert on photography or I could probably pick between those two instead of just deciding to share them both.