Thanks for sharing, so well prepared!!! I don’t do,well in those situations either so nice to read how you coped. I am an introvert too but didn’t learn until after I did the program and healed. Now I understand and know what I need and how to cope and prepare!
Chloe
Healing is grand
: *my little parrot seems to be feeling
: better
: *Cranes flying over the house
: *my dog being so happy to see me
: *antics of the Steller's Jays in our
: yard
: Every year, one of the non-profits I
: volunteer for makes a quilt as a
: fundraiser. We sell raffle tickets
: all year and raffle it off in
: December. In January or February,
: a group of 12 volunteers goes to
: the director's cabin in the
: mountains for a weekend. We arrive
: Friday afternoon or evening, sew
: on Saturday, and leave on Sunday
: after breakfast. Teams of two
: people take turns making meals. I
: never know what people are going
: to make, so I always bring back up
: food just in case.
: This year, my friend and I made a
: dinner. We decided to do pasta
: with meat sauce (and a meatless
: sauce for vegetarians). I like
: lots of veggies in my sauce
: anyway. I decided to do some of
: the prep ahead of time, so I
: cooked the ground beef and put it
: in a big container, and then I
: sauteed onion, mushrooms, zucchini
: and summer squash and put that in
: another big container. I took 3
: big jars of pasta sauce. I brought
: regular fettuccine, and some
: quinoa pasta for me because I am
: not eating wheat. Having the
: sauteed vegetables came in handy,
: because on Friday when I prepared
: to eat my lunch, I realized that
: in all the preparations I'd
: forgotten to pack a vegetable for
: my lunch at work. I used some of
: the sauteed vegetables and they
: were delicious.
: In addition to the food I brought for
: the dinner my friend and I were
: cooking, I brought protein powder,
: a serving of oatmeal with
: blueberries and greek yogurt,
: almond milk, yam cakes, cheese
: sticks, brown rice, 2 grilled pork
: chops and about 4 ounces of
: rotisserie chicken. That way, I
: figured I'd be prepared for
: anything.
: Breakfast is usually a bit later than
: I'm used to, so I had almond milk
: with protein powder when I got up.
: That way, if breakfast was late,
: I'd still be ok. Breakfast the
: first day had what I needed, but
: the second day it was granola,
: yogurt and fruit, which did not
: have enough protein or browns for
: me, so I heated up my oatmeal and
: added protein powder. Lunch on
: Saturday was delicious, but had
: almost no protein. It was sauteed
: vegetables and potato and corn
: soup. I ate my chicken with it and
: had yam cakes for a brown.
: On Saturday night it started snowing.
: By Sunday morning, we were in a
: winter wonderland. It was
: beautiful, but the cabin is on a
: steep, twisty road so we weren't
: sure we were going to be able to
: leave. We had leftovers for lunch
: (soup again, and I had a pork chop
: and yam cakes with it. We finally
: left in the mid afternoon. The car
: I was in had problems with the
: hill. After it turned 180 degrees
: and got stuck, we grabbed what we
: absolutely needed from the car and
: left it stuck in the snow and
: walked the rest of the way down,
: where fortunately the other two
: drivers were waiting to make sure
: we made it down ok. I finally got
: the rest of my luggage on Tuesday.
: I'm an extreme introvert, so spending
: that much time in a small cabin
: with 11 other people, sharing a
: bedroom with 3 other people, and
: sewing (something that is not my
: area of expertise) in very close
: quarters is a bit of a challenge,
: especially because I don't sleep
: well during the retreat. Doing the
: food enables me to stay calm and
: have fun, even when sleep deprived
: and when trying to learn something
: new. It also enabled me to be calm
: when we had to abandon most of our
: luggage. It also helps that there
: are always at least 2 dogs there,
: so when I need a break, I sit on
: the couch with the dogs and give
: them love and attention. I got to
: take a lovely walk in the snow,
: too, and I was able to enjoy the
: beautiful snow instead of worrying
: about how we were going to get
: home. My biggest worry about
: staying longer was that we would
: run out of food, but I had brought
: enough extra food that I could
: have fed myself and let the other
: people have all the leftovers from
: the group meals. (At that point, a
: few people with 4 wheel drive had
: left, so there were just 7 of us.)
: Allison