Friday, August 03, 2007

Getting ready for Eliot Institute 07

I've been packing and getting ready to leave tomorrow morning for August Eliot over on the Olympic Peninsula, at Seabeck Conference Center. Of course, that always makes the cats a little crazy, as they watch the suitcase come out, the piles of clothing mount up on the bed, and they get particularly squirrelly or clingy.

Right now Loosy is crouched on my lap as I write, purring a bit but mostly tense, as if to be ready to leap at any moment. Lily has been flying around the house all morning, tail frothed and eyes agog at every little sound.

It didn't help that the newspapers didn't arrive until very late this morning, so there was an element of the normal morning routine that just didn't happen. Normally, it's me and the papers and the coffee for an hour before anything else happens and the cats have time to go outside on the deck, sniff around, warn the birds not to do anything foolish, and come back in to collapse together in a warm calico-y heap on the ottoman.

In addition, this morning we woke up to light rain, which further messed up the routine, as they hate to go outside and get their tender ears wet. So we all paced instead. I eventually went off to the gym, where there were no available newsmagazines or papers either! And since then, I've been engrossed in the packing routine, with little time for cat-petting or tending. Oh, except for having to clean up a little pile of cat barf in the corner. I don't know who is getting back at me for what, but someone is.

In a little while, I'm going out to see one of our less mobile members of the congregation; I always enjoy my conversations with this person---about baseball or legal matters or the state of the congregation. It's an hour or so well-spent with someone I care for a lot. It will be a nice pastoral "last thing" to do before I head off tomorrow.

I want to hit the early Keystone ferry to Pt. Townsend, do some shopping in Pt. T for my new grandkids (a souvenir of Native designs, I'm thinking), meet a Vashon couple for a second wedding consultation at the Southworth Ferry, 70 miles south of Pt. T, and then head to Seabeck for registration.

I'm going to take the laptop so that I can keep up with email and blogging. But it will be a day or two before I am back here again. Hasta luego, amigos.

2 comments:

Mile High Pixie said...

Getting back at you! I had to laugh at that. My cats leave us little gifts at least once a week. I think it's time for some Laxatone....

Miss Kitty said...

Have fun and be safe! We'll e-see you when you return. And pet those kitties for us.