I’m back from my three-day conference in Bretton Woods! Mt. Washington was simply wonderful. The resort we were at was completely breathtaking. If you ever make it up that way, I HIGHLY (like, Mt. Washington high) recommend you stay there. You know, if you can stomach the $600/night charge. (That is EXACTLY what I meant about not being cool enough for the hotel, btw.) I would go back in a heartbeat. If someone else picked up the tab, that is.

I’ve never made it up to Mt. Washington, so the trip was a visually stimulating experience for me. Being from Colorado, I am quite familiar with the Rocky Mountains. But the White Mountains are a totally different experience. Next summer, I plan on climbing Mt. Washington - and I have never had such a strong desire to climb any other mountain - that alone should tell you how truly inspired I was.

Here are some photos from the main level, the lobby area (apologies for the yellow tinge, my flash was a nuisance):

As soon as I arrived, I realized I had NO signal on my cell. OF COURSE. I was a little desperate running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to find signal under tables, in the bathroom sink, on a roof to find signal. The ONE place I was able to receive signal? HANGING OVER MY BALCONY. Peeps? I was on the third floor, meaning four stories off of the ground. Meaning, due to the 15ft ceilings, I was WAY THE FRICK HIGH OFF OF THE GROUND. The ground that nearly met my face after a slip up on the railing. Never again in my life will I risk myself for The Internet. Unless It tempts me with chocolate, which would be very, very unfair, but OH so worth it.

Wow, what a waste of internet space. Moving on…

Here was the bedroom I shared with three other women on the first night:

Those beds look comfy, no? Well, I wouldn’t know because I took the cot. But the cot wasn’t so shabby, either.

The second evening, on a stroke of luck, I had my own room!

That bed was comfy. And so was the chair, seeing as I fell asleep in it.

One thing I want to say here and now was Tamara Hall was one of the speakers at the conference and she taught two seminars one of which I snuck into, skipping my other boring scheduled seminar. She is completely inspiring. Some of the things she said touched a deep cord in me, so deep that I spent all of Thursday evening, after devoring her (autographed!)novel, in the bathtub, self-reflecting. A lot. I’m talking five perfectly blissful hours in that tub. I’m going to bring up more in a future blog post, but I just wanted to mention how wonderful she is. I’ve never been into “motivational speakers,” but this woman was BRILLIANT.

View from the hotel room:

Mt. Washington! And construction! How much better can it get?!

Here was the porch I wanted to make-out with:

And here’s why it was deserving of my affections:

But who cares about Mt. Washington when you can look at Whitney? Not the mountain, but…

Whitney the person. In the bathroom. Clearly confused. (Should I note that this is after medication and before cocktail hour?)

The following is a photo from the fancy shmancy dinner I attended the second evening. It was several courses and I used all the right utensils in the correct order, thank you Titanic and the unsinkable Molly Brown (Kathy Bates) for: “Just start from the outside and work your way in.”

You’ll notice how exotic my companions look next to my bloated-looking self:

And lastly, because I adored my fancy dinner outfit so much, here is me and The Fancy Outfit and a dirty mirror:

Basically, I fell a tiny bit in love with the hotel and its surroundings. While I was reveling in the awesome sense of strength I felt just being there, I realized a few things:

1. I want more. In life, in love. (Again with the future post that I should start writing now, knowing me and my ADHD and tendencies towards procrastination.)

2. I wanted so very badly to share the experience with someone I loved. I caught my breath one morning sitting in the chair by my window, sipping tea, overwhelmed by everything. I would love, love, love to visit Mt. Washington and the resort with someone I love someday. Truly, the Mt. Washington Resort is a romantic place.

3. When I arrived home and Shane picked me up, every feeling I’d held for him sort of melted. I don’t want to say they “slipped away” because they didn’t. But a lot of things were wrong in our relationship. After a while, the emotions just weren’t as strong or present. Without revealing too much, Shane and I had been living as friends only for the better part of our three years together. On Sunday, I twittered this and my thoughts when I wrote that have only amplified since then. I’m not saying I’m ready to start pursuing someone new, but I’m going to keep my mind and heart open.

In closing to the whole Shane ordeal, I’m going to leave it off of the blog for a while. It may or may not come up again, but I’m just not emotionally invested in blogging anymore about it. You can all breathe a sigh of relief, now.

And that’s it, folks! If you want to view the complete set of photos, go here. Note: Some photos I make viewable to flickr friends only, so if you are on flickr, add me so you can see them all! You know you want to.

P.S. You all were so right! I had an unbelievable time!

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