On My Way Home

As vacations go …

As vacations go, this has been one of the best. After over a year without a vacation, I couldn’t do better than a couple relaxing days at a spa. I got a bunch of queries out with my new and improved cover letter, and I’ve gotten to realize that I need to do some daydreaming in with my writing/marketing. Need to break the non-writing loop.

My body is more relaxed than it has been for a year. The COVID tension has fallen from me and I finally feel like the world is recovering (note — I have gotten fully vaccinated). I’ve returned to writing in the tiled lobby of the Elms, and things feel near normal.

Wouldn’t it be nice?

Wouldn’t it be nice to hold a writers’ retreat here? I mean a writers’ retreat with more than one writer (me) in the house. There’s atmosphere, wine, dining, a spa, and those couches with built-in outlets in them. I don’t know what would make this a more perfect space. Not big enough for a large writers’ conference, but enough for a sweet retreat.

Me, a writer?

As I wrote that, I really wondered if I had the qualifications to be a writer. You’d think it was easy — I’ve written, I’ve published. But I have a large chunk of impostor syndrome because I’m also a professor. My works haven’t sold much. I have plenty of excuses to discount my qualifications as a writer.

But if I can spend a couple days writing at a picturesque (and relatively inexpensive) hotel and spa like The Elms, I think I can call myself a writer.

Soaking Up the Atmosphere

5 AM, lobby, The Elms

It’s 5 AM and getting close to breakfast. Ah, not that close — I really could use a coffee right now.

The vacation so far has been great. We arrived here about 3 PM yesterday and spent time at the pool. And ate the most marvelous dinner — mine was a roasted vegetable medley with crispy polenta cake and red pepper coulis. No complaints here.

Since the takeover

I hadn’t been here since they were taken over by Hyatt in October 2019. I was expecting heavy-handed corporate hotel trappings that would destroy the charm of this place — and found none. Any changes I have found are to the benefit of The Elms. There’s more seating areas in the Lobby. They’re marketing their house soap in the gift shop. They’ve restricted people’s time in the Grotto to two hours. Absolutely no complaints.

Today — spa day

Today is spa day. I expect to be there from 10:30 to 2. Most of that time will be spent in the Grotto.

This is why I go to The Elms — for the special feeling of pampering myself. I usually position my visit after the semester, but before the crowd of Memorial Day.

I think this is just what I needed.

Vacation!

(or, rather, mini-vacation)

It’s time to take my mini-vacation to The Elms!

I don’t care that this vacation, in effect, will be two days. I have been waiting for this little trip for over a year, holding it in my head as what I would do when it was safe to travel after COVID. It kept me going through the social isolation, the online/zoom classes, the inadvisability of eating in restaurants, and the like.

What I have planned

I have a few things planned — very few. I will get some writing/revising in because this is in part my writing retreat. I will get a massage and spend two hours in the Grotto soaking up hot tubs and steam showers and sitting in a lounge chair with an iced peppermint washcloth over my eyes. I will find time in a cofeehouse. I will try to talk my husband for a road trip on the way home to eat Sichuan food.

Happy cry

I’m about to happy cry, I’ve needed this so badly.