Procrastinating

Ok well, yesterday I promised to get back on here and write about the intentional community meeting Friday night, and tonight I still don't really want to do it.  But I will, because otherwise I'm going to forget everything of value about it.

It started with a train wreck, which people who know us well, know is completely typical of anything we decide to undertake.  I made a dessert, and forgot it.  We also forgot hot dogs to grill, and buns.  Oh, and snacks for the kids.  So we had to stop on the way to buy cookies and hot dogs and buns.  I don't recommend stopping for groceries at 6 pm on a Friday.  The store is, um, kind of busy at that hour. 

So we got there.  Late.  But only by about 10 minutes, which is amazing, since I was sure Jeff had been in the store shopping at least an hour.  We got there, kids got in the pool (and out, and in, and out...), had dinner (fabulous salmon and bread and rice and potatoes and salad).  Had dessert.  Then Carla put in a movie for the kids so we could talk for a while.

She (Carla) said some really nice things about my writing here, which I think I was kind of brusque about- I don't handle praise well.  We talked about parenting, and the book she wrote about it (The Myth Of The Perfect Parent?  forgive me if that's off, and email me so I can fix it!!).  Conversation was kind of all over the place, it had been during dinner as well.  But at one point they started talking about enneagram types and so I got to read a little about those and decide what I was.  My memory for details is crap, I am really straining for more of the stuff we talked about, but all I can think of is my impressions (emotional and intellectual) of the night as a whole.  I knew I should have written this earlier!

It was really amazing, but it's almost impossible to explain with words.  Most everything we did and said was fairly mundane and non-earthshattering, but there was this intangible other in all of it.  I was surprised and delighted by the amount of good-natured teasing, and the complete absence of pretense.  Looking back, I shouldn't have been surprised at all.   There should always be joy in community, or we are doing it wrong!  I hope we get to go a few more times.  I think I am almost going to regret starting a group of our own, because we won't have any of them in it.  It's really tempting to say "forget it" to making our own group and sneakily become permanent (rather than visiting) members of this one.  I'm so lazy! 

I'm still feeling out this bad few days I'm having.  More on that later.