on my last day at furnace mountain we did some chanting // sitting + walking meditation // and then had a group lunch where we could actually talk. it was a crazy cool feeling: not talking and then talking. i got to find out who i’d been sharing my room with and like what everyone’s story was. being allowed to talk after all that silence got me sorta “drunk”. i was laughing at everything and pretty much just like blah blah blah all during lunch. luckily everyone was in the same boat, so i didn’t come off as annoying – i don’t think. ekkkk! most of the retreat people left after lunch, but the cool kids decided to stay one more night. aww yea – in this case – i’m one of the cool kids. i hung out with the zen master and other staff in the secret “apple tv” room while watching videos of korean woodworking, gossiping about how the weekend went, and drinking burbon. i was definitely on the cool list!

after a little internet break, the zen master’s son // my friend clay // a 20 year old guy from a surburb of NYC // a lady who’s been doing her own “eat pray love” kind of trip and I hiked up a little mountain to do some rock climbing. i was dreading it – and actually wasn’t planning to do any climbing. but then my competitive self came out of right field, that compared with my plan to say YES as much as possible. so i did solved some bouldering problems – and never even fell on the crash pad! then i did some wall climbing and WHAT THE HECK it was so FREAKIN good and fun and cool and ioverockclimbingnow! (i just met a guy while country dancing at rudyards last night who is randomly into rock climbing and biking and nashville too – so nice to meet you guy – and mucho bueno dance moves. read my blog + ask me to go out again in real life. i think we might have all the things in common)