Thread: What I learned at quilt retreat

I have been to many retreats and everyone has their "thing" and we all put up with them. It's being together that counts. So what if someone complains a little or talks on the phone once in a while? We have a group that likes to drink wine in the evening and laugh really loud and the rest of us just laugh along with them. There are 25 of us. We are all doing something all the time and having lots of fun. We aren't there to judge or turn our noses up at each other. I go outside every couple of hours and have a cigarette and come in and wash up real well. I know I smell like smoke, but no one complains. Thank God! Some women eat at their work station. So what? Some women gab a lot. So what? We are at a retreat having fun. We are away from home. Having a good time. Celebrating. We are there as a group to enjoy each other and have fun. We OVERLOOK each other's differences. Do you want total silence? No talking? No friendship? So, offer the woman a sweater. The gal will get off her phone in a minute. Sounds like you are a complainer to me. You should be enjoying yourself. Instead, maybe you should have stayed home and sewed by yourself.

Originally Posted by jcrow

I have been to many retreats and everyone has their "thing" and we all put up with them. It's being together that counts. So what if someone complains a little or talks on the phone once in a while? We have a group that likes to drink wine in the evening and laugh really loud and the rest of us just laugh along with them. There are 25 of us. We are all doing something all the time and having lots of fun. We aren't there to judge or turn our noses up at each other. I go outside every couple of hours and have a cigarette and come in and wash up real well. I know I smell like smoke, but no one complains. Thank God! Some women eat at their work station. So what? Some women gab a lot. So what? We are at a retreat having fun. We are away from home. Having a good time. Celebrating. We are there as a group to enjoy each other and have fun. We OVERLOOK each other's differences. Do you want total silence? No talking? No friendship? So, offer the woman a sweater. The gal will get off her phone in a minute. Sounds like you are a complainer to me. You should be enjoying yourself. Instead, maybe you should have stayed home and sewed by yourself.

I have never been to a quilting retreat but I will take your advise and stay home as I don't talk much when I'm involved in any project because I have to concentrate 100% aiming for perfection, which I will never achieve, but that's my goal.
And I would feel like I was bothering others if I talked and talked while taking a break from what I was doing. It probably comes from upbringing when I was told children should be seen and not heard...not that anyone else is doing wrong. :-)

Originally Posted by jcrow

I have been to many retreats and everyone has their "thing" and we all put up with them. It's being together that counts. So what if someone complains a little or talks on the phone once in a while? We have a group that likes to drink wine in the evening and laugh really loud and the rest of us just laugh along with them. There are 25 of us. We are all doing something all the time and having lots of fun. We aren't there to judge or turn our noses up at each other. I go outside every couple of hours and have a cigarette and come in and wash up real well. I know I smell like smoke, but no one complains. Thank God! Some women eat at their work station. So what? Some women gab a lot. So what? We are at a retreat having fun. We are away from home. Having a good time. Celebrating. We are there as a group to enjoy each other and have fun. We OVERLOOK each other's differences. Do you want total silence? No talking? No friendship? So, offer the woman a sweater. The gal will get off her phone in a minute. Sounds like you are a complainer to me. You should be enjoying yourself. Instead, maybe you should have stayed home and sewed by yourself.

Where's the like button???

This is really the best kind of attitude to take with you to a retreat!

These stories remind me why I'm happiest at home, sewing alone with my thoughts... I definitely couldn't handle someone SINGING while they sewed!

Just to kind of lighten this up a bit here's a crazy thing that happened at a retreat.

We were seated four to a table and I was at a table with someone I knew and we had two other ladies join us. One of them turned out to be a lot of fun and a really nice lady. The other one we didn't get to know since she pretty much brought her machine in and set it up and left. That was on Friday afternoon. She shows back up on late Saturday afternoon and claimed she spent the night with her husband on the lake in a bass boat in the rain. I think she actually slept at the retreat Saturday night. The group was an online email group and about a week later she started ranting and raving about how *we* had told her husband that she wasn't at the retreat. Uhhh, if you were with him at the lake wouldn't he already know you weren't at the retreat????

I had to laugh at this. It reminds me of a time a friend and I went to lunch and they sat us in the no smoking area but the only thing seperating us from the smokers was a half wall. We moved to the other side of the resturant. What is it that people to understand when you say I need non smoking because smoke sets off my asthma?

LOVED IT!!! I could see the people you were mentioning, they are at all retreats, I normally try to find the table out of the mainstream, and have been pretty lucky, only once caught 'stuck' at a table with a lady who brought none of the items she was supposed to bring and wanted to borrow things from me.... which I did at first but told her there is a vendor booth downstairs and maybe she should go and buy her supplies. I know I was a jerk, but didn't like having to wait to use my own supplies!