For Christmas, I gave my daughter a certificate good for three days at an AirBnB as a writing retreat. She cashed in on that gift this past week. I told her she could go alone, go with her hubby, go with her dad, or go with me. She picked me to go with her, along with a place in Galveston TX she thought had a good view of the beach and ocean. I inadvertently reserved the wrong one, which had no view of the beach, but down the hall from our place on the sixth floor, had two large pools, a party-sized hot tub, and plentiful chairs to sit out and look at the ocean. I didn’t get everything wrong, but I should have ordered better weather. There was heavy fog every single day except one afternoon. When it lifted, it was like WOW! What a great view we’ve been missing!
The writing retreat was for her to work on her dissertation. She graduates from Texas A&M this year with her doctorate, but to do that she needs this paper about all the research she’s done with fitting women with proper undergarments and shooting at female dummies wearing bullet-proof vests. She’ll have to tell you about all the monitoring, slo-mo photography, and other research stuff she did. I don’t understand it.
Daughter is a planner and a great one at that. I flew into Houston which isn’t far from where she lives, and we drove to Galveston together. She packed along three computer monitors and two keyboards; three whiteboards; a printer; and countless other “study” tools of the trade. She set up a place where she could stand or sit to work and a place where I had a monitor and a keyboard to work at from a chair.
Galveston is a fun place to visit, but fun wasn’t on the agenda. Daughter worked from first thing in the morning, through the whole day, and into the night, taking time for meals and visiting for a few minutes. During supper, we’d watch an episode of Murder She Wrote, then she’d get back on her computer. Once in a while she’d study her white boards, erase something and put something else down, then go back to her computer. I mostly stayed out of her way.
Daughter felt very good about the progress she made. She finished most of the explanation part of her paper. She’ll have to add graphs with explanations and other technical stuff, but for her, getting the words down are a big chore. She had no interruptions or chores that needed done. Nothing to distract her other than me saying I’m hungry, let’s get pizza.
After spending the mornings on emails, other business chores, and thinking about what to write about, I wrote all afternoon. I finally have a handle on where this new book is going and how to get there. That’s a major breakthrough for me. I set a goal of at least 2,000 words a day, although I exceeded it most days by a few hundred and the last day by more than a thousand. The time at this retreat was well spent for me because I made a huge amount of progress, not all of it one paper but in plotting.
This retreat was a gift to her and also to me. I may have to think about what to give her next year with the same return.
Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. Proverbs 31:10-12
