A little over a week ago, I headed towards Ojai with my pal, Tiffany.  I already mentioned our entertaining road trip.  We were heading to the Creative Alliance event. After packing up our stuff, we headed towards our destination, Calliote Canyon.

After reading the first few sentences, you are probably thinking, “Oh great, Julie is going to another blogging event, whoppee.”  After reading some comments on Heather’s blog, I actually hesitated on posting my experience in Ojai, so I took some time to reflect.

As a working mom, it is somewhat hard to find some “me time” to hang out with girlfriends.  Yes, I have people at work that I talk too, etc., but it is not the same.  I’m having a hard time, finding the time to get some face-to-face time with my friends. Many of us have kid(s), husbands, and very busy schedules.  We live in different cities; we work; we have children’s activities; etc.  Yes, I have met friends for lunch while the kiddos played, but really, most of the time is spent chasing down the kids, in between idle chit chat.  I have great phone conversations, but it is really not the same as talking to someone in person and having adult conversations. There are always things going on in the background, like conversations that have to do with small children going potty, or having a time out.  With all that rambling, what I really meant was that I seriously crave adult time with like-minded people, without husbands, co-workers, kids, etc.  So, yes…I admit I may have gone to a few blogging events this year, but they were all paid for either overtime from work, or other forms of petty cash that I have put aside.  I even used mileage from my mom’s American Express Rewards account to fly to New York City in August.

I feel like I had to write that above paragraph as a disclaimer.  So after driving around a curvy road, we arrived at this:

I think that these photographs show how beautiful the location was.  I haven’t been in such a quiet place in a long time.  Upon arriving there, I lost my security blanket.  Well, my electronic security blanket that is.  I often use my iPhone for distraction/fidgeting.  I focus on my phone because I get shy/nervous/insecure and it helps me focus.  It is a really bad habit, but I could have worse habits besides my iPhone and Dr. Pepper addictions, right?  We did have Wifi, but it was a bit sporatic.

When we arrived, everyone was eating breakfast and barely waking up.  I was able to chit chat with some of the women while everyone was getting settled.  I think took a little walk to explore the location and to take some pictures, obviously.  Most of the pictures in the collage above were taken on my nature walk.  I also took some other random photographs of the people I walked with Tiffany, Jessica, and Cynthia.

Don’t they all look so inspired by nature? I think so.  It is a good thing that this women are my friends, because I’ve been having way too much fun with using thought bubbles on these pictures lately.

While waiting for our event to start, which had a perfect start time, at mid-afternoon, I introduced myself to some people.  I knew many of the women attending this event, but there were some people that I’ve never made a connection with.  I know, shocking, right.

After having a delightful lunch, well not-so-much for me, Lee stood up and spoke. I have food issues, stomach issues, bread issues…just plain issues, so I had some fruit for lunch.  Lee talked about how the idea of this event came together, and her thoughts and feelings about all of this awesome.  Lee is very laid back, and calm.  I’m not so calm or laid back, but I appreciate other people who are.

We then split up into smaller intimate groups and had some topic-driven discussions.  Seriously, everyone was so interesting, I can’t really remember what the topic was, or what I was talking about.  I had already had a long week and I was overly tired.

We then headed towards the yurt to hear Tiffany speak.  She was speaking on the topic of, “Making Things Happen”.  You are probably wondering what a yurt is?  Well, this was my first time hanging out in a yurt.  A yurt is a portable, felt-covered, wood latice-framed dwelling structure used by nomads used by the steppes in Central Asia.

Tiffany started a great conversation.  After Tiffany’s introduction, we went around the room, or the yurt and introduced ourselves.  We talked about our blogs and sites, but we also talked about our dreams and aspirations, or the next step in our lives.  For some, like me, it was scary to tell my story and what I want to do in the future.  I never get to tell my story, or share what I am about in the blog world. When I spoke at Bloggy Boot Camp in San Francisco, it was my first time to really share more of myself with the blogging world.  I was actually the last person to introduce myself, and I felt a little cleansed after sharing.

Kim Prince took this photograph of me.

After feeling the love in the “Yurt”, we headed outdoors again for some snacks and a presentation in the area of the fire ring, which was similar to an outdoor theater type space.  We were introduced to one of the event sponsors, Paper Culture. which has awesome cards which are printed on 100% recycled cardstock and they give back to other charities, along with planting a tree for every order.  I will be doing another post at a later date, just about Paper Culture.

It was beautiful sitting out there in the stadium seating near the fire ring.  You could actually “hear” nature with the birds chirping and the trees whistling in the wind. We also may have seen a few creatures (of the smaller variety) scamper around.

A beautiful catered dinner was served after this along with dessert.  In the midst of the darkness a fire was being started in the fire ring. Before Tiffany and I left, we spent some time chatting with the other women.  I may have caught Kim pouring wine from a box.  She was pretty proud of her box o’ wine.

After saying our goodbyes, Tiffany and I headed down that dark road towards home.  We were both exhausted and tired but happy.  You are probably thinking, why did they not stay the entire weekend? Well Tiffany had a conference that she was hosting the very next weekend, and she tries to spend only one weekend a month away from her family.  I desired to spend a Saturday off with my family, plus motel rooms for the entire weekend was an expense that I could not afford.

It was great to finally spend some time with people without running around like a crazy person.  I would like to thank the sponsors Moji and Paper Culture for participating in and believing in an event like this.  I would also like to thank everyone involved in planning it.

P.S.  Big smootches to everyone who listened to my anger and frustration in the “yurt”.  I rarely tell my stories, and there are so many that I can’t EVER even blog about, but I appreciate you listening to me.