Day 0

Greetings from LIFE is Good in Vancouver, WA. I am tucked up in our hotel room, savoring a few moments of quiet alone time. Frank is taking several people over to the Fred Meyer store for supplies, and MJ and Chloe are off with friends. (Last I saw Chloe, she and Qacei were perched on Matteo's knees in a big chair in the lobby, talking talking talking. I think MJ is off with the older teens. I'll probably see her tomorrow. Probably.)

We have already crammed so much fun into this day. We started off with a final at-home band practice, then broke everything down to fit it into the van. With some concentrated group effort, we were ready to start painting the van windows just about the time it stopped raining at about 11 a.m. Perfect! The rear window says "LIFE is Good" with lots of pretty flowers. The passenger side says, "Live Laugh Love Learn" and "Unschoolers Rock Socks Off." And the driver's side says, "Keep Right Except to Pass." (It's Frank's favorite thing to paint when we paint. The left lane hogs see it as we cruise past them in the center or right lane.)

Upon arrival at the hotel, we started bumping into Cerullos and Mayers and Anguishes almost immediately. We had lots of roadies to help us unload all the amps and guitars and such. Then Fergus showed me where his room is (taking me on a fast-paced tour of practically the whole hotel). Then we went in the nice and warm pool and watched lots and lots of cool people arrive. Then Frank and I went in search of dinner and our own supplies from Fred Meyer (where we had a mini-conference with about six other unschoolers). Then we hung out in the lobby, had an impromptu door sign-making funshop, and talked and talked and talked with old friends and new.

And now I'm totally pooped and making an early night of it so I will have loads of energy for the first official day of the conference tomorrow. Good night!