As readers of "
My Experience at Celebrate Your Life 2008" know, I am a huge fan of Neale Donald Walsch. He is my favorite author on this earth, a man whose words changed my life many moons ago. This past week, I went to Ashland, Oregon for his
Annual Holiday Retreat. I'd never been to the Pacific Northwest and was actually hoping to spot a Bigfoot while there. The temperature in Oregon was 10-15 degrees warmer that what it was in Minnesota, so instead of wearing a winter jacket, I wore, well, I still wore my winter jacket, but sometimes in the middle of the day, I was able to unzip it a tad.
But let's start from the beginning: My beloved wife and I were driven from Rochester, MN to the Minneapolis airport in the early afternoon on Saturday, December 27th of 2008. I was a bit concerned about leaving the dog and cat behind, a bit afraid that the cat might sneak out when the sitter wasn't looking or that our Pomeranian, Zoe, would run out the front door and take off.

Unfortunately, she's not afraid of cars, so a careful eye must be paid. Not only was I a bit anxious about the pet situation, but just after I got out of the shower that morning, I felt a bad pain in my neck. This had happened to me a couple months ago and lasted off and on for about three weeks. Christ, what a day to get it again. In addition, my wife had come down with a cold a couple days prior and still had it that morning.
I sat in the back seat with my ear plugs on while my wife and her friend chatted in front. Neale typically ends his books with the date he finished them followed by the words, "Ashland, Oregon". It brought me great joy to know I would visiting him in his hood, the place where he was inspired to write the first book all those years ago. Before proceeding to the airport, we stopped at IHOP, a restaurant my wife has wonderful memories of, but which has no outlet within an hour of where we live. It was going to be a long day on the road, but I was sure that, like all things, in the end, it would be worth it.
Upon our arrival at the airport, we checked our baggage and headed through security. Just after I went through the checkpoint, the TSA representative said he'd been afraid my belt was gonna set off the alarm, but it just missed doing so. My wife wasn't so lucky: she was wearing a pair of jeans that had a couple small metal rings on them. The TSA dude padded her down, but since the mechanism was still going off, he asked her if she could take the heavy sweatshirt she was wearing off. My beloved replied, "I'm not wearing anything underneath this". I was sitting down tying my shoes as I observed this and couldn't help chuckling a bit. They ended up letting her through without having to disrobe. A moment later, she cursed under her breath at the perceived offense. We'd gotten off to a rousing start.
Video of Neale speaking to give you a taste of what he's about: