It was better than that.

There is nothing I could say that couldn't be followed by those words. I felt the warmth and openness of the people there in the first five minutes after I arrived - and I was among the first ten or fifteen there at that point!

Yes, it was terrible being torn with choices of attending either one workshop or another or just jamming with a few folks or simply hanging out and talking. Almost any way you chose was at the sacrifice of something else which had the potential of being yet another wonderful experience.

I never once felt like any choice I made was a wrong one. All - every single one of the workshops that I attended - were excellent. Many were surprising in the intensity of their content and the scope they covered. Some were simply great fun!

Sure, the facilities were not the best in many ways but I think that for the most part the Getaway events were so outstanding that there were not nearly enough negative experiences to outweigh the positive ones.

For me, it became overwhelming after the first full day and night. Sunday, I went to a couple of workshops, but mostly I just hung around at the dining hall, slurped coffee and chatted with people.

Most of the 'Catters were almost exactly as I pictured them. (Of course, thanks to bbc's resource page, I already had a little help.) Some were surprises. All of the surprises were very, very pleasant ones. It was wonderful to be able to make music with these people; but it was far more important for me to spend time with them and to get to know them better. I spent the weekend in search of a balance of both.

On a personal level, the Getaway was very good for me in terms of my musical ego. I had, until my arrival here at the Mudcat, allowed real life to get in the way of my musical development. I felt stagnant and rather lacking in a large number of ways which I cannot explain very well. I had fallen away from playing guitar and singing to a great degree - and was especially timid about being heard by anyone outside of my livingroom. It was a real leap for me when I played and sang at Annap's first gathering. Now suddenly here I was at the Getaway. Eventually, I was more or less called upon to do something musical in front of all those many people - perhaps fifty at that particular moment. I started to play and sing a song but my nervousness prevented my chord fingers from going where they should. I immediately abandoned that song for another. All went well. I managed to get through it without any major problems.

The surprise came much later when so many people went out of their way to comment upon my song. I was amazed. My musical self-esteem had been sorely in need of feeding. This was just what was called for. Then, later, I got another stroke when someone quoted Dani who had complimented as she did in her post (above). And then Moonchild capped it off by referring to me as a "fancy guitarist"!! I found it all to be quite astounding. It was not at all the way I felt inside about my abilities. It was good to get a few strokes.

I told you that to tell you this: My experience was not unique. I think there were many there who "grew" quite a bit at the Getaway. The wonderful people there were not at all shy about handing out compliments to one another. For me, it was one of the very best things to come out of the entire weekend.

Thank you to all who made the Getaway what it became. It meant much more to me than I can express here. It was better than that.

Allan C.