My Birthday at Clarion

Ann and I spent my birthday at the Clarion Workshop in San Diego. It was the last day of the workshop and we were both exhausted and elated. The students had worked very hard and done some incredible things. And then when I got up I woke to this chalk drawing some of the students had done outside of our dorm. A really wonderful thing. Gifts of chocolate and beer were also very nice of them.After doing some final work, we got down to business: a water gun fight. A truly epic battle that I enjoyed the hell out of. I've included some pictures below. (ALL photos by Keyan Bowes, one of the students, so thanks to her for that.)Here student Andrew Emmott makes toast of my efforts to duck, roll, and come up firing by laying down a withering burst of water.And more, in the heat of the moment:Betsy Hasman kicking ass:Group shot with most of the water gun fight participants (Andrew, Shweta, January, me, Caleb, Kater, Desirina, Ramsey):I don't know why but this one reminds me of a Star Trek episode, starring Kater, Ann, and Caleb. Like they beamed down to some alien planet or something.Then we said goodbye and left for a little cottage in La Jolla. (Location secret)Before Ann surprised me with a marvelous dinner at Azul LaJolla. Great ocean view. Amazing food.A great end to a great week. I think this was probably one of the best birthdays I've ever had.Now, it's a week of R&R before back to the grind.JeffPS Watch the Amazon blog for a short entry on Clarion, sometime this week.