Really Most Sincerely

One thing I have scarcely mention is my Camp Mighty attendance next month.

I am freaking geeking out.

Earlier this week we got our small group assignments. Camp Mighty is a life-improvement retreat. Or a blogger micro-conference. Or a clean water volunteer project. Or a chance to escape the everyday and make big plans with other (mostly) women who are making big plans, too. It’s all of those things and, undoubtedly, way more.

Camp Mighty is a weekend structured around skills. The objective is to improve your life until it cannot be further improved. Before you arrive, you’ll draw up a Life List — about 100 things you’d like to do. The retreat gives you time to think about what you want, a team to help, and a pool. For floating.

That’s a description straight from the Camp Mighty website. There are guest speakers, too,  including Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess) and Ben Silbermann (co-founder of Pinterest), among several others. I’ve even been updating my own Mighty Life List, too, in preparation for camp (and just ’cause I started that list 3 years ago and haven’t finished it).

An odd discovery was made earlier this week. I thought that I had been coveting Camp Mighty for 3 or 4 or 5 years. Turns out, next month will only be the second camp. I think my memory rolled Mighty Summit in with Camp Mighty (the former is the birthplace of the latter). I’d love to be at Mighty Summit someday, too, but it’s not something to which you pay tuition. I think it’s more of a “Be awesome and the Universe will send you there.”

I can do that!

As I was saying, we got our small group assignments this week and I am in camper group 2. So far we are a group of 12 to15 women from various places. Being an Okie, I’m an island. But there are 3 or 4 from the Bay Area, a couple from NYC and then a scatter from around the US. We’ve only stuck our pinky toes in the water of getting to know each other but, so far, it’s been neat.

One of the reasons we are gathered together pre-camp is to plan some fundraising. Upon enrollment, you could pay $200 for a clean water project that Camp Mighty is funding at Charity Water. OR! OR! OR! You could opt out and find a creative way to raise the money as a team. That’s the choice I made.

So….now….my biggest dilemma. “What to do?”

My first thought is toffee. I have made toffee every December for at least the last 6 years. I know it up one side and down the other. People crave my toffee and I’ve always wanted to turn it into a fundraiser. And I have a friend who has a shop in Oklahoma City where I could sell it. And I have access to a commercial kitchen so I could make it in whatever quantity I want and have it be health-code-compliant and all that. BUT…that means lots of moving parts coming together in a short amount of time. I also prefer to make toffee when it is cold outside because it behaves better.

Another thought (borrowed from a teammate) is to throw a fundraising brunch! Open up my house to 10-20 people, make lots of muffins and mimosas and bacon and stuff and throw a brunch. Either charge a fee or request donations. That sounds FUN and is more engaging. More connections, less boiling sugar. The only drawback is that it will make for an intense weekend and my weekends are filling up quickly. (But as I type a menu is forming and it is totally kick-ass.)

But I could do both….you know. I could sell little bags of toffee at brunch. Or the toffee could be a parting gift…

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR.

I just checked my calendar and there’s a Sunday in November when my kids will be at their dad’s house AND it is before I leave for camp. November 11.

Eleven. Eleven.

It is a sign.

Thank you. Glad we had this talk. I’m off to plan a menu!