What a wonderful weekend!!! Full Moon is the perfect place for Jonifests - friendly and flexible staff, excellent food, beautiful surroundings, VERY CLEAN rooms!!!
I drove up to Full Moon on Friday from CT and arrived about noon. I had spent Thursday in CT doing some family history research - found my ggggrandparents from Scotland in a little Scottish cemetery near where the other ancestors used to live. This was very exciting because I didn't know for sure if these ggggrandparents had made the trip with everyone else. Now I know what happened to them! My suitcase (with my Roland memory card, guitar strings, capo, and photocopies of all the things for my workshop, not to mention my clothes for the whole weekend) got lost in Paris and still hadn't arrived at the hotel by Friday morning, but when I got to Full Moon, Roger, one of the owners, told me the airline had called and my bag would be there soon. To make a long story short, it still had not arrived by Sunday morning! I had already spent about an hour on hold listening to muzak with a French twist that just made me want to scream and was still getting the run around. I was so frustrated that I was in tears. I'm still thanking God for Mona Fitzgerald who just took over the whole problem and really read those airline people the riot act until my bag finally arrived on Sunday afternoon. Without her intervention, I wouldn't have gotten my luggage until after I returned to Austria. By taking over this big problem, Mona, I was able to stop crying, relax, and enjoy bein! g at the fest. It was such a big weight off my shoulders. Thank you so much, Mona!!! I'm bringing you a bottle of really good champagne someday! Thanks also to Pearl and Kate who let me borrow some things to wear for my performance on Saturday night. It felt so good to put on some clean clothes! Thanks also to Roger's wife who washed the two outfits I brought with me. Everyone was so nice!!! I felt like I had come home to my true family and on top of that there was so much REALLY AMAZING music!!!!! I have to go now, but I will write more later. Just wanted to let y'all know I'm back in Austria, WITH my luggage, and I'm missing everybody and wishing it just could have gone on and on and on. I feel happy - feel connected to all that good energy of the weekend. More later. Love, Marian
