Yo! Happy September. I am writing this on a Wizz Air flight from Larnaca to Thessaloniki. This has been a huge month for me so far, and yesterday, in a party town called Ayi Napa, on the island of Cyprus, I celebrated my 41st birthday.
I want to tell you what I’ve been doing since I departed New York on August 30th, which actually seems like eons ago.
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The big thing this month has been my first-ever RETREAT. Yes, you recall that my longtime friend Beth Cooke—yoga instructor, dancer and more—and Billions actress Zina Wilde invited me to collaborate with her on a retreat with them.
Like many top-tier yoga instructors, Beth has been doing dope retreats for a long time. It’s a way to get away as a group with everything taken care of.
Usually, Beth’s clients are yoga people. This time, we opened it up to my people—which meant of the 21 people in the first session, 20 were Cat Marnell readers. (One person, Beth’s repeat retreat client, had never heard of me. Respect!)
Zina, who also has a retreat business, was the third party in our leadership group: she was the Greek local on the ground, and her family members were even our drivers. We promised beaches, yoga, writing workshops, and plenty of food and fun.
This is gonna be worse than Fyre Fest, Reddit snarked.
Right, right; because I’m so money-hungry; I’m such a greedy scammer.
Here’s what actually happened.