Burning Man 2008

WOW. I don't even know what to write. It's hard to know where to start. The experience of having been to Burning Man is hard to describe because it's so unique that there really isn't anything else to compare it to. It really is one of those things that you just have to experience yourself to really know what it's like. To go is to know.

When Pet and I finally became one with the long line to get in the gate on Monday after our cross country trip, it was hard to believe we were actually there. We had been talking about it so much for so long that I had started to lose interest. To be honest, I almost didn't even want to leave Montana to go. Of course part of that was pure and simple laziness speaking, not wanting to bother packing. But, when Pet showed up in Denver to pick me up it started to dawn on me that we were actually going. As we counted down the miles and whole states passed by the excitement started to build. The closer we got the more folks we saw on the road who were obviously heading to the same place (burners are hard to miss). We randomly started chatting with burners at rest stops and gas stations all along the interstate. By Monday morning when we drove through the tiny town of Gerlach, Nevada and saw the hordes of burners stopped for their last chance at supplies the excitement we felt was nearly tangible. We were almost there!!!

Arriving at our final destination: Pandora's Lounge and Fix-it Shoppe (our camp, and home for the week) , I felt elated, relieved, excited, anxious and ready to get out of the car! Of course we rolled in right in time for a big ass dust storm (and I started asking myself why the hell I decided to spend a week in such an inhospitable environment, ha). So instead of setting up our tents, which would have been futile in the wind, we greeted our campmates, pulled out our bikes and headed out to explore the crazy city we now call home. It was like wandering about another planet, all hot, windy and dusty as fuck running into all sorts of people looking like aliens in their goggles and masks/scarves/whathaveyou. But tons of fun! I felt in a daze the whole day, not really knowing if I was seeing things correctly, not really completely believing I was there. Even going straight to the top of the man didn't hit the nail home. I think it finally settled into my brain that I was at Burning Man sometime later that night. Actually, I think I remember the exact moment...we'd gone out into the night with a group of our campmates (all of them still mostly unknown to me at this point) to wander the city and see what we could find. We stopped at Mal-Mart to play with their toys, dance to the awesome 80's music they were spinning and climb to the top of their main structure to get a view of the young city at night. As I stood there and watched the loong line of headlights stretching from the gate to the highway, my brain said to me, "Holy shit! You're at Burning Man! And you've got all week!"

In Black Rock City, there is definitely never a lack of interesting things to see and do, at any time of day or night. All one has to do is start wandering. This was essentially my week. Mostly I spent my days wandering about with no destination in mind, stopping at random whenever something caught my interest (this happened often) and admiring the glories of 50,000 people coming together to create a temporary city based on the ten principles (all while getting a hawt tan I may add). My time spent at camp was split between getting to know my campmates, trying my hardest to nap (impossible) and people watching. Our camp was placed on a high traffic street quite close to Center Camp so we never had a lack of visitors or excitement (not to mention all the folks who stopped by our bike shop).

Most nights I would get a good start at our camp's bar (oh the Pandorans are a bad influence ;-) before heading out with other adventurous souls to see what the night had to offer. After being out in the sun all day long, going out every night was probably bad policy for me (being one to actually need sleep) but the city at night was hard to resist. I was like a moth to a flame. But who can blame me when the night has so much to offer? Heart-pounding bass to follow when wild dancing is desired, dancing til you must collapse, numorous theme camps with soft, cushy surfaces on which to collapse, toys to play with, art to admire, bars to visit, fire to watch, hoops to play with!, stars to be wowed by, the unknown possibilities awaiting you, unidentifiable big glowy things off in the distance, unidentifiable big and small glowy things everywhere, and undeniably desirable above all else: the all important, life-giving and life-sustaining blinkie lights of the open playa at night. Oh night in Black Rock City is fun indeed!! Anytime I ventured out I felt like I was being pulled in twenty different directions because I wanted to see and do all (quite impossible in a city that size ;-)

Although what I remember most fondly is hanging out with good friends old and new, wandering all about the city, being silly and having fun without a care in the world. I was nervous at first since we were camping with a group of people I didn't know very well, but it didn't take me too long to warm up. I ended up being quite happy that we camped with them. Over the week I made a lot of new friends, and at least one very good friend, and for that in itself I am exceedingly happy I went. Wonderful Faun is already near and dear to my heart, despite me having only known him a couple of months. Mayhaps that is the magic of Burning Man at work ;-)

I decided to not go into a whole lot of detail regarding exactly what I did at Burning Man, as I've already done that in my personal journal and it would feel too much like overkill to me. But overall I had an amazing time and I am so so so glad I made the choice waaay back in January to go, even though I had only the vaguest idea what I was getting into. It was immensely fun and I'm already thinking of going again next year. Sigh. I think maybe that I've become a burner ;-)

Domesticity and Fun in St. Louis

This is me being the Domestic Goddess. The tough, fiercely independent Domestic Goddess, who sometimes likes to make sugar cookies. Delightfully awesome and tasty sugar cookies.

So, as I am sure is obvious by the photograph, I had a good time in St. Louis this past week. The sugar cookie making madness was enjoyed by both Pine and I. He was not afraid to step in and get his hands covered in flour. It was quite cute. I learned that Pine likes to bake, so score yet another point for Pine and his awesome-ness (first the fire-eating, now the baking! whew). It took us at least a couple of hours since I made the whole recipe, so there will be no shortage of sugar cookies at either of our houses anytime soon (that is unless my roommate who is even more of a whore for baked goods than I am gets a hold of them). We even mixed up several colors of frosting and laboriously iced each cookie. That doesn't mean they look very good...I mean really, there is not much finesse involved in icing cookies with a butter knife. However, they are quite colorful and very tasty, and that is all that really matters. It had been a while since I was so domestic. My other domestic activities of the week included making yummy vegan enchiladas, leek soup, late-night pancakes (great munchie food btw), a couple breakfasts and cleaning Pine's kitchen. I know how bachelor men's houses tend to be, and I need a clean kitchen to work in, so, voila! Clean kitchen.

I also spent a lot of time hooping this past week. Pine and I watched a few basic hooping videos, and while Pine was out one evening I finally got the hang of the one hand beam me up, although I have only perfected one rotation at a time. It made me feel good to learn a trick so quickly. Pine was impressed I think ;-) I can definitely feel where the hoop has been rolling around my hips, I even have a bruise already. Ha.

Remember the Shoes video that everyone loved so much a year or so ago? I remembered that I was very impressed with the fire hoopers towards the end, so I looked it up and watched it again with Pine. The fire hooping is pretty hot I have to say. One day, that'll be me.

Pine and I didn't go out much, except for Friday night. We met up with our cool friend Pet, who we have both been wanting to hang out with. I'm going to go off on a tangent here and tell the story of how I met Pet....
Last May, on a lark, (which seems like eons ago now) I went to a Beltane festival at Ozark Avalon with Owl, who is already very familiar with the land and folks who spend time there, unlike me. One of the first people we ran across after we had arrived and set up camp was a tall, tan man wearing nothing but sunglasses and a lacy sarong draped around his hips with a bikini clad woman in tow. I was only slightly taken aback by such a character, as Owl had informed me I would see oddly dressed folks and strange situations at this event. So, I was introduced to Pet. To be honest with you I wasn't very interested at first. I was actually quite guarded for most of the time I was there. I didn't speak with him much at all really and didn't think about him again until a couple of months later when I got a random phone call from an unknown number. The man said he was looking for Owl (who at one point was giving out my number as a way to get a hold of him) and we got to talking. It turns out he was the scantily clad man I had met months earlier at OA. He remembered me as the pretty woman Owl had brought along. It was a nice conversation, albeit a little odd considering the circumstances. He stopped by my work one morning a few days later when he was in town and I almost didn't recognize him because he had so many clothes on! He encouraged me to call him later on since we seemed to get on so well, and I was open to making a new friend, so...we started talking and became instant friends. At one point he told me something that a friend of his had said, "good people know good people". So true. We met again at Pagan Pride Day right around the time of Mabon this September and spent some time together chatting. So, it was nice to finally get to see him again.

So, like I was saying, Pine and I met Pet at a pool hall (where we did actually play a game and have some drinks) in preparation for going to an event which Pet had suggested, Journey to Bethlehem. This is something that he apparently used to go to years ago when some of his family members attended the same church. He wanted to go experience it again with friends he knew would understand the silliness of it all (he said to us at one point during our "journey" that he could "smell the hypocrisy", hehe). Wow. It was quite an odd experience. I think now I have had enough "church" to last me for quite a while. So after "walking to Bethlehem" outside in the very cold weather and being slightly disturbed, we headed back to reality. Pet suggested hitting up the casino just for fun. I wasn't ready to go home yet, and really, what would be a better way to end such an odd Friday night? So, away we went. We didn't actually go inside the casino itself, but we wandered all about and people watched. They all looked kinda sad, or drunk, or both. It wasn't overly exciting, but as I told Pine, it was a good way to balance out the church craziness. It was just great getting to see Pet again! I'd love to spend more time with both Pet and Pine, we seem to make a great trio.

So, that was my week in St. Louis. It was great getting away from my house for a while. I was actually able to sleep rather well at Pine's house. It's so much quieter there than here, without all those crazy dogs running about. I swear this house is like a circus....