Missing the Playa
An unusually quiet afternoon here at work. No business going on, most things under control, and Great Leader is gone for the afternoon instead of running around with his hair on fire as usual. The minutes are dragging by (52 to go!) and it's grey and damp outside and I'm missing Burning Man. Just two months ago today I was out there in the big middle of it all having a blast. For the last little while I've been revisiting it through some of the 700+ photos of the 06 Burn posted at http://images.burningman.com/ thinking "I was there!" - "I remember that!" - "Was that there??" - "How did I miss that?" - "I saw them!" - "Where was I when that happened?" - and "I gotta go check that out this evening!" Yes, a part of me believes that Black Rock City is still out there on the Playa with all 38,000 residents still rockin' away and all I have to do is jump in my car, drive 7 hours, and I'll be back there again. But no, it's not out there, it's in here (points in general direction of pinel gland) and I can live it anytime I want, like right here, right now. The other day, Halloween, we all dressed up in costumes for work, and the one other Burner here & I showed up in our best Playa garb. I even accessorized with my Camel Pack, goggles and Buffy dust mask, all still coated with playa dust. That, combined with the generally surreal nature of a typical work day here plus my co-workers' costumes helped put me back in the spirit of it, sort of. Will I make it back next year? I'd like to, but L wants us to go to NFNC Summer Camp in Oregon for the first time and I'm interested in that also. But it's just before Burning Man and I don't know about getting it together to do both. I've got some time to decide, so we'll see...