Back to Seattle....
So I return to the city of emeralds and jets. Vacation was awesome and amazing and I loved just about all of it. I wish I was still there at least for one more night getting beer and Zacharie's(sp?) Pizza. (I didn't get in enough drinking. I also queried after Zacherie's Pizza in Oakland but the people I asked claimed ignorance and gave me weird looks when I told them it was suppose to be the best pizza ever.)
Seriously though, the reaction of my cats was really about the only thing to come back to. I've said it before, and I'll say it again... My pets keep me grounded. Without them I could easily just run off and not come back. I'd rather be out on the road, surfing couches, exploring cities...
But alas. Someday. Maybe? I hope...
Burning Man was great, overall awesome in fact. I joined the mile high club. I made titty art. I volunteered. I randomly walked into camps and drank with people. I tried shrooms, and smoked pot for the first time in like 3 to 4 years. I think the highest compliment was Adroit telling me I did it right this year; and that most of my major contributions turned out to be winners -even ones that had been doubted. The pedicab was great, though not for my original intended purpose. The cordials were a huge success. People even liked the really young ones that honestly weren't that good yet. When I took a head count at the end I couldn't account for all the missing bottles. People walking off with them is annoying, but rather a good compliment at the same time! The beanbag chairs were also a major hit.
I think next year will rock, we're finally getting into stride here. First: kick out the campers who don't contribute to the camp, and recruit replacements who will take an active role. (I'm gonna do my damnedest to make sure that happens too. Probably mostly just 'cause I got really pissed off by the non-contributors sitting around watching their last few hours on playa, and not helping me break camp on the last day. They didn't even have the decency to be honest about it. I repeatedly asked them to help and they'd say "Oh yah, we'll help." And then instead proceed to smoke pot or chat or cuddle. At least be honest and just say "no." Really. What kind of an idiot do you think I am? We'll say we'll help, but then we won't! Since we said we would I'm sure she won't notice...)
That was really the one part that fed me up about Burning Man this year. I did -in my opinion at least- a disproportionate amount of camp work.
*I helped with set up.
*I grudgingly hung out at the bar a couple nights because everybody else ran off to party and do their thing (-and we were suppose to be an all week mead bar! It seemed wrong for no one to be there actually ready to hand out mead. Besides, if we want good placement and shit next year we need to follow through on our already not fully-completed claims! I also kept showing up and hanging out at times when the boat was gonna get worked on, which seemed to fall through more often than not. Eventually I gave up on that, and then the boat actually got sorta finished. I decided I'd been jinxing it by trying to be there and helpful; and as such actually sat back and contributed very little at this end point.)
*I bailed gallons upon gallons of disgusting gray water out of our borrowed bar. All by hand. (Chris walked up at one point and commented that that looked like hard work. I snapped back about how getting the bar back to it's owners and breaking down the camp needed to get done and so far I seemed to be the only one working on these things. His response was to wander back into the shade structure to resume his seat on a bean bag chair.)
*And, finally, pretty much the entire camp was broken down by Adroit and myself.
Maybe I whine unnecessarily, but it seemed -to me at least- a lot of work falling on me. Character building I suppose, true Burner spirit maybe...
There are big plans for next year, that I think may actually come to pass. I really want to work on the bar. And I definitely need to get some new cordials going. As soon as my bucket and carboys are back I'll start in on a couple batches of mead too. I'll go with the mead snobs being not entirely accurate when it comes to how long mead 'needs' to be aged... But I think aged stuff is still better. Besides, it saves one less thing to be doing in the final pre-burn panic days.
Man, I was gonna talk about post-Burn trip to the Bay Area here too... But I just realized how late it's getting. Another time, another time...
In closing:
"Looking at you, talking to you, I think you'll keep coming back. You're a real Burner, and something about you makes me think that you'll be here next year, and every year after." -Willing
Seriously though, the reaction of my cats was really about the only thing to come back to. I've said it before, and I'll say it again... My pets keep me grounded. Without them I could easily just run off and not come back. I'd rather be out on the road, surfing couches, exploring cities...
But alas. Someday. Maybe? I hope...
Burning Man was great, overall awesome in fact. I joined the mile high club. I made titty art. I volunteered. I randomly walked into camps and drank with people. I tried shrooms, and smoked pot for the first time in like 3 to 4 years. I think the highest compliment was Adroit telling me I did it right this year; and that most of my major contributions turned out to be winners -even ones that had been doubted. The pedicab was great, though not for my original intended purpose. The cordials were a huge success. People even liked the really young ones that honestly weren't that good yet. When I took a head count at the end I couldn't account for all the missing bottles. People walking off with them is annoying, but rather a good compliment at the same time! The beanbag chairs were also a major hit.
I think next year will rock, we're finally getting into stride here. First: kick out the campers who don't contribute to the camp, and recruit replacements who will take an active role. (I'm gonna do my damnedest to make sure that happens too. Probably mostly just 'cause I got really pissed off by the non-contributors sitting around watching their last few hours on playa, and not helping me break camp on the last day. They didn't even have the decency to be honest about it. I repeatedly asked them to help and they'd say "Oh yah, we'll help." And then instead proceed to smoke pot or chat or cuddle. At least be honest and just say "no." Really. What kind of an idiot do you think I am? We'll say we'll help, but then we won't! Since we said we would I'm sure she won't notice...)
That was really the one part that fed me up about Burning Man this year. I did -in my opinion at least- a disproportionate amount of camp work.
*I helped with set up.
*I grudgingly hung out at the bar a couple nights because everybody else ran off to party and do their thing (-and we were suppose to be an all week mead bar! It seemed wrong for no one to be there actually ready to hand out mead. Besides, if we want good placement and shit next year we need to follow through on our already not fully-completed claims! I also kept showing up and hanging out at times when the boat was gonna get worked on, which seemed to fall through more often than not. Eventually I gave up on that, and then the boat actually got sorta finished. I decided I'd been jinxing it by trying to be there and helpful; and as such actually sat back and contributed very little at this end point.)
*I bailed gallons upon gallons of disgusting gray water out of our borrowed bar. All by hand. (Chris walked up at one point and commented that that looked like hard work. I snapped back about how getting the bar back to it's owners and breaking down the camp needed to get done and so far I seemed to be the only one working on these things. His response was to wander back into the shade structure to resume his seat on a bean bag chair.)
*And, finally, pretty much the entire camp was broken down by Adroit and myself.
Maybe I whine unnecessarily, but it seemed -to me at least- a lot of work falling on me. Character building I suppose, true Burner spirit maybe...
There are big plans for next year, that I think may actually come to pass. I really want to work on the bar. And I definitely need to get some new cordials going. As soon as my bucket and carboys are back I'll start in on a couple batches of mead too. I'll go with the mead snobs being not entirely accurate when it comes to how long mead 'needs' to be aged... But I think aged stuff is still better. Besides, it saves one less thing to be doing in the final pre-burn panic days.
Man, I was gonna talk about post-Burn trip to the Bay Area here too... But I just realized how late it's getting. Another time, another time...
In closing:
"Looking at you, talking to you, I think you'll keep coming back. You're a real Burner, and something about you makes me think that you'll be here next year, and every year after." -Willing