Feeling Blue

Bren just left. He's on his way to pick up Garland, his driving buddy, and then the two of them will climb into the cab of the 24' truck and begin the arduous drive to Sacramento, where they are picking up another guy and his stuff. Then, hopefully it's at least part of night's sleep, then onto Reno, then another 5 hours to Black Rock City, the temporary city erected in just a few days for the purpose of Burning Man (did you know that once established, Black Rock City is the fourth-largest city in Nevada, population wise, for that week? CRAZY).

They were both up working at 8am yesterday, and didn't go to bed until about 3am. Bren woke up this morning at about 8:30am, and I think Garland woke up even earlier.

Every year, they try to plan against driving in this fashion. Every year something backfires and I wonder why in the world they go through all this trouble. Every year they tell me that Burning Man is worth it.

This year, I get to find out for myself.

I'm over the nervousness part. The idea of really roughing it, of experiencing what Burners call "radical self-reliance" for 7 days in the stark desert was daunting enough. Then the idea that you hang out with people you have never met before, people you would likely never meet except for in this place. Then the even scarier idea that, (gasp!), you'll probably be exploring on your own for a good amount of time, which even though you're surrounded by caring people (and Burning Man's hospitable and caring atmosphere is legendary) brings up a fair bit of fear in my little yellow heart.

Now, with days-long fatigue (physical, mental, emotional) setting in, the nervousness has given way to impatience -- I just want to get there already.

I took this photo when I still had a bit of a sense of humour about the whole thing. I thought to myself, only in a Burning Man kitchen would you find old glow stick necklace thingies along with organic carrot skins in the trash. (I was cooking a soup which I froze so that the guys could defrost and eat in the desert without having to cook anything).



Sigh. Tired. Frustrated. Hopeful. Concerned for Bren's safety. Say a prayer wouldja?

-x-
aarti

p.s. holy crap I turned 30 this week! I haven't even had time to fully process that. Which is probably a blessing. Here's a photo of one of the things I did on my birthday: get a pedicure. I picked a colour I would never ever choose. I believe that my pedicurist got a little too enthusiastic with trying to figure out whether I had an ingrown toenail though... my right big toe is now kinda inflamed. Sigh.