Next Time I See You

It will be on playa.

I laughed when I realized this.

I just got off the phone with a friend who is going for her first time and is probably more ready for the event then I am.

I’m pretty ready, though.

Tomorrow begins the long haul into night.

Tonight is my last night at home until September 3rd.

That’s basically three weeks away from home.

Then I will turn around and head back out the afternoon of the 4th to see my friend in New York and spend my first weekend off playa having my first weekend in New York.

My friend sent me a text today about having made reservations at Peter Luger’s for Saturday night.

At 10:45p.m.

I can’t remember the last time I ate dinner that late at night.

It was the only reservation they had so he grabbed it.

“You’ll be full for the plane,” he texted me back.

Yes sir, I will.

“No thank you, madam flight attendant, I will pass on your peanuts, I am still full of steak.”

My employer and I joked about how we were indulging in all things fresh and green today, since fresh and green does not travel well out there in the desert.

She has made a big batch of green smoothie to have for her and the monkey and I have been eating extra nice things for me all week–my typical yummy homemade beans and rice with veggies and chicken has been upgraded with organic avocado for the last day and I have let myself have nectarines and berries that I won’t get out there.

I do have food covered and that’s a relief to not have to pack up three weeks worth of food.

Although there are a few things that I will probably still pick up at the Whole Foods in Reno–the family’s last stop before heading to the event.  Where I will also have a great big green salad with veggies too from the salad bar.

I’ll get apples and low-fat organic string cheese, tea, sparkling water, nice things to keep in my trailer for when I am not able to get to Commissary or I need a snack.  I do have a little mini fridge in my space and can keep a few things cold, not frozen, but cool enough that if I don’t open the door a lot, apples will keep for the duration of the event.

I will also pick up a couple of containers of unsweetened vanilla almond milk to have with my coffee and tea–my beverages happen to be my splurge items for out there.

There’s nothing like some cold bubbly water out there.

Perrier Pink Grapefruit.

Whole Foods Brand Italian with Mint.

Grolsteiner Sparkling Mineral Water.

And of course nice coffee and tea.

I will pick up a package of Stumptown Holler Mountain at BiRite tomorrow when I am nannying in the NOPA.  I like good coffee and see no point in depriving myself of it on playa.

The mornings can be cool to cold before the sun gets up in the sky and heats up the playa, a good hot cup of pour over Holler Mountain while the sun comes up over the desert is divine.

Not to say that I won’t drink plenty of Commissary coffee, I will, I will live on coffee out there and iced tea and of course water.

I become the beverage queen.

It’s one of my indulgences.

That and cheap sparkly makeup from the drugstore.

My makeup box is packed.

In fact, it really is all done, this blog seems to be the longest time-consuming thing on my list, a very short list, of things left to do.

Work tomorrow.

9 a.m. to 5p.m.

Small break.

Work again.

6p.m. to approximately 11p.m.

Borrow the mom’s car and head out here.

Load up my bins into the car, drop the rent check with my housemate, drive the car back to Cole Valley, unload it, have a cup of tea, my last one in San Francisco for three weeks, then sleep.

I will get up in the morning and have breakfast, do a little writing if I can sneak it in before the family is up and running, then take over the caring for of the little guy.

I discussed the plan of attack with the mom and I will wile him away to the park where I am going to encourage him to run, run, run, as fast as he can as much as he can.

We will walk to the park, and I will run his little legs out to the best of my ability, then home around 10:45 a.m.  Load up the car, tuck him into his car seat, and out the driveway to the highway with a tired toddler bound for nap time.

We should get two to three hours of solid toddler sleep.

He slept three hours today.

I am hoping for the same when we go.

Then overnight in Reno at the Grand Sierra.

And yeah.

So, the next time I see you will be on playa.

Ha.

I am just looking around my house and wondering if I have it all packed and it really does seem so.  The little that is left is the laundry I have working in the washer and my toiletries for tomorrow.

“Are you excited?”

The text from earlier this evening read.

Nope.

I am not.

I wanted to respond.

I am not excited at all.

I am tired and upset and down about the job stuff not working out how I thought it was going to, but as the day progressed and I made it through, something brightened in me and I began to get just a tiny bit excited, and then when my friend called, I realized, well, shit, I am excited.

It’s a hometown reunion and I am looking so forward to seeing friends I haven’t seen since last year.

And getting to be in the middle of one of the most creative crucibles in the world doesn’t hurt either.

I can’t wait to see the art being built up.

To seeing the sky and the mountains and the moon rise and the sunset.

T-minus one day and counting.

Not like I’ve been counting or anything.

 

Tags: Black Rock City, burning man, Burning Man 2014, Commissary, friends, Nanny, nanny adventures, nanny capers, nanny life, playa nanny, playa preparations, postaday, Reno, travel, Whole Foods, work