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Holy toledo
The best news ever.
Well, maybe not ever, but.
LOOK MA! I’M GOING TO BURNING MAN!
Woot.
Heh.
Not excited.
Not even a little bit.
Not even.
Fuck.
Who the hell am I kidding.
Over the motherfucking moon.
I’m going.
11th year in a row.
It’s a special year for me too.
It’s Shadrach’s tenth anniversary of his passing.
He’s the reason why I went to my first burn.
“You really should go to Burning Man, you are such a burner,” he told me at my first Decompression party.
He had a loft in the Dog Patch neighborhood, close to Esprit Park where the Decompression Party is held annually, the after Burning Man party, which until I went to Burning Man was super exciting until I went to Burning Man and then it’s a little anti-climatic.
One of the best San Francisco street parties.
But.
It cannot hold a candle to the actual event.
I mean.
What the hell can?
There is nothing like it on Earth and every year that I get to go I am excited and nervous and I don’t know if I’m going to e able to swing it this year and then.
Well.
Heh.
I do.
Even when I was only able to go for four days last year.
I still went.
I have been out as long as 23 days.
That’s when it starts to get weird, FYI.
My burn this year will be the standard event.
When I was there for long stints of time, 14 days, 18 days, 19 days, two years in a row of 21 days, the infamous year of 23 days that was one of the worst dust storm years ever and long, slow, painful hours stuck in a trailer, I was working.
This year.
Well.
This year, this lady is not working.
No “Working Man” for me.
I mean.
It’s always a lot of work, no matter how you slice it, I spend a lot of time getting prepared, but I won’t be tied to any job this year, I won’t be nannying, I won’t be doing a thing but enjoying the event.
I even pulled a few shifts last year, though they felt pretty negligible, I helped where I could and I’m not the person who shirks from work, I’ll help out where I can when I go this year too, but I won’t be working scheduled shifts.
I’m going to Burning Man.
Pinch me.
I need supplies!
I need a new bike.
Sigh.
Although resigned to the loss of my playa bike, I am still sad to be without her and I will be sourcing a new bicycle.
Fuck.
I will also be sourcing a ride there and back.
I do have a parking pass.
So.
That’s a nice thing, I can exchange that or give that to anyone who can give me a ride.
The ride will come together.
My gear will come together.
I really have the majority of it anyway.
I have my own tent, I have an air mattress, a cooler, clothes, boots, bandanas, hats, camp chair, flowers for my hair.
I will need to get a bicycle.
A new air pump for my air mattress.
And possibly a second cooler.
I did well with one cooler last year, but I was just up there four days, I may need a second one, nothing to be super concerned about.
The bicycle will be the first acquired thing, the rest will follow.
I already have a coffee date with a lovely Siren from Siren’s Cove, the camp that flew me home last year, that was one hell of a gift let me tell you, when I posted up on social media that I had scored a low-income ticket she immediately requested girl time coffee date at Center Camp Cafe.
I was like.
Yes.
Yes, please.
Oh my God.
This is going to be some kind of crazy new experience for me.
Not having to be tied to anything, being able to hang out, not having responsibilities, I mean, other than keeping myself alive and hydrated.
Heh.
I am going to have all the adventures.
ALL.
Of them.
Yes.
A friend of mine laughed when I posted the announcement as well, gently giving me shit about how I am always surprised that I am going.
But.
I always am!
It seems like such a big deal, how will I make it work, how will it happen when I’m in Paris, when I’m between jobs, when I don’t have money, or it’s conflicting with school.
Or.
All the crazy stuff that my brain manufactures.
And I don’t have that so much this go around, once I found out that school didn’t conflict and that I got the balls to ask off from work, well it only seemed to follow that I was going to have to go.
It would just be a matter of getting the ticket and the ride.
I always say, if you want to go, you’ll go, and once you have the ticket, it’s pretty much guaranteed.
At least for me.
And granted, like I’ve said, I’ve gone and I’ve gotten rides and tickets and I have worked my ass off out there.
Some years more so than others.
But, really, every year, even my first year, when I was “just” going to take my best friend’s ashes to the Temple, I ended up working.
That was 2007 and the Man was vandalized and burnt early and the organization rebuilt it for the burn night.
I ended up being in the cafe when a worker for the Man Crew came in and told the cafe manager I had just spoken to about signing up to volunteer and they didn’t have any shifts, I was literally walking away, and she grabbed me, “you’ve got shifts now!”
Boy did I ever.
I ended up pulling three or four ten-hour cafe shifts.
And that started something for me, being a part of, being involved, and though I am a little scared, let me be honest, to be untethered, I am also excited, I am so excited to get to go and just be a participant.
No.
I won’t roll in the fucking dust when the Greeters greet me, there’s enough dust in my bins in the garage to carry me through that experience, I will be seeing the event with a new set of eyes.
Fuck.
I need to celebrate.
I’m going to Burning Man!
Luckiest girl in the world.
Seriously.
Tags: art, awed, board, burner, burning man, Burning Man 2017, Burning Man Radical Ritual, camp, camping, Center Camp Cafe, Decompression, Decompression Party San Francisco, Dogpatch, Esprit Park, excited, family, fun, gear, Greeters, happy, home, humanity, life, love, low income ticket, luckiest girl in the world, lucky, lucky girl, over the moon, parking pass, participant, playa, playa bike, playa nanny, Radical Ritual, ride, ride share, Siren's Cove, supplies, tent, that thing in the desert, travel, ttitd, wonder
Auntiebubba 
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