And wide awake all at the same time.
There was a moment today when I just thought to myself, I am not going to make it through the day.
Not enough sleep.
Too many hours at work.
Client that needs to be seen after work.
Party for a friends studio opening.
And I was asked to come in earlier tomorrow to work.
I thought I was just going to pass out.
The little lady was close to taking a nap and I hazarded a distinct longing to put her down for a nap and cuddle with her and sneak in a nap myself.
But.
No such luck.
I also didn’t want to super caffeinate.
Although I came daringly close I did not succumb to the temptation and powered through the day.
My thoughts kept me company and I kept myself moving around the house a lot and kept telling myself that it was almost Friday.
It still was a long day.
But I made it through work and I got to my internship and I had a really good second session with a new client.
Two clients this week and I’ll be adding another client next week.
Slowly it builds.
I felt really good doing the session and decided that I could rally afterward and go sneak over to my friend’s open house studio opening.
I really wanted to have a grown up moment that was a social, even if it was just for a little snick of time.
I hadn’t any dinner so I knew that it would be short-lived and watching the fog roll in over Twin Peaks I was pretty assured that it would be a quick visit.
But it was good and I got to see an amazing work space and reconnect with Burning Man friends and talk a little about the event and when folks are going.
I haven’t found a ride yet and there was a moment when I thought, fuck it, wouldn’t it be nice to not stress and give up the ticket and spend the time here in the city with people I love and then I was like.
Um, no.
Hahahaha.
Sure, there are people who I want to see here, but the fact is if I don’t go to Burning Man I’d just be working anyhow, it’s not like vacation, although it completely is, but it’s outside of my time frame of paid vacation and I wouldn’t just take the week off without going.
Plus.
It’s the ten-year anniversary of my best friend’s death and he’s the reason why I went in the first place.
My heart, tender, feeling that loss, but not so achy as it’s been in the past, just tender, just there and I know there will be feelings that come up.
And there will be a conversation with him, somewhere in deep playa, out past the Temple where I am sure between the Temple and the mountain range my friend still resides, just a little part of him, I didn’t take all his ashes, but enough, enough to know he’s there and there are many places that I connect with the memory of him and also with the aliveness of him, the way I live my life a reflection of the gusto he went after life with.
I am sure he would be proud of me.
OH.
Hello.
There are the tears.
I knew you were around.
I watched the fog roll in over the top of Twin Peaks from the deck of my friends studio in the Mission and it was the same height and approximate distance from the hospital ICU, General, where my friend spent a week in a coma before the family pulled the plug and harvested his organs for donation.
There is always one strong memory for me, pressing my face against that window, my fevered brow, the hotness of my heart, the tears always on and off, more so off when I was at the hospital–it was only in the privacy of my own room in the dark as I prayed to God on my knees to get me through the experience that I would allow myself to cry–the coolness of the window and the dark, heaviness of the fog rolling in over Twin Peaks.
A blanket of sorrow and felted love thrown over the entirety of the city as though we all grieved the loss of my friend.
So.
Yeah.
I might be a little tired, but I’m not bailing on Burning Man.
Nope.
Sure.
I haven’t gotten a ride together yet, but that will happen and hopefully it won’t be as crazy as the ride up was last time.
I have gotten a couple of nibbles from my post on the ride share board, but nothing solid, it always comes together, I’m not too worried.
It’s more a matter, at this point, of getting a playa bike and finding time in between the comings and goings of my life to do some preparation.
I have people I am responsible to, my own recovery to attend to, and God damn it would be nice to get in a yoga class this weekend, but yeah, a new playa bike and some sourcing of other items that are always nice to have and I’ll make some time, find some time, create some time, and do a little shopping when I can.
Side bar.
The mom just sent me a message about my work performance and told me that I really was “Mary Poppins sister!”
I’ll take it.
Anyway, this Mary Fucking Poppins, will be riding again under her parasol out on playa again this year and enjoying the hell out of not being a therapist in training, a student, or a nanny.
Just a girl.
Out on her bike.
Riding towards the painted calico mountains with secrets and love to share with an old friend.
“I finally was the ball, Shadrach, you’d be so fucking proud of me.”
Auntiebubba 