Fact: My "shake your booty to any sound with a bumping beat reflex" often gets in the way of my ability to take care of myself.
Point in case: Burning Man decompression party last night.
Being a bit sick and weezy never stopped this little girl--oh no. I have no patience for being under the weather. I just surge ahead and tell my illness to get the hell out. I am stronger than you!!! I can and will continue to rage it even if I'm hacking up a lung on the side.
However, my propensity to party on doesn't extend to things like blogging. What a lazy ass blogger I have been the past three weeks! Alas! No more! I will post! I will share photos! I will tell crazy stories of being trapped in an art car (only to later wake up at my bedroom window trying to punch the screen out and realizing that was all a dream and that I'd been sleep walking).
Let's get started!
Seeing as Burning Man is not JUST a week long chance for adults to play (I mean, that's what it is, but at the same time it's more) and that there ARE life lessons to learn if you so choose to engage yourself, I thought I'd share a few morsels of knowledge I picked up out on the playa.
Burning Man lesson No.1: Awesomeness is achieved by taking it one step further than the last guy or gal. The crazier the better. The nakeder the better. As the Nike Commercial says: My better is better than your better!!! JUST DO IT!!!
Burning Man lesson No.2: Cleanliness is a luxury not reserved for time in Black Rock City. Showers are pointless. You will be playafied within 10 minutes of stepping out of one (playa being the alkaline dust deserts that make up the landscape at Burning Man). It will take several weeks for your hair and skin to recover once home.
Burning Man lesson No.3: You won't give a damn (that you aren't clean, that is). Everybody else is in the same boat. The environment is part of the challenge!
Burning Man lesson No.4: Magical things go down in BRC. It's a vortex of positive, collected energy, engineered and manifested to create experiences that you won't ever forget. e.g. I was getting a bloody mary one morning and noticed this man's pendant. It was a beautiful enameled circle with a colorful burning man in the middle. I was struck! I thought, "I MUST have one!!!" So, I politely asked what camp he had visited to pick that baby up. Turns out it was from last year and he didn't think the same group was in BRC in 08'. Bummer dude. We got our cocktails and headed back to camp. On the way, I noticed a camp with a lounge that had a state of Oregon flag, prompting me to shout out, "HELL YEAH OREGON!!!" My enthusiasm got us an invitation for snow cones, which we gladly accepted. I started chatting with a woman from Coos Bay and really connected with her. Before I left she told me to sit tight, because she had something for me. To my complete surprise and amazement she came back with the 2008' version of the pendant I had so lovingly admired. This was not 10 minutes after being told I was pretty much out of luck. You can't tell me that's a coincidence. I would call you an fool to ignore the beauty in this simple example of the enormous positive power the universe holds. It wasn't earth shattering or mind blowing. Just a quiet, gentle voice reminding me that I have a guide and to trust my instincts, manifest wherever and whenever I can, and to always always always hold on to hope.
Burning Man lesson No.5: Random solitary mashing can be way more fun than staying with your group. I kind of tend to get lost. I mean, I know where I am, but I usually lose track of where everybody else is. Which doesn't tend to be a problem. I always meet the most awesome people this way. The boys at Moonshine Tavern and the Absinthe gurus at the Golden Calf, the Carl Cox look-a-like who played men's volleyball at Brown, Potty Mouth (who graduated from my cross town rival high school), the Ella Fitzgerald sound-a-like out of the audience at the Jazz Club, the list goes on and on. So down with random solitary mashing. Best part being it never stays solitary for long!
Burning Man lesson No. 6: Dancing is good for the soul AND the bootie! Let me tell you! I danced my ass off last week and it felt gooooooodddddddd. I am such a happier person when I get a good dance session in daily. I think I need to date a DJ. Yeah that'd be good. But in all seriousness, dancing is such a freeing experience and a connecting one at the same time. I can't think of many other times when I've felt better than when in the middle of an intensely ridiculous session. Talk about being in the now with your entire mind, body and soul. Damn. Getting inspired here. Think I'm gonna go put on some jams now.
Well actually, I'm gonna go crash, since my new job has be in to work around 5:00 a.m. Gotta get those Benjamins baby. Saving up for Burning Man NEXT year. Holllllaaaaaaaaa!
Burning Man lesson No.1: Awesomeness is achieved by taking it one step further than the last guy or gal. The crazier the better. The nakeder the better. As the Nike Commercial says: My better is better than your better!!! JUST DO IT!!!
Burning Man lesson No.2: Cleanliness is a luxury not reserved for time in Black Rock City. Showers are pointless. You will be playafied within 10 minutes of stepping out of one (playa being the alkaline dust deserts that make up the landscape at Burning Man). It will take several weeks for your hair and skin to recover once home.
Burning Man lesson No.3: You won't give a damn (that you aren't clean, that is). Everybody else is in the same boat. The environment is part of the challenge!
Burning Man lesson No.4: Magical things go down in BRC. It's a vortex of positive, collected energy, engineered and manifested to create experiences that you won't ever forget. e.g. I was getting a bloody mary one morning and noticed this man's pendant. It was a beautiful enameled circle with a colorful burning man in the middle. I was struck! I thought, "I MUST have one!!!" So, I politely asked what camp he had visited to pick that baby up. Turns out it was from last year and he didn't think the same group was in BRC in 08'. Bummer dude. We got our cocktails and headed back to camp. On the way, I noticed a camp with a lounge that had a state of Oregon flag, prompting me to shout out, "HELL YEAH OREGON!!!" My enthusiasm got us an invitation for snow cones, which we gladly accepted. I started chatting with a woman from Coos Bay and really connected with her. Before I left she told me to sit tight, because she had something for me. To my complete surprise and amazement she came back with the 2008' version of the pendant I had so lovingly admired. This was not 10 minutes after being told I was pretty much out of luck. You can't tell me that's a coincidence. I would call you an fool to ignore the beauty in this simple example of the enormous positive power the universe holds. It wasn't earth shattering or mind blowing. Just a quiet, gentle voice reminding me that I have a guide and to trust my instincts, manifest wherever and whenever I can, and to always always always hold on to hope.
Burning Man lesson No.5: Random solitary mashing can be way more fun than staying with your group. I kind of tend to get lost. I mean, I know where I am, but I usually lose track of where everybody else is. Which doesn't tend to be a problem. I always meet the most awesome people this way. The boys at Moonshine Tavern and the Absinthe gurus at the Golden Calf, the Carl Cox look-a-like who played men's volleyball at Brown, Potty Mouth (who graduated from my cross town rival high school), the Ella Fitzgerald sound-a-like out of the audience at the Jazz Club, the list goes on and on. So down with random solitary mashing. Best part being it never stays solitary for long!
Burning Man lesson No. 6: Dancing is good for the soul AND the bootie! Let me tell you! I danced my ass off last week and it felt gooooooodddddddd. I am such a happier person when I get a good dance session in daily. I think I need to date a DJ. Yeah that'd be good. But in all seriousness, dancing is such a freeing experience and a connecting one at the same time. I can't think of many other times when I've felt better than when in the middle of an intensely ridiculous session. Talk about being in the now with your entire mind, body and soul. Damn. Getting inspired here. Think I'm gonna go put on some jams now.
Well actually, I'm gonna go crash, since my new job has be in to work around 5:00 a.m. Gotta get those Benjamins baby. Saving up for Burning Man NEXT year. Holllllaaaaaaaaa!
