special event ahead


when last we left our hero, I was working hard in connecticut.

since then, I've had quite a time:
from connecticut, I flew to seattle.
in seattle, I rented a car and drove to vancouver
in vancouver, I picked up nick and we took a ferry to saltspring island. ry would say that trains are cooler. but planes, boats and automobiles suited me fine.
I spent three glorious decompressing, poi spinning, blackberry picking, smoothie making days on saltspring before ferrying back to vancouver, driving back to seattle, and flying home.
I spent two mad dashing, insane working, sweaty toothed preparing days at home so I could go home.
13 days, 130 pounds of playa dust, 1300 pictures hence, I got back to LA.

since I've been back in LA...
I've visited san francisco for decompression
I checked out mount st helens while she was a gurglin'
my grandmother broke her hip, had surgery, and is still in the hospital - I've visited her every few days.
a bigger than bathtub sized chunk of ceiling fell into my bathtub, making a mockery of my sense of security. totally dubya's fault.
and I'm going to vancouver this weekend.

pssst - he found the girl.

I came home from burning man with a new brand spanking girlfriend (brand is her middle name). the first note-passing-before-study-hall-"official" girlfriend with whom I've gone steady in three years and three weeks. at a family gathering shortly after burning man, girlfriend seated beside me, I was asked the best thing I found at burning man. "the girlfriend" seemed like such an obvious answer that I skipped it. apparently it wasn't obvious to others as my brother nicely prompted/answered in an overtly loud whisper "he found the girl." with which I immediately concurred.

it's been a rootin tootin long time since I've had a significant someone to call by that title. we're still together and gloriously happy. you know how whenever anybody writes about their lover(s) on livejournal, they use pseudonyms? well I'm all for that tradition! I shall change names to protect the innocent (though protecting the innocent is not normally what I'm into) and henceforth refer to her as krista.

krista is lucky to have me. I'm lucky to have her. though fear not - this shall not turn into a mushy-journal with naught but extolling the depth of our love. I intend to swashbuckle as much as ever. possibly more than ever. I intend to bring you pictures and tales from the fire. I intend to never settle down. if, some day, I want to get married and/or have kids, it will be more a case of settling up.

that aside...

historically, I've lived this journal chronologically. right now, however, I have a ton of postage to post. unfortunately, I currently cannot find my connecticut / saltspring photos so we'll skip to the burning man chapter... ready, go!


I first saw my burning man ticket the day we left into the great up and out. in years past, I've received the ticket early and it's held a magic spot magnetized to my fridge. it was a bit disconcerting to be living in connecticut with no burning man ticket on my fridge. but burning man was not what I was about at that point. shortly after uniting with the vanguard of early-goers, I united with my ticket.

as with all pictures in this post, it's but a thumbnail. if you click it and get the big version, you'll see that the price of my admission was gratis. I got myself a free ticket by helping choreograph the 600+ performer fire dance which was performed just before the man burned. go me.

after celebrating the reunion with my friends (recall this is the first time I've seen them in almost 6 weeks) and the union with my ticket, we got out of dodge.

this is wednesday 8/25. burning man officially "opens" on monday 8/30.
we, the we with whom I'm driving, are the vanguard of our camp. we're to be the first to arrive and the last to leave.
we're scheduled to depart burning man monday 9/6. burning man officially "closes" sunday 9/5.
we're scheduled to be on the playa for all 12 days of the 7 day event.
we're to put in a lot of hard work setting up camp before the rest of the folk arrive. and come the end of the week, we're to be sippin' smoothies as others do the work of packing everything out.

on the drive, up, I met the biggest sandwich ever.
like super scooby doo sandwich
I mean like those scooby/shaggy joints requiring vise compression before you can fit the whole thing in your mouth. we stopped at schat's bakkery in bishop on our way to burning man. in fact, we deviated slightly from the most optimal route for the express purpose of stopping at schat's. we all got lunch, we all listened to 25 cent bucking horse playing the bonanza theme interminably, we all stretched. schat's sells sandwiches about like subway. better, but about that size. I, not being satisfied with the run-of-the-mill anything, didn't accept their pithy sandwich quo. I ordered huge slabs of focaccia and requested they put my sandwich on the monster bread. despite the seeming photographic evidence to the contrary, I managed to eat the whole thing.

I'm not sure if you're explicitly aware of the requirements required of a man living alone in the woods for any length of time. I sure was. ted kaczynski certainly knew. my office colleague knew. while I was away, he emailed me:
You know what you must do now right? No real social contact = big big beard.
Do it.
Big.
Rabbi big.

I emailed him my beard. since he's pogonophobic, he disapproved.
when we stopped at a motel on our way to burning man, I took the opportunity to scrap the big big beard project:


we also stopped at the stocking up place. we hit trader joes:
and we hit some other place up we stocked.

we drove and drove and drove.
shortly before our arrival, we found the special event ahead sign. when we got there, driving companion larry looked like the man from another place