1 day until I leave for Burning Man

Ok, I'm obsessed with this project Melia Dicker has created: Reschool Yourself! I love how so many of our conversations about what goes on in schools are SO perspective dependent... Melia is taking this to a totally different level, and it is creating (in my mind, at least) some REALLY fruitful discussion!

Facebook is bananas, and it makes me miss my former students even more than I thought possible.

I've been hanging out in Tucson with my mom and her crazy hairless dogs, getting ready to go to Burning Man.

So, yeah, I've wanted to go to Burning Man since I was 16. Every year I say: "Burning Man! Oh, or the National Poetry Slam. SIGH I'll do Burning Man next year." I thought about going this year, but then kind of shrugged it off, like: "yeah, I could join Entheon Camp or something and just go, but... school starts in August and this year I'd rather be at a free school learning about what happens there. I'll go next year. SIGH."

I walked into a hardware store in Vancouver (this is not a joke) looking for irrigation tubing to make hoops at IDEC, and I talked to this woman: Laura, a creative alchemist and Vancouver hooper. I followed some links on her website to a pre-Burning Man party in Vancouver, decided to go. The night of the party, my host and I and Isaac met up with Stacey at a restaurant with HER host (all before IDEC officially started)... I say, "Who wants to go to a pre-Burning Man party tonight?" and Stacey says "I DO! I'm going to Burning Man for the first time this year... and I have an extra ticket. Want to go to Burning Man?!?!" Well, we started with the party...







Now, my original plan for that week was to spend time with my mom... THEN I found out my mom is LEAVING for a research trip to Gainesville, and SHE SAYS: "Go to Burning Man, you've always wanted to go."

YEAH MOM!!!!!!! Holy moly! This was exactly a week ago.

I don't know the standard ritual for preparation for this event as a first-time burner, but so far I've:
• read the Survival Guide
• picked up a variety of supplies: ski goggles and face masks to bandaids and gifts!
• gotten a massage and an acupuncture treatment
• run into a friend from Ft Lauderdale in a yoga class in Tucson, AZ. (hi Sarah!)
• yearned for a bright yellow Dickies coverall:


• contacted people I think are going
• looked at a map of Black Rock City
• gotten very nervous about surviving in the desert
• made a list of food stuffs to buy in San Fran, or Reno, or wherever
• exchanged emails with folks I'm traveling with but have NOT YET MET! (whoa. very trusting of me.)

I've been thinking a lot about this grand project I'd like to create... a blend of Purple Thistle, Manchester Craftsman Guild and NorthStar... and thinking about Gainesville again... SIGH.

Whatever.
First, BURNING MAN!