sarren

OMG How much does Sufjan Stevens rock???

I stupidly did not take my camera - I had no idea what to expect, it was in the Pabst Theatre and I've been told off so often for taking photos...

Anyway, for future reference, take a camera to Sufjan Stevens concerts - they were ALL dressed as BUTTERFLIES, except Sufjan - who was a bird!

Also, now I can pronounce his name I feel a whole lot cooler. *g*


Am now off to get my hair cut and coloured, buy MAKE UP and SHOES and either a new dress or a more fancy jacket to go with my regular dress - cos Wisconsin gets COLD.

So, Tuesday morning we made the motorhome shiny, except for the footprints that weren't supposed to be on the roof, and the one towel of theirs that we used and sort of destroyed. Accidently. It's sort of black from dirt from when drK and I thought the floor of the RV wasn't THAT dirty, and sort of pink from when drK and I were doing the washing and something red snuck in. Anyway, the RV place gave us a Gold Star, and we will be Permitted to Rent From Them again. Then we went to the airport to pick up the rental vehicle (we have spent a hell of a lot of time in that place considering we haven't actually flown in or out there - there was a whole saga before BM involving Cricket's lost luggage and how United Airline operates out of Hell). Hey, Reno airport has SLOT MACHINES, I wanted to take photos but didn't want to be detained for questioning. So we went to pick up the SUV, that the girl who'd served us cheerfully assured us would take five people and all our luggage and found...a SOCCER MOM car. We'd already waited in line for a really long time, and were expecting delays and arguments when we went to explain their mistake, and instead got the BEST (and quietest) service ever. In fact, the guy only spoke two words to us the whole time - 'sign here'.

And that's how we got Aiden. Aiden and I have bonded. Aiden is a sort of cross between a minitruck and SUV, or as Jody puts it 'it's a big, fat car'. After lunch at Bertha Miranda's (a Mexican place we'd tried the night before BM on the rec of the hotel guy I may possibly have been flirting with. a bit) we Set Off. drK drove for the first seven hours of our five hour journey. *pause* We went the scenic way through the mountains, nice roads, the stunning Lake Tahoe, and headed off towards Sacramento. Except we weren't going there. We were SUPPOSED to turn off onto Hwy 49, except that Hwy 49 wasn't there the first time we went through Placerville. Except we didn't realise that for a long time, and there were long highways and boring flat landscape and and the smog layer in the distance, but then we came to a Starbucks and all was right with the world because I had my first Mocha Grande. Back we headed to Placerville and searched, but still no Hwy 49 and so Dave got out at a gas station and asked for directions and the attendant had no idea but sold him a map of Placerville and then we set off and got a hundred yards up the street and Hwy 49 manifested in front of us. Our theory is that Dave somehow fulfilled some arcane ritual. hwy 49 is spooky and dark and passes through all sorts of tiny goldrush towns all lit up with fairy lights. We stopped somewhere near Jackson for gas, and then I took over driving. (I should probably mention at this point that my entire experience of driving on the other side of the road and adjusting to the strange road rules took place over a couple of hours in Reno before BM) And Aiden is quite big and fat. drK spent the first half hour or so (and periodically after that) saying 'shoulder! shoulder!' until I got the hang of clinging to the shiny yellow lights in the middle of the road. Which came in handy an hour or so later when we found ourselves in mountains again. Big Scary Mountains. With tiny, narrow roads that wind tightly around them, with dark chasms that I was could see out of my peripheral vision. And so the hours passed. I'm sure the mountains looked lovely by the light of the full moon, I didn't dare look away from the golden lights. Which became yellow lines as the reflectors (my best friends) were left behind. At exactly midnight (really!) I managed to pull over so the back seat people could get out and pee (very quickly, we were afraid of being attacked by bears). drK asked if I wanted to swap but I really didn't. Adrenalin was doing its thing, big time, and I was having a really intense sort of fun time. The really fun part came when we got to some ROADWORKS, and a traffic light that said 'prepare for 15 minute wait'. Advice from the passenger seat was that it was one o'clock in the morning, no need to wait. Except as it turned out, the 'roadworks' were a temporarily constructed ONE LANE bridge to the next mountain, a ONE LANE road and then another ONE LANE bridge. And half way through this, a car came towards us. I managed to find enough room to pull us over, and a couple of cars passed us, and we got over the second bridge. To find a cop car, and another set of lights with cars waiting to go. I think we all learned a very valuable lesson. Shortly thereafter we found our motel, and it was universally decided that we were too tired to unpack the car, and were going to crash in our clothes. The others went to check in and I parked. And then suddenly we were unpacking the car, especially all foodstuffs, because it had been a few years since bears had ripped a car door off, and the motel people wanted to keep it that way!

Lazy morning, then we set off to Yosemite. We drove around a lot. We stopped a lot to stare and take photos of some pretty rocks and mountains and meadows and stuff. More fun mountain driving.

Back to the motel for dinner, Jody and I decided to share a pepper steak meal. Turned out, for $2.50 extra, they 'split the plate', which means they cut the steak in half and put it on seperate plates and then we got two serves of everything else, the sauce, the garlic mash and vegetables, bread, and the salad bar, which was excellent and included raw broccoli and cauliflower. So, still haven't been able to finish a single meal I've had since I've been here. They had REAL BUTTER packets, so I absconded the restaurant with some, and the rest of our bread. (hey, it was OURS), in happy anticipation of being able to have vegemite toast for breakfast for the first time. Oh, vegemite, how I've missed thee! (I'd just found out that day that drK had brought some, it made me exceedingly happy) Except I got up this morning and the ants had got to the bread. *cries* So I had some peanut butter muesli bar thing that sort of tastes like cake, instead. Then we drove through mountains for a few hours, and then onto highways where I got to go 65 miles an hour! Whee! Aiden is very keen and wanted to speed, but I hardly let him at all. Late afternoon, driving alone wide roads, fabulous mountains on either side, and the light falling on them, just so, I got for the first time, why people do this for fun. There was one moment of panic when it started to rain and I realised I didn't know where the windshield wipers were.

At some point we detoured a long way to go see the Bristlecone forest. Oldest trees in the world. They look it, too. There was a one mile hiking trail which I followed, not realising that everyone else had decided not to, for various reasons. It was hot and uphill and I got breathless very quickly, and thought I was having my usual late arvo energy crash early, til I remember that we were at 10 000ft, and then I just paced myself and the scenery was...odd..and stunted..and quite brutal. It was beautiful.


As I was saying, Aiden makes me want to go get a better paying job so I can have a car like him. Five people plus much luggage phases him not at all. He is lovely to drive, if a little bossy. Seriously, he gets grumpy if the passenger doesn't put their seatbelt on. Also, he has a PHONE in the ceiling which Cricket inadvertently discovered one time while randomly pushing buttons.

And now I'm up to date, sort of. Still lots of Burning Man stuff, including the part where I went on a trip out to Black Rock and DISCOVERED A NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIFACT.

So apparently many motels and cafes here have free wireless internet. YAY America!

So I've just had a week in the desert with no internet, no cell phone, no TEA. Also, tragically, had little interest in beer, despite the peer pressure. At first I thought it was due to the intense heat (clearly not in my right mind as that is my favourite beer climate at home) but realised eventually that it was a pyschologically thingumagigy to do with my intense terror of portapotties. OMG. My overall Burning Man enjoyment increased late in the week when we finally decided we could pee in the motorhome's toilet and not use up the tank. Too much talk about toilets? Be glad you didn't just spend six days with me in an RV. I whinged. Clearly, I am not cut out for this roughing it stuff. Don't laugh! Yes, we had a luxurious motorhome. THERE WERE SANDSTORMS. AND TWISTERS. AND WHITEOUTS. Yes, we had a shower. We didn't use it cos we didn't want to use up the water reserves. I just went a WEEK without a shower. *pause* We took a lot of babywipes.

Burning Man is very, very cool. My first morning there, I got on my bike and set off randomly for a looksee. I rather timidly helped myself to a bandanna from a washing line full of bandannas with a sign that said 'help yourself', I was still very new to this 'gifting' thing. (Bandannas, as I did not yet realise are Very Important in an environment prone to sudden sandstorms). A little further on I stopped to talk to a couple of guys, who when they realised I was a Virgin, said. 'Welcome home'.

I can't really describe the atmosphere there in a way that does justice to the spirit of sharing and belonging. For the most part, BM poeple rock, and while I can't believe, the way some do, that the world will one day live by the same ideals, I think it's wonderful that there are so many idealists who want to try to make it happen.

I believe 42 000 people came to BM this year. I was just talking to a woman at the washing machine at this motel in Reno we're in and she was saying that the last time she went was eight years ago, and there were were only 14 000 then, and it was much more spiritual. I would have liked to have been there, in the days when the Man was a huge wooden structure that the crowd would pull into position with ropes, rather than the shiny electic Man that they set off fireworks over when they burn.

I think a lot of people that go to BM now, go to party. The bars are many, and the techno music pervasive. I am all grown up and staid now, and did not partake of the much free booze and partying, with the exception of the night that cricketk and I went to the International Hostellers Camp for a British Pub Quiz, which started with Cricket drinking absinthe (I refused - I've HAD it before), and the guy setting the table on fire, and some random guy mixing me a tequila, papya juice, grenadine and 'with a dash of Sprite for bubbles' in my big drink bottle, and ended with Cricket leading me into a Den of Iniquity.

I commented that I felt immediately at home in that camp full of Canadians and Brits, and then Cricket's bike got stolen and she was 'wow, it really is like home'. Also, so much for no theft at BM.

Another great thing about BM was the way everyone just left everything unlocked, and the way that you could wander around at any time of day or night and feel completely safe.

I'm probably rambling, sorry, am very tired. But CLEAN. We got given the same rooms we had last week, when the shower thermostat in one of the rooms was busted, and still was today and I went to reception and was like 'last week we assumed we were just stupid foreigners who couldn't work out how to use it but oh look it really is broken and I'm dirty and RAWR' The 'houseman' came quite quickly to fix it *g*

I'm using strangedave's laptop. They've gone out to dinner. We had DENNY'S for lunch - I may never eat again!!! I've had Denny's now, so I'm happy. I have no idea if it was ever in an actual episode, but Denny's means X-Files to me, from all the fics I read that had Mulder hanging out there.

God, so much happened at BM, and so much is just a blur now. There was a lot of cycling. A lot. And a big desert. With artworks at not insignificant distances from each other. And heat, and sandstorms. I remember Cricket and I went to a singing lesson at one point, and it made us think of mr_booboo for some reason, and we learnt a Renaissance song to sing to emma_in_oz and were very pleased with ourselves and stayed in that tent for the next thing, which was a tango lesson, and as nice as the naked old couple were, I was relieved that they chose to only dance with each other. Just as the lesson was nearly finished we had a 'whiteout'. Cricket and I tried to wait it out, but in the end made a run for it, (so to speak, we were on bikes) in sometimes zero visibility. doctor_k_ took a photo of us when we got back to camp, in our goggles and bandannas, and totally white with dust.

Okay, too tired now, random things...

Managed to avoid any evil drug taking. It was harder than you might think, with quite insistant offers, and apparent drink spiking.

Joined camps with three young New Hampshire people because during the sandstorm we had on the FIRST DAY, their camp blew apart. They were really good value :). One of them was an engineer who makes robots that in the deep sea to look at the ocean floor, and when he started to explain it to us was like 'I don't know what you people believe, but some people believe that life began in the ocean'. After a moment of stunned silence and then quite a lot of laughter we explained that you don't actually have to justify evolution to pretty much anyone non-American. We all got on really well after that. And they gave us CHEERIOS. Which are NOT SWEET. Thankfully we were able to abandon the granola cereals we'd bought. Or maybe that was just me.


Even more randomly. DO NOT EAT AT ARBY'S. SERIOUSLY. That is one American fast food experience I wish I could repress. Though the curly fries weren't bad.


Also, I could not access my iinet webmail tonight, so I'm not sure what's been happening back home.

And I miss Bunny like crazy.

Love to everyone.

The last few weeks I've been coasting along secure in the knowledge that everything's organised, nothing left to do - except now I'm like OMG SO MUCH TO DO how can it only be 15 days til we go??

However, I am ignoring the mild panicking going on in one corner of my brain. I have Black Powder War, and everything else will simply have to wait. I am going to go read it right now. Yes, it is nearly midnight. Yes, I have a 13 hour shift tomorrow. I AM IN DENIAL.

I was looking at my itinerary and thinking, hey what are we going to do in Florida for four whole days??? I was vaguely thinking about The Keys, but that's a long way from Orlando...so I had a look. *headdesk* Disneyworld's in Orlando! Who knew? And UNIVERSAL STUDIOS - not just in LA! Seaworld! Busch Gardens!

Yes, I am seriously that ignorant oblivious. In my defense, my lack of interest in theme parks is due to the fact that I go into an environment of crowds and heat and noise, I guarantee I come away with a migraine.

I was looking at this place http://www.hostelsweb.com/hostelsweb.com/hostel.php?HostelNumber=1832 to stay in SF. I am totally new to this booking online ahead of time thing, so if anyone has any advice, or recs, I'd be grateful. (My last experience was backpacking around the UK, where I'd just call ahead from the youth hostel I was staying at to the hostel in the next town I wanted to visit.)

Currently my background is murky brown. This is a depressing colour, seriously. I like my sidebar though.

In other news, my arms are still fairly sore. I'm feeling a little embarrassed about this.

I need to get like, any exercise if I plan to go hiking in Oregon next year. *sigh*