Greetings from Burning Man Preparations Land (that'd be BMPL, dontcha know).

Last night John and I kicked it into high gear as the deadline-approacheth inspiration hit us. Things are coming together now, and I feel much more prepared than I did 24 hours ago. I've got a phatty Camelbak for water, a headlamp and a fleece waiting for me on the playa thanks to John's pal Mel, I've got costumes and comfy clothes, plenty of protein-rich foodstuffs just for me, vitamins, sunblock aplenty, wide brimmed hats... and what I don't have at present I will gather tonight on my hot date with Le Target Boutique.

Everyone tells me that most of the stuff you bring to the playa gets wrecked by the alkaline dust, so I'm sure to only bring stuff I'm not tremendously attached to. I have a totally dorky pair of white sneakers which are comfy but entirely too doofy looking to wear for real, so I'm going to spraypaint them silver.

We picked up Jason and Heather at the Oakland airport around noon today and played the most wickedly impressive game of Trunk Tetris-- it was amazing how much stuff we packed in John's trunk. I love hanging out with smart engineer-type people. :-)

We have our weekend pretty well planned out, buying last minute costume things, finishing our EL wire project(s) and laminating 4,000 gyft cards for distrubution on the playa. The latter is Heather's thang but we're all pitching in as we can. We're hoping to have the laminator running almost constantly between now and when we pull out. The Heather and Jason on the gyft.org website are the Heather and Jason sitting in our living room. Totally rockin' peepz.

The SF exodus plan is as follows: Jason has a meeting on Monday in SanFran, so we'll pick up the RV (30 feet, baby) while he's schmoozing. In the afternoon we'll load our stuff and our passengers, and we'll be on the road after dinner Monday night. Black Rock City is about a 6-hour drive from SanFran, so we'll pull in just after midnight-ish. I cannot wait.

Anyway, if you're wondering how Burning Man is laid out, check out this map. We'll be part of the Infinite Oasis camp at 4:30 and Earth. If (godforbid) something truly lifestopping happens and you need to get in touch with me, call 415-TO-FLAME and get a message to Ranger Enigma (his real name is Tsutomu). Enigma is camping with us, and because he's a ranger he'll have a radio on his person. But seriously, getting a message to me is nearly impossible, so I'd just prefer nothing horrible happen while I'm gone. Don't forget that my cell phone doesn't get any reception whatsoever out there, so it's being turned off on Monday night and won't be turned back on until Labor Day evening when we pull into Reno for the night. (We can't return the RV until Tuesday day, so we're staying in Reno on Monday night, considering there's nowhere near John's apartment to park a 30-foot RV.)

OK, this entry is totally disjointed, so I'm gonna kill it off. John and I need to pull together a food shopping list, so I'm gonna go get crackin' on that.

I'll try to post one or two more times before we pull out.

Miss and love you guys... thank you SO MUCH for the text messages of goodness!

Oh, and I forgot to post these pics the other day... this is the view from the VA Hospital where John works... I'm telling you, the best piece of real estate in SF. Pic 1: where we eat lunch; Pic 2: near the parking lot-- with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Fortune Teller Miracle Fish today tells me that I am: In Love.   Crazy!

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