blister in the sun.

hOt HoT hOt!! tomorrow night i leave for burning man. 7 days in the nevada desert. no cars, no phones, no internet, no toilets. i am not a hippie. i do not camp. i refuse to be seen naked in public. but i'm going nonetheless. i will be out of state for a total of 12 days. by far the longest *vacation* i've taken in years. i have 24 hours to pull all my sh*t together and then about 48 hours in southern california to get the remaining supplies (you know, like water, food, tent, water, sleeping bag, air mattress, water, bike, lawn chair, water, tarp, rope, water) before embarking on a road trip in a rented suv to, well, the middle of nowhere. my expectations are all over the place. to be honest, i truly don't know what to expect when i get there. am i up to this? i hope so. i guess we'll see. i'm staying in a camp of about 20 people, 2 of whom are close friends, the rest friends of theirs (and friends of friends of theirs) that, for the most part, i have not met before. this does not concern me past the usual worries about whether or not they will like me and whether or not i will fit in. the camp, which is named after the starcraft starflyer that was purchased to house and support the dj set up, excites me. i expect to have a good time with these people, to make new connections, to strengthen those i have. it's the larger burning man community i'm starting to worry about . . . i'm a bikram junkie and i am more than slightly concerned about being away from class for almost two weeks, so i brought this concern to tricia who owns the studio in the lower east side that i practice at and she was kind enough to understand my worry and make me audio cassettes of a couple of classes so that i can listen and follow along and continue my bikram practice out in the desert of black rock city. i had also told my friend sara, with whom i will be going to burning man, that i was worried about my yoga practice, could i do yoga there? and she said of course, plenty of people will be into yoga there, you may even find people holding classes or to practice with. so i'm surfing the web about burning man yesterday and for kicks i add yoga to my search. google gives me a lot of options. i'm thinking, this is great! there will be yoga in the desert after all!! so i start looking at the sites. most of them are pictures. of people doing yoga at burning man. NAKED. often in pairs. hmmm, i didn't know yoga was a group sport. that's when i started to realize i may not really know what i am getting myself into after all . . .

there are aspects of this experience that i do feel like i have a handle on and am looking forward to. i find it fitting that my camp has taken on this star theme because i hold firm to my belief that no matter how hot it may get during the day, how bad the port-a-potties may smell, or how many naked hippies i see running around who maybe shouldn't be so free with their bodies, it will be a small price for the experience of sitting in the cool desert night air looking up at a sky that is more expansive and with stars more numerous than i have ever seen before and breathing in a whole new sense of awe and wonder and peace and possibility.

and i'm planning on getting one hell of a tan.

oh shit, that's funny.

sHeNaNigAnS oN fIrE.

consider yourself warned.

kId sTuFf. i had a headache the other day (it's not necessary to get into why, it certainly had nothing to do with the night before. or alcohol). so i took an advil. the label on the advil bottle says:

CHILDREN: do not give to children under 12 unless directed by a doctor

really, though, should children be giving anyone medication?