bm2004: coming home almost unscathed

home and alive.

we packed up without much trouble, and were on the road by 9:30 in the morning. with all the traffic, it took us about eight hours to get back home. cheryl definitely had a cold, so she was a little miserable on the ride home. her sinuses were clogged or something, so she her head was stuffed up and she couldn’t really hear, so i would say something, and she’d say, “what?” and then she’d say something, only really really quietly because her voice was super amplified in her stuffy head, so i’d be like, “what?” all the way home.

mika’s alive and fine. and hungry, as normal.

when i got home i took what may have been the best shower in the history of the world. warm water, soap everywhere, hair washing with shampoos and conditioner, rinse and repeat. i was in there until my fingers and toes were all wrinkled. i almost didn’t come out. in fact, i may still be in there.

so, how was it? it was great. it was fun. was it life-changing? i don’t think so, this time. do i have regrets? yes, i have three:

1. steel-toed dickies boots: i wore them last time, and i’ve worn them since, and dammit, they’re just too small. i swear, and i mean swear that i’ll never wear these fuckers again. luckily i just ended up with a small blister on one toe, but it’s just unnecessary.
   
2. pinhole: i wish i had gone in on saturday to try and take pictures, which i had intended to and even rode out there, but just didn’t go in at the last moment.
   
3. that traffic ticket in gerlach: driving through gerlach, i was distracted by the kids washing cars for money, because they were using a firehose or something and spraying each other from one end of the parking lot to the other. thus, i ended up not seeing this guy crossing the street in the crosswalk, and waved an apology to him as i scooted by him. which wasn’t good enough for the waiting police officer. $190(!) fine. i’ll pay it, but now i have to call the nevada courthouse and figure out if they pass points across to california dmv, and if so, if they’ll let me take traffic school to mitigate that or not. sigh.

more than anything else, i remember talking to micheline on saturday, and we were talking about how some people weren’t enjoying burning man because they had come with such huge expectations and ideals that it was hard for them because it wasn’t living up to them or it was so different than they had expected. and we pretty much agreed that like everything else in life, it’s better not to weigh yourself down with such things, and instead just have an attitude that “it is what it is,” and just allow yourself to experience it, and look back and review it afterwards if you need to. but that way you get to live it as it’s happening, and see what’s going on, instead of noticing what’s not.

Posted at September 6, 2004 10:20 PM