I have been scorned for pulling out this laptop. But I do it anyway. I want my memories. And I can already tell that I am going to have many of them.
We arrived at Black Rock City around 4 pm. It shimmered on the playa after miles of stretched out road. It was like those posters you see with joggers going down some road that stretches out forever....but it was real. Oddly, we caught up with a car that had passed us on the way that ended up being Moses, Paneer's friend and his friend's wife. Paneer won't be here until Wednesday.
So here it was Monday and many were here already, setting up their tents and domes and camps, their art, their cars....before we even got to our marked space, a vehicle went by that was made of several large comfy chairs, in three tiers, full of cheering people.
I have heard the danger of trying to write all this stuff down from Burning Man is that you cannot do it. There is simply too much. I am going to try. The moon is out now, I am sitting under a tent of colored christmas lights, blacklight, and lanterns at Assault Radio. The DJs sit outside the trailer, a green lightbulb as their means of seeing. The smell of vegetarian chili wanders by, as does a bicyclist with a glowing blue helmet. If I turn to my left, I can see the Man behind me off in the distance, I helped raise him earlier in the evening after the sun set. A large rope was connected to some levers. Some of us walked out to the center where he was. I met a guy named Ron. We stood next to each other as we picked up that rope and pulled. We could see nothing on top of the tower of straw bales....and then there he was, relocated from the last time I saw him in the city, rising. His red neon circulatory system starting to come online, streaming down from his chest. From here I can see his head light up, the white spotlight on him on his tower where he will watch over us for the next week.


Earlier a roving bar went by....literally on wheels and crammed full of half naked or naked people. Dave ran the vehicle, a spray system dripped water onto us, and we appreciated it. A man just walked by with a rubber duck attached to his head on baseball cap. I was just told there is an x-rated glow in the dark mini golf course halfway away on the crescent of this camp.
I can tell you right now that these entries will be endless streams of things, sights, sounds chronological order is already fading.
I made my first batch of sangria for the group, they seem to like it. Cool. I will provide two more batches before the week is out. It's going to be very hard to keep this journal up, because everything is a surreal dream. I stood on the main thoroughfare at dusk and watched the lamplighters go by. I looked at photos of that so many times on the web, and here I now am, seeing it. Well, now I am sitting on an inflatable air mattress on a carpet that sits on the cracked earth. I spent the day in shorts and a bra. I now have a tee shirt on and am completely comfortable. It gets HOT. Really hot. The breeze comes and you think you are being cooled, but the water is getting sucked off of you every minute.
You drink and drink and drink and it is still not enough. People are visiting the radiostation now, coming to see what the sound is about. Everyone welcomes everyone, invites them in. There will be a space opera performed later in the week. Rusty is wearing pajamas. Dipwick has but multi-colored christmas lights on his motorized wheelchair he picked up at a flea market. He has become adapt at skidding to a halt.
The back of the chair is covered in purple shag. Sometimes Bitch rolls around in it as well.
After raising the Man I walked back alone across the playa. The moon's light filled me, I will probably go for a moonlight bicycle ride in a few minutes. I can see Dipwick's wheels spinning merrily in the distance. And of course, through all of this.....I miss someone. I want to walk in the moonlight with someone......
I need to go ride and be alone, and partially wish I was not....happily.