cybergeisha

My Burning Man preparations are totally finished. At least, the parts of my preparations that I can finish before I arrive in San Francisco. When I arrive there tomorrow, my friend Carmen is picking me up at the airport and lending me some stuff that I cannot bring with me, such as a sleeping bag and a pillow. She also has some clothes she thinks I’ll like.

When Carmen drops me off at Kurt and Michelle’s house, I’m going to drop off my bag and go with Michelle to pick up their son Allistair from daycare. By the time we’ve done that, Kurt should be getting home from work and then the last minute preparations will start.

Too Much Food?

Tomorrow night, Kurt and I are going to go to the grocery store tomorrow night and pick up the rest of the stuff we will want to eat and drink… Stuff like some fruit, maybe a few cans of tuna, olives and pickles (for me… I love them!), and a few things to snack on in the car. I’m not sure what Kurt needs to get, but I think I’m pretty much ready…

…because I think I already have too much food.

I won’t need a whole lot more since my family has given me an incredible amount of camping food… Including AT LEAST 30, probably more, energy bars. And 12 of those breakfast bars. Jesus! I’ll have to force my friends to eat them too.

Packing Ninja

I am a bag-packing ninja. Seriously.

Most people would need a duffel bag or large bag of some sort into which to fit all of the stuff I am bringing. However, my father is an airline pilot and I have done a lot of traveling in my life, and I know how to pack a carry-on bag. I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve had to check a bag, but it has been several years. I didn’t have more than a carry-on rolling suitcase and a backpack when I moved to Japan for five months.

IN A CARRY-ON ROLLING SUITCASE:

• Enough (more than enough) clothes for five days
• Corset and priest cassock for dress-up
• A million energy bars
• A bag of cookies
• Two bags of dried fruit
• A bag of nuts
• A book
• Toiletries
• Low-top Converse sneakers
• More underwear/socks than I’ll need (hey, you never know)
• Jungle Pig Accessories
• Goggles
• Scarf
• Hoodie

See?

PACKING NINJA.

Bring it on, world.

After the insanity that is my shoe situation… I drove BACK into Seattle to return my boots. When I got there, I heard what I feared I’d hear. They didn’t have the boots in a size UK4. I was about to just bang my head on the wall until I asked what other styles and sizes WERE available. And they DID have a pair of the 14 hole docs in dark red. I tried them on and they were a perfect fit.

A lot of people would have whined that they’re not black. They are a little on the “Burgundy/Brown” side of the spectrum but definitely still red. And red goes with black! I have plenty of black shoes, so why not spice things up a little bit? Besides, the point is to have comfortable, durable footwear at Burning Man and when I get home.

Since red and black go together, they’re the style I originally wanted, and they’re so comfortable…. I exchanged my too big not-the-style-I-wanted boots for the red ones and went home. So now I’ve got boots. The saga has FINALLY ended!

On to last-minute preparations - I leave tomorrow!

I’m really excited. It’s getting really close, and I’m getting my prep done and it’s coming down to writing a list of what I want to have once I’m there, rather than stuff I NEED. I’m thinking a lot about snacky stuff, recently, because last year I had no clue what to expect so I just made some random guesses about food.

Now I know what to expect so I’m putting together some pretty good lists of the snacks I’d like to have. I tend to snack all day long, tiny little portions of snacks, and did so when I was at Burning Man last year, too. I had some pretty good stuff, like protein or whatever bars and granola and trail mix, plenty of stuff to drink (besides plenty of water, sometimes you just want something flavorful), some crackers and stuff…

But I’ve figured out a bunch more stuff that’d be great.

The Snax List

• Pickles
• Olives
• A bag of grapefruits
• Yogurt raisins
• Some bottled juices
• Jarred or canned fruit
• Daikon Pickles
• Umeboshi

The Shoe Saga

I seriously have to look into getting my New Rocks repaired. I wasn’t incredibly comfortable running around in my converse all-stars for a week last year, being the only person getting sand and dust in her shoes while everyone else was wearing boots and comfortable. Nobody in the Seattle area will repair them - but I’ve been told by several people that there is a place in San Francisco that can definitely do it. I’m not sure they can do it in 24 hours (about the amount of time I will have in SF before I leave) but hey, no problem. If they can’t do it overnight, I can just pick them up when I get back. Either way, my shoes get repaired.

Maybe I will go see if they have any boots at The Metro or something, that’s the only place I can think of that has a selection of boots in stock. I cannot for the life of me think of anywhere else in Seattle that sells plain, black, flat-soeld Doc Marten style knee high boots. I’ll take original docs or knockoffs as long as they’re desert-appropriate. Jeez, what a pain. I just want to avoid the discomfort of converse all week.

It’s almost 7PM, though. I can’t really run out there tonight, but maybe I’ll try tomorrow.

So much to do! So excited!

This picture of Carmen, Kurt, Erick and I was taken at the Death Guild Thunderdome fundraiser on Saturday, in San Francisco. Yes, we are all totally awesome.

And here’s Carmen’s totally awesome hair, and me looking amused at Kurt.

Comparative Weather Studies

In which the author discusses the weather in San Francisco vs. Seattle

I grew up, as many of my readers know, in Seattle, WA. I lived there for 25 years, until I moved to San Francisco, CA. When I mention that I am a native of Seattle, without fail, the first thing about which most people inquire is the rain. The common misconception is that Seattle is the target of a constant deluge of near-biblical proportions. Not so. It is overcast, cloudy, and rains quite a bit, but you generally can get by without an umbrella, as long as your coat or sweatshirt has a hood.

Seattle has nothing on the weather we’ve had here in the Bay Area today. When I woke up, the wind was howling and it was raining so hard I couldn’t see across the street. The patio furniture we had on our roof was, somewhat amusingly, mangled and twisted all over the sidewalk outside our front door - four stories below the roof. I’ve never seen rain like that before. It was pouring down huge, heavy droplets and felt like I was in a cold, wet, uncomfortable shower wearing all my clothes and carrying bags.

Travel, Rain and Irony

Or, a funny thing happened on the way to the airport…

Ironically, I was out in the weather because I am on my way to Seattle for the weekend. When I got off the subway in downtown San Francisco to take the rent money to my roommate, there was a cascade of water pouring down the steps as I walked up to the street level. As I waited to cross Market street, someone drove by and sloshed what seemed like a tidal wave onto me, soaking me from the waist down. Fantastic.

Rent paid, I went back down to the subway to catch the BART to Oakland International Airport. MUNI service, I found out, had been stopped through downtown because of the weather. The BART line I was going to take directly to the airport was also stopped. Thankfully, they were letting through a different line, so I took that one and transferred in downtown Oakland to a line that WOULD get me to the airport.

Waiting for the Flight To Come

Live from Oakland, it’s Friday Night!

While waiting at the airport in Oakland, my friend Ian text-messaged me and asked me if I was alright - apparently the news is covering the storm down here and saying there have been hurricane force winds! I’d believe it. The weather is off the frickin’ hook, that’s for sure. The weather in Oakland seems to be tamer than the weather in San Francisco - it’s a little rainy but the airport seemed to be functioning as usual.

Ian told me that there is a mandatory evacuation order in place for Orange County and that wind speeds are topping 75 miles per hour - incredible that I have to rely on a friend in Seattle for information on what’s happening RIGHT OUTSIDE MY WINDOW. I can’t get over how funny that is, actually - we really are living in an information age! I saw a sliver of the blue sky out over the bay, though, so I was pretty sure my flight would be able to leave.

I was standing by for a flight at 4:40 and ticketed for the flight at 5:30. It actually sort of surprised me - they let me right through security, no questions asked and no problems given. This is a bit surprising because I have a lot of electronics parts, metal, glass and other stuff in my hair extensions right now. Tele-destruction hair!

Hometown Advantage

For once, the weather sucks less in Seattle than in San Francisco!

For a moment, I wondered if I’d make it out of California. However, I got on the earlier flight and even though the flight took off half an hour late, I arrived in Seattle at 19:30 - earlier than the flight I’d been scheduled for. Erik was there a few minutes later, but holy crap, the weather here is great! Far better than the weather in San Francisco - clear and a little windy, but not raining at all - not even coat-wearing weather.

Tomorrow, I get to chill out and possibly meet up with my friend Lindsey (who is offering to teach me to knit), hang out at Dragonfire Imports (my family’s antique shop, where Erik is the shop manager) and make last minute preparations for the Information society show on Sunday night. Many of Erik’s siblings and both of his parents are considering going to the show - and my mom wants to come, too. Incredible! I don’t know how I feel about my mom going to a electronic music show - but it’s sure a trip thinking that my suburbanite, lexus-driving, shops-at-nordstrom mom wants to go see InSoc. I hope she likes the show!

More information about the concert is available on the Information Society website or by clicking the image above, which also has information about the Philadelphia, San Francisco and Austin performances. The show is at at 8PM on Sunday, 6 January 2008 at El Corazon in downtown Seattle. Tickets are available at TicketsWest.