Lost at day, seeking friends

Posted 2 September 2016 at 03:00 at age 28.
Created 29 September 2016 at 07:00. Edited 30 September 2016 at 11:14.

After a low key Wednesday, Thursday was quite packed. As with Tuesday, I felt it broke naturally into two parts. We struggled to coordinate our activities given our various whims, and thus it was only after quite a few delays that I went out in search of friends whose addresses I had written down before coming. I only ended up finding my friend Luke, whom I met in Singapore last year, but I was glad I did, for I was apparently the one who introduced him to Burning Man and much of his inspiration for coming. Then I experienced my first moment of losing my group, though it didn’t last long. Overall I had a nice daytime adventure with Dave, Matt and Steven checking out the catacomb, an open mic, a tea house, a rowdy parade and more.

This entry is No. 8 in a series of 14 entries.

Thursday, September 1: Slept 01:53 to 08:10.

I woke around 09:30. My Fitbit malfunctioned overnight and woke me up with vibrations and the screen indicating it was constantly starting a timer, only I was not pushing the button to trigger it. I am not sure what went wrong, but I put it on the charger and hoped it was some effect of a low battery. The Fitbit never did start working properly, though.

I had not been using any facial products during the week, but did at least use some disposable wipes on my face Thursday and put on sunscreen. Erik made eggs, spam, green peppers and instant rice.

By Thursday the days were not getting as hot.

We tried reducing our kitchen water usage by wiping dishes with moistened paper towels. I tended to just keep my dish in the yurt and not wash it at all.

Phillip seems to have a very different way of thinking than others. After sitting down to eat, Erik asked Phillip to get him a water refill with two scoops of Gatorade powder. When Phillip returned and Erik tasted it, he asked Phillip, “How many scoops did you put in here?” Phillip said, “I don’t know, three? One?”

Erik and Phillip never bickered.

Endless delays, finding a friend

I wanted to take time today to find some friends in other camps, namely, Luke from Singapore and Matt, who ran the race with me unexpectedly. I also wanted to take photos of other camps’ infrastructure to get ideas for next year. Dave said he would go, and then Erik and Phillip said they would go also, but it ended up taking a couple of hours to mobilize.

Steven brought his own bucket, but I forgot if it was for wastewater or to warm water for washing. It certainly made a good chair for him!

Our yurt worked really well again. This year I added two new solar panels, though I discovered one was unplugged late in the week, after we drained the batteries using the fans too much on a cold and cloudy day!

My side of the yurt. By Thursday I had attempted to clean the yurt once or twice already, but gave up trying to avoid stepping inside with dirty footwear. Eventually I gave up trying to step on the bed, too…

Erik and Phillip's side of the yurt.

Matt left first to go practice juggling at a camp near 6:45 and C. Next Dave left to go to the porta potties, saying he would meet us by Matt. Erik and Phillip suddenly wanted to go get genital identification cards made, but I said I had been waiting hours already, and they should just go and then try to meet us at the juggling thing.

Some people cared more than others about trying to prevent dust from getting into their vehicles.

I wonder how much this helped, given it's clearly not airtight.

I went with Steven to 6:45 and C and found Matt right away. He ceased juggling upon seeing us, and as I told him we were still waiting for Dave, Dave appeared. They were eager to go exploring, so we moved on sans Erik and Phillip.

Reminds me of my youth…

This made me laugh.

We headed to 5:00 and L to look for Disco Chateau, which supposedly contained my Singaporean friend’s camp, Olympus. I asked around and was told the Olympus people wore medals around their neck, and then I found a boy wearing what I thought was a medal but turned out to be a shattered style mirror pendant. He was not in Olympus but directed me across the street. I was skeptical across the street qualified as within the other camp, but I inquired at a tent of people and found out it was indeed Olympus. I told the woman I was looking for my friend Luke as the guy sitting next to her turned around and looked up. I was pretty sure, but said out loud his full name, and then he recognized me.

Luke and I talked about his experiences so far, which have been good, and he told me the times for his upcoming demonstrations of tarot card readings that night at 20:30 and rainbow chakra crystal singing bowls Friday at 20:30. He mentioned he had to let go of the expectation we would find each other and not let it get in the way of having a good time. I had previously told him it would probably be a few days before I could find friends due to the race, so it was nothing unexpected at least.

Dave, Matt and Steven came over after a while and introduced themselves and talked a bit, and then we went to look for Matt’s camp, Hunting Party, around 3:15 and C. After first missing the camp, possibly due to stopping to take a photo of the U-Haul trailer next to it, we found the camp and determined he wasn’t there. I left a note in his tent, which he previously told me I needed to check out.

This heart is a lot like mine!

Thursday I took a bunch of photos of interesting camp infrastructure.

Next we stopped at a random camp for slushies and sat down for a while on the couches. A man at the open mic was telling what seemed to be a recent story of personal growth or maybe just pain. It involved accidentally killing a dog while speeding to work in Canada and then looking for the pet owner accompanied by the police officer who witnessed the whole incident. The story was quite long and suspenseful in that the man didn’t know if the cop intended to give him a ticket or arrest him at the conclusion. Well, the cop ended up arresting the pet owner instead, for this whole time he was telling was a joke.

We stopped at a random camp advertising slushies, and then sat down for an open mic where a man told a long sad story that turned out to be a joke.

I liked these shorts, and wanted to remember how much I liked them, so I took a picture. Not creepy.

Getting lost before the catacomb

The four of us then headed to the Catacomb of Veils. Dust prevented us from seeing it from a distance, but thankfully we had a general idea where it was, for I picked a bad time to veer off. I saw what appeared to be a large drilling rig and a bunch of people forming a perimeter, so I stopped to ask one of the men what was going on. He said they were building a lookout tower, but he wasn’t actually sure if they were drilling a hole or the rig itself was going to become the tower. I guess he volunteered to help without inquiring much first. Suddenly the wind intensified, and I couldn’t see my friends, nor did they apparently hear me when I yelled their names.

I temporarily lost Steven, Dave and Matt when I made a quick stop to ask what this was going to be. The guy I asked wasn't sure, though he was volunterring to help with whatever it was. Then a dust storm kicked up and it took me 10 minutes to find my group!

I kept biking in the general direction we had been heading, though slowly due to the visibility. After 10 minutes, I found them, shortly before arriving at the catacomb. We parked and walked around, and I took some photos. There were a number of cute gays around, and people were writing some messages on the walls, as seems common at most art pieces these days.