Burning Man 2009

My first Burning Man experience. After 10 years of wanting to go, I finally went this year with my husband. So glad I did. It was a wonderful experience.

Lots of preparation goes into Burning Man since you have to be 100% self-reliant - bring all your food, water, shelter, first-aide.We rented and drove this RV through the desert from El Monte RV - a burner friendly RV company - to Black Rock Desert in Nevada. Me and my baby. I drove it through the desert, the windy passes, and even up the narrow streets and hills up to my house afterwards and parked it right in front of my house. Something my husband thought would be impossible. So I did the impossible.Heading towards the entrance - excitement ramps up as we see other burners & we know we're close after driving for hours through the desert.We have arrived. The infamous fence around the perimeter we'd read so much about. Quite a feat considering how large the event is.Me driving the RV. A 1st for me & I loved it. So glad we took the scenic route.Uwe ringing the Playa Virgin bell & declaring himself a Citizen of Black Rock City.

Greeters at the gate meet individually with each and every person who arrives. Nice personal touch. Anyone whose first time it is at Burning Man is called a Playa Virgin and an initiation is in order.

We heard from other Playa Virgins that they were made to lay in Playa dust and make sand angels on their backs & stomachs. Our greeter was nice & just had us ring a bell and gave us big hugs (although he got so excited to meet virgins that he forgot to give us the printed schedule).

We felt welcome from the start.

We found a great spot on the corner to setup camp. Great vantage point to see all the lit up art cars as they drove by.

This was one of my fav's - a house. People were sitting inside drinking tea. Love the idea!

A lit up fish art car.

You could hear the art cars coming before you actually saw them. They were booming with music. I'd run to get my camera in anticipation of the next cool art car to appear before my eyes. Felt like Alice in Wonderland. So much fun! Thunderdome! Just like the movie Mad Max.

Yes, there was a tournament going on inside, but the human bodies swarming all over the outer metal dome was the most fascinating part.

Woman holding fire. Beautiful.The eternal flame they keep going for the burning of the Man on Saturday.

Someone loves their mom.

One person stands inside this spinning cylinder with thousands of led lights.

You can't help smiling when you see the grin on the face of the person inside.

One guy who experienced it asked, "Am I still alive?" Our first glimpse of the Man.Two Playa Virgins. A panoramic view of the Man. The Opulent Temple. This year it's the "temple of forgiveness" with four entrance halls, intricately carved wood, multiple floors and a central altar that opens to the sky.

It's hard to believe this also goes up in flames. They burn the temple on Sunday.

A true 3D interactive Rubics Cube, with 4 players.We knew we were getting close to our camp when we'd see this sign. Love it. Self-reliance is a big part of it, although the kindness of strangers is amazing out on the playa. People fed me and gave me drinks & good company. Uwe and I chillin' at our camp.

Our neighbor was a guy from Wisconsin fluent in German. We met all kinds of interesting people out on the playa. Got painted with friends I met at camp - Jeremy & Taylor.

Daytime wandering around was such a fun adventure. Everyday there was something new to discover.

Bronze sculpture in Center Camp.Another sculpture in Center Camp.

Having a chai latte in Center Camp was a little bit of home & felt like such a luxury. This experience makes you realize how much we take for granted in our daily lives.

Uwe's favorite interactive exhibit. The phantom you see is Uwe jumping to another colored circle. He said he could have done that for hours it was so much fun. Each time you step on a circle, it turns a different color.

It was fun to watch him be a kid again.

A couch swing. So comfy!
Uwe wearing his burner gear: head lamp, goggles, dust mask.Our camp was directly across from the Barbie Death Camp. Where else can you have a death camp and a wine bistro?A mirage in the middle of the desert - a Buddhist Temple.

Couldn't resist taking a photo with my pink, Chinese parasol.

Freshly squeezed OJ.

I met this fellow with the same tin camping cup, although his made mine look like a baby cup.

The Playa at night. The Man burning.
A crowd of 40,000 people all sat down in cooperation so that everyone could see the man burn. That blew my mind. Oh the possibilities!Even after the nuclear explosion that nearly melted my face, the man stood for a long time before finally succumbing to the fire.

Burning Man was an incredible, life changing experience. It was so much more than I expected. Everyone should experience it at least once in their life.

President Obama's statement on Iran

"The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.

As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

Martin Luther King once said – “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness."

The Circus is in town!

Circus Vargas 2009
http://www.circusvargas.org

I haven't been to the Big Top in eons (Cirque du Soleil doesn't count - I'm talking a real circus), so I'm excited about taking my little one to see it today. They have a special interactive pre-show for the kids as well. Tickets are a bit pricey, but it depends on the section seats you purchase.

Strawberry Festival in Oxnard, CA

The 26th Annual Strawberry Festival is happening this weekend - May 16 & 17 in Oxnard.

Strawberry Festival Info:
Strawberry Meadows of College Park
3250 South Rose Avenue
Oxnard, CA
1-888-288-9242
http://www.strawberry-fest.org/

I took my 4 year old daughter today and we had a great time. Kids 4 years old and under are free. Plus all of the rides and shows inside are free.

They do a great job catering to kids with a merry go round, a choo choo train, face painting, shows for kids (magician, clowns, music), and a scarier swinging boat ride for older kids. Bales of hay all around for sitting and enjoying strawberries.

Ticket Prices:
Adult admission = $12

Seniors (62+) = $8

Youths (5-12) = $5

Active military and dependents with ID = $8

Children 4 and under are FREE.

Upside:
Of course the strawberries! Including strawberry: beer, champagne, nachos, a build your own strawberry shortcake, etc.

Downside:
The long lines for everything. Last year they had 60,000 visitors and they're expecting even more this year. So expect long lines especially at the food booths. Some of the booths also sold out.

Tips:

1. Although it was hot in LA, it was fairly chilly in Oxnard with the cloud cover. So bring a thin jacket or sweater.
2. Take the 118 fwy. Do NOT take the 101 unless you love sitting in bumper to bumper traffic.
3. Park on the outskirts and walk in. I made the mistake of parking in the parking lot. It took an hour to go less than a mile to finally park. Once you get stuck in the Que - it's impossible to get out. Don't make the same mistake!
4. The website went down the morning of the festival - I guess too many ppl were accessing it - so make sure you get all the info you need the day before. Or you can call the toll free number I have above for the recorded information message.

Click here to see more photos of us.

My Mother's Day Gift

U. got me this original print by @gapingvoid for Mother's Day. How true this statement is! As soon as we get it framed, we're going to hang it up so we can see it everyday.

The key is to find other lone wolves. =)

The Joy of Gardening

Here's my story of a novice gardener's 1st organic vegetable garden.

Living on a hillside, having a garden is difficult without terracing. However there's a small, flat area of land that I had in mind for years. So 6 years after purchasing our home, and with my daughter's 4th birthday fast approaching, I woke up one morning determined to give my 1st garden a try.Beginning Stage:

An out of control mound of weeds. Astrid was out there helping me pull weeds. It took a good 2 hours to clear all the weeds.

My mom has a green thumb and I grew up watching her create all sorts of gardens. But I had never tried to grow anything on my own, and more importantly never thought I would be good at it. So now as a mom myself, I felt it important that I at least try especially for Astrid's benefit, to see where food comes from.Vision:

An organic vegetable garden after a lot of sweat and muscle.

My sweet husband came out with some ice water and asked how we were doing. I told him he could help by pulling some weeds and gathering them up for the green garbage. He mentioned his hay fever and said he was in the house doing laundry and washing the dishes. We both burst out laughing at the irony of the women doing yard work and the man of the house staying indoors cleaning and washing.

If I had my choice, I'd be outdoors in my garden. And I was glad he was there with his camera to take some photos of us.After laying down 2 bags of organic fertilizer and planting the seeds - here is what the garden looked like. A month later:

My tranquil, organic vegetable garden. I love it and so does my daughter. I needn't worry about forgetting to water it because my daughter reminds me everyday that we need to water the garden - morning and night.

I wasn't sure if I'd have any luck with seeds, but everything came up eventually.Butter Lettuce. Carrots. Pumpkin. They're already growing like crazy and I have a feeling they will take over the garden. Hoping for a couple pumpkins in time for Halloween.Tomato plants. Onions. End product:

Freshly picked lettuce we made into a salad with organic tomatoes and a vinaigrette. Something very satisfying about eating veggies from your own garden. However, next time I don't think I'll be growing lettuce again. It takes a lot of water and as you can see after all that we had 1 serving of lettuce.

Next I would like to try Brussel sprouts and hardier veggies, now that I'm a bit more confident of my abilities and what my garden will grow.

It feels good to learn something new and try something that I've never tried before. While I'm watering my garden I have some quiet time to meditate each day. I need that tranquility and peace, which my garden gives me. Now I get why my mom was so into gardening. It took me awhile but I finally get it.

"The Road" - In Movie Theaters October 16, 2009

"The Road" movie- based on the Pulitzer Prize-winner bestseller from acclaimed novelist Cormac McCarthy ("No Country For Old Men") is set to hit movie theaters this October. "The Road" is a dramatic thriller/sci-fi story about a father and his young son struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic America. All they have is each other.

The book was my favorite of last year. The bond and love between father and his young son and the sci-fi description of a cruel/devastated world in the future, had such brilliant writing, I ended up finishing the book in one sitting & even convinced my husband to read the book. I've been looking forward to the movie ever since. If done right it should be a beautiful movie that will move you to tears and haunt you for weeks afterward. Previously I read that it ran into budget/financing problems and they didn't even think it would be released - but now it looks like it will be.

In the movie "The Road" the father is played by Oscar nominee Viggo Mortensen, and son by newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee. Oscar winners Robert Duvall (who plays the Old Man) and Charlize Theron (who plays the wife appearing in flashbacks) make brief but "resonating appearances". The movie is done by The Weinstein Company (the same studio that did "No Country For Old Men").

Can't wait to see it on the big screen!

My Very Own Organic Vegetable Garden

This is a pretty big deal for me. I've never been one with earth, or even a weekend gardener. I have a potted plant in my bathroom that I rescued from my office I used to work at, (they were going to throw it away because it was no longer "perfect") a fern of some sort that is still living 7 years later (with many near death experiences - I sometimes forget to water it until I see it's wilting).

People who have knowledge about such things and are good at it, mystify me. But I eat organic, and know that fresh produce is so much better - taste wise and also for the environment as it doesn't have been transported via plane, trains and/or automobiles. And then there's my fantasy which goes something like this - I need tomatoes for dinner, and instead of having to run to the grocery store, I just step outside and pick a ripe one off the vine. Being self sufficient and eating the fruits of my labor are great ideals. I like it. Where can I get it?

Oh that's right that means I have to go to Home Depot and pick up a bunch of gardening stuff like organic soil, tools, seeds, and gardening shoes. That's right - gardening while wearing green rubber shoes that even your kid says look funny. And then there's picking weeds for 2 hours in the hot sun.

I sure hope my first attempt at gardening actually grows some vegetables. I planted tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, pumpkin, and onions. Simple veggies for a first time gardener.

Astrid helped me pull weeds, even out the soil, and plant seeds. She was so gung ho about doing everything until I actually let her and each time it wasn't as much fun as she originally thought. "I'm tired. It's hard and there's too much!" Yep. I felt the same way. But it will be so much fun to watch everything grow and a great teaching tool for Astrid.

I'll be so proud if I can feed my family with this garden. Now I just have to remember to water it everyday.

Mission Accomplished

@convagency (aka U.) & @gapingvoid (aka Hugh MacLeod)

U. is attending the South by Southwest (SXSW) 2009 media conference in Austin, Texas. My one request was that he meet @gapingvoid and get a photo with him.

And here he is doing a drawing for me.

U. told him his wife was a big fan, so he drew me a personalized SXSW drawing, but instead of drawing a guy giving the middle finger, he changed it around a bit for me, as you can see in the pic above. Sweet! He's such a character. Wish I could have been there.

U. said he will guard it with his life to bring it back to me.