As I lay out my calendar for the year, I'm finding more months busy than not. I'm returning to the dust this year with the camp I founded, which is in its sixth year since founding. It's gone from an event organized from Boston with mostly Bay and Seattle locals to an event organized in the Bay, Pasadena, and Portland, with guest appearances from the effective camp owners, who split their time between the Eastern Sierras and Oakland.
I've been out of the camp, and the game, for a few years, so coming back in is not without its adjustments. Still, I'm finding my groove, and part of that is jumping back in. It's real good not being the go-to person for everything: there's a really good core group of leadership, which means I get to focus on the things I'm enthused about. This year, that means I'm taking responsibility for cooking for the carnivorous side of camp, and prepping the tea side of the morning cafe that we'll be running. I'm also signed up for build, the crew that rolls in before the Burn officially starts with box trucks, trailers, and basic supplies to construct the camp from the dust up.
It really is a plural of box trucks, too: the Eastern Sierra folks picked up a 20-ft box truck they've named Truck-kun. The organizers for last year and this year snagged a Mom's Attic special they've named Kame-chan. They also picked up a tan panel van which promptly got stolen before last year's event full of decor pieces for a geodesic dome. They got it back afterwards, more or less intact: the rambling van has been christened Miso-tan, on account of the color.
Then there's the trailer. A silver F350 covered in frankly horrifying holographic anime stickers ("Happy Waifu Happy Laifu", "Fill Me Up, Senpai" - this one next to the gas tank) which I've dubbed Waifu.
All of these vehicles worry me. I'll be driving my own wheels to playa.
Meanwhile, as mentioned, it's only March, and my calendar looks like a slaughter scene. There's the Burn of course: that's two weeks of time off that's absolutely required for last minute crisis right beforehand (there's one every year), build time, and time on playa. There's the four days I'm about to spend down in East Bay getting read in on the local makerspace's safety policies and CNC machine. Plus an evening throwing a tamale-making party There's an unrelated wedding on the East Coast in April: a penciled in trip to Minnesota in May to see friends, and then build trips, kitchen excursions, etc.
I'm delighted to be busy, but as I strike out weeks and weekends with a red pen well into September, I'm beginning to realize that I'm short on slack and long on projects.
Such is life. On with the show!