Had a night out with friends doing karaoke at the Hammock Hangout.
Got my country groove on and sang "All My Ex-es Live In Texas" with my friend Si who has a gorgeous deep smokey voice, did "Bohemian Rhapsody" with my five friends, cheered on Si as he nailed "Sweet Transvestite" from Rocky Horror, joined in and acted out The Little Mermaid's "Part Of Your World", and then soloed Bon Jovi's "Dead Or Alive" - super fun!
Shawn & I had a re-commitment ceremony where he had proposed to me 5yrs ago.
Six years ago I timidly asked Shawn if he wanted to have a pretend wedding at Burning Man to which he timidly replied 'sure'. It didn't end up happening that year though but the next year he brought it up since he knew I had been disappointed. We went to Two Lanterns Camp and met Rev. Bob who had us pick out cheesy rings to use for the ceremony. Rev. Bob officiated and when the ring bearer held out out rings, Shawn had the best man switch mine to my real engagement ring, got down on his knee, and proposed to me! It took me completely by surprise. It was amazing! This year about 30 of our friends witnessed as we renewed our vows to each other in the same place that we had gotten engaged. It was pretty darn special.
Had the luxury of dancing most mornings on our sprung bamboo open-air dance floor.
Shawn & I both have lead roles in our theme camp at Burning Man called Rhythmwave. We offer conscience dance to the community of Burning Man and there's really nothing else like it there. Conscience dance can be pretty potent - especially at Burning Man where all emotions seem to become amplified. I don't think I can put into words what I experience while dancing on our beloved floor out in the Black Rock Desert; I'll just stick with simply saying that it is highly blissful and deeply transformative.
Got 'Foamed'.
Imagine being covered in fine dust for days, and mix in an ample amount of sweat and exhaustion and you're starting to get close to what your body feels like at Burning Man. Now imagine stepping into a big tent with loud music from a live DJ and about 200 naked people dancing as they excitedly wait their turn 'get foamed'. Now imagine standing there dancing as you watch about 60 people at the front of the line enter into a big plexi-glass chamber and stand shoulder to shoulder with friends and perfect strangers - all naked of course. Now imagine you are now one of those people in the chamber and from the catwalk above, people with hoses give you the gift of cool refreshing water from head to toe. The excitement builds and everyone around you is chanting "Foam, Foam, Foam, Foam". Just then, copious amounts of Dr. Bronner's peppermint foam come spewing down from the heavens above! All you can do is close your eyes, squeal with delight, and start rubbing up against the other slippery foamed bodies all around you. It's freakin' hilarious! I know it sounds kinky but it's so epic that it's not sexual or weird at all. Oh yeah, and you can feel the tingle of the peppermint soap Everywhere! Then you step out of the chamber completely elated and in amazement of what you just experienced. That's the 'foam dome'. Click here to read about how naked bodies, peppermint foam, hair clippings and intention all fit together for me at Burning Man.
Played a lot of music, sang a bunch, made a commitment to learn guitar, wrote my 1st guitar song.
One of my favorite activities this year was to sit around in camp just sing with friends. My friends Porter and Si know a lot of songs on guitar and I enjoyed singing and played along a bit on ukelele when I could. This may come as a surprise but I love country music. It's what I listen to on the radio and it's what I grew up with. My friend Si also has a love of country music. We discovered that our voices compliment each other quite nicely and we had a really great time singing country songs together. The one tune we sang over and over was "Angel From Montgomery". I decided I wanted to learn how to play it on guitar so Si taught me the 3 chords and I practiced on the 16hr ride back to Olympia on the out of tune beater guitar we transported home for a friend. By the time we got home I decided to commit to learning how to play guitar for real. I've always felt intimidated and frustrated with guitar since my hands are so tiny that it's hard to make some of the chords. I realized that there are still plenty of chords that I haven't yet mastered on uke yet but that hasn't stopped me from playing uke. So when we got home I printed out a sheet with easy guitar chords for beginners and started practicing on the nice 3/4 size guitar I have. It was really satisfying and two days later my first guitar song came through!
My greatest takeaway this year is this next new step in my musical journey. I am super excited to develop a relationship with guitar and continue experiencing this musical unfurling!
Got my country groove on and sang "All My Ex-es Live In Texas" with my friend Si who has a gorgeous deep smokey voice, did "Bohemian Rhapsody" with my five friends, cheered on Si as he nailed "Sweet Transvestite" from Rocky Horror, joined in and acted out The Little Mermaid's "Part Of Your World", and then soloed Bon Jovi's "Dead Or Alive" - super fun!
Shawn & I had a re-commitment ceremony where he had proposed to me 5yrs ago.
Six years ago I timidly asked Shawn if he wanted to have a pretend wedding at Burning Man to which he timidly replied 'sure'. It didn't end up happening that year though but the next year he brought it up since he knew I had been disappointed. We went to Two Lanterns Camp and met Rev. Bob who had us pick out cheesy rings to use for the ceremony. Rev. Bob officiated and when the ring bearer held out out rings, Shawn had the best man switch mine to my real engagement ring, got down on his knee, and proposed to me! It took me completely by surprise. It was amazing! This year about 30 of our friends witnessed as we renewed our vows to each other in the same place that we had gotten engaged. It was pretty darn special.
Had the luxury of dancing most mornings on our sprung bamboo open-air dance floor.
Shawn & I both have lead roles in our theme camp at Burning Man called Rhythmwave. We offer conscience dance to the community of Burning Man and there's really nothing else like it there. Conscience dance can be pretty potent - especially at Burning Man where all emotions seem to become amplified. I don't think I can put into words what I experience while dancing on our beloved floor out in the Black Rock Desert; I'll just stick with simply saying that it is highly blissful and deeply transformative.
Got 'Foamed'.
Imagine being covered in fine dust for days, and mix in an ample amount of sweat and exhaustion and you're starting to get close to what your body feels like at Burning Man. Now imagine stepping into a big tent with loud music from a live DJ and about 200 naked people dancing as they excitedly wait their turn 'get foamed'. Now imagine standing there dancing as you watch about 60 people at the front of the line enter into a big plexi-glass chamber and stand shoulder to shoulder with friends and perfect strangers - all naked of course. Now imagine you are now one of those people in the chamber and from the catwalk above, people with hoses give you the gift of cool refreshing water from head to toe. The excitement builds and everyone around you is chanting "Foam, Foam, Foam, Foam". Just then, copious amounts of Dr. Bronner's peppermint foam come spewing down from the heavens above! All you can do is close your eyes, squeal with delight, and start rubbing up against the other slippery foamed bodies all around you. It's freakin' hilarious! I know it sounds kinky but it's so epic that it's not sexual or weird at all. Oh yeah, and you can feel the tingle of the peppermint soap Everywhere! Then you step out of the chamber completely elated and in amazement of what you just experienced. That's the 'foam dome'. Click here to read about how naked bodies, peppermint foam, hair clippings and intention all fit together for me at Burning Man.
Played a lot of music, sang a bunch, made a commitment to learn guitar, wrote my 1st guitar song.
One of my favorite activities this year was to sit around in camp just sing with friends. My friends Porter and Si know a lot of songs on guitar and I enjoyed singing and played along a bit on ukelele when I could. This may come as a surprise but I love country music. It's what I listen to on the radio and it's what I grew up with. My friend Si also has a love of country music. We discovered that our voices compliment each other quite nicely and we had a really great time singing country songs together. The one tune we sang over and over was "Angel From Montgomery". I decided I wanted to learn how to play it on guitar so Si taught me the 3 chords and I practiced on the 16hr ride back to Olympia on the out of tune beater guitar we transported home for a friend. By the time we got home I decided to commit to learning how to play guitar for real. I've always felt intimidated and frustrated with guitar since my hands are so tiny that it's hard to make some of the chords. I realized that there are still plenty of chords that I haven't yet mastered on uke yet but that hasn't stopped me from playing uke. So when we got home I printed out a sheet with easy guitar chords for beginners and started practicing on the nice 3/4 size guitar I have. It was really satisfying and two days later my first guitar song came through!
My greatest takeaway this year is this next new step in my musical journey. I am super excited to develop a relationship with guitar and continue experiencing this musical unfurling!
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