I write this and I have three bandaids on my fingers which means that I have been deeply immersed in some kind of cooking process. I HAVE! and the funniest thing is that I barely have been cooking. Mostly managing and shopping.
It is exciting but also, it is a bit too much. you see, I have the advantage (sic) of working full time where a lot of people that are working to make our camp happen do not have a dedicated 40 hours a week to something that is completely irrelevant to the ordeal of getting ready for burning man. It is a very hectic time for me and yet, somehow I am managing, and quite well might I say, to get everything done that needs to get done. self packing becoming less of the priority.
Today is the last day of cooking and I am hoping that it is seamless. The first weekend went off without a hitch. Yesterday, however, felt really fragmented and not smooth runnings for me. Today will be better and we will finish all the pre-cooked food because we have to. The cooking crews have been wonderful with various levels of skill sets. It has been amazing to depend on a person who completely rocks like Diege and Ranya who took really strong roles in harder projects. My goal is to create an energy that is positive and loving and fun so that that gets translated into the food. I like to disconnect from the negative energy but sometimes that happens too. And I suppose that is just life. Good and bad, positive and negative go hand in hand. But in my kitchen, the positive definitely outweighs the negative.
My head, it has been splodey! but in that kind of way that my system is like an engine and all pistons are firing when it is required. When not required, the pistons wiring gets a little crossed and sometimes, I just have to revert to the iPhone mentality of ‘I don’t care’ or if you see a blank or tired look in my face, it is because I am blanking out and tired. But there is a say 85% actuality of super coping. I am in the supercope mode as Soleil likes to quite me as saying. And then silliness, like the kind of silliness that Julia and I can produce. Last night I was confused about the combination lock on the non-perishable food items that are in a box at American Steel, ready to head out to the playa. She says to me, ‘Oh I didn’t even bother with the lock, I just unscrewed the screw’ and I busted out laughing so hard ’til tears came b/c it was so funny and so silly and Julia is so fun and silly. And part of the reason i am putting insane amounts of hours doing this is because I LOVE working with her! If you ever get a chance to work with her on this level, I say go for it! She is a wonder to behold.
And pEEF and pEEF daddy and the pootainer! I have been watching this process. It has not been an easy one but seriously! this pootainer is going to be like something out of the past and the future. I am sorry that for some this has been a hard experience because the intent, and the creativity, and the technology and the vision is truly amazing. I mean c’mon, we are going to have a fingerprint imprinting system that allows us into the facilities, and the door, which finally got put in yesterday, it is sheer brilliance and certainly going to get tongues talking about how truly visionary it is for playa fortification. I have been bringing the mens food a lot this week because I know that they are likely either not eating, or eating shite. so really, it has been fun and gratifying, and I have to be out at AS whether it is to clean the school bus, or plan for it, or haul frozen food and other kitchen supplies out to the staging area. yeah, it has just been like that.
Goingt out to AS is really about community. I get the chance to see some of my wonderful friends on a regular basis out there. Like Karen, and Aaron and Becky, and Kurt (wait, I haven’t seen Kurt) and Che and Dan and Lindsay and new people that I am meeting like Victoria. It is a big huge raw space with ingenious ideas and creativity just seeping out of it.
Anyway, that is what I have to say today.




