On a non-school related note, I got invited to join a camp at Burning Man
this year, and after minimal soul-searching, I said YES. I've wanted to go for over 20 years, but
never found the time or right group to go with.
(There is a LOT of logistics and set-up that make it nearly impossible to
go directly from Ottawa, and utterly impossible to do on one's own). I seriously
debated if I should spend the time and money (when I could be running protein
quantifications in the lab), but my sweetie strongly encouraged me to do this.
It's on my bucket list, and I'm not officially starting my master's till the
fall. Not only that, but I am already
going to Vancouver for a wedding this August (our group will drive out of Vancouver), so
the airfare is a done deal. Once I
start my Master's, and if I fast-track, I won't have any time to go to Burning
Man for another 5 or 6 years at least.... So it's now or never. It gets me back late (academic year starts on
Sept 4th and I won't be back till the 11th), but my advisor has been totally
supportive and said to go for it, and not to worry, he'd handle anyone who had
issues with my absence. So far, the only
classes I will be missing are his and a stats class. :-)
Given my side penchant for costume making and my love of
Halloween, art, and dancing, can I just say, I am TOTALLY PSYCHED to be going
to Burning Man this year! I am joining a
camp that has been to the playa 4 times in the past, and this year they applied
for Theme Camp placement within the city and they GOT IT. Amazingly, we have
been assigned a space located in the 2nd most requested sector! I cannot believe my first Burning Man
experience is going to be THIS COOL.
Of course, everyone asks if Bri will be going with me. Nope,
totally NOT his gig. But he is completely supportive of my attending, and encouraging me to
go. My cousin is going to give me a
private showing of the documentary "Taking my parents to Burning Man" in a couple of
weeks. I hope I won't feel too
depressingly OLD as a result, but having seen the trailer, it does look cute,
and I think it's safe to say, I'm NOTHING like the filmmaker's parents.
My youngest is living out west, working at a bike shop and
has saved me a cheapo bike that will be adequate for the duration of the
festival (you really need a bike to get around). I've been buying costume bits and pieces off
ebay for the last 4 months, and Bri thinks that I've had so many things arrive
from China that I'm likely on some CSIS watch list. I told him that I was probably already on
their watch list from all my searches on google for Ketamine...
So this week is all packing and finishing costumes and
deciding what to bring that will meet baggage allowances, and finding a camera
that can survive the dust, and DAMN, there just isn't enough time!
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