My favorite moment? Which one? Can I count the entire event as a single moment? Than, yes...

Wow... I have to pick just one favorite moment? Ok.. This was my first burn so as soon as i did a playa angel in the dirt I felt at ease and welcomed. I loved meeting new people and connecting on a level that I have not found in quite some time. My favorite moment was when Armin Van Buren was playing at Opulant Temple. I got to dance to one of my favorite DJ's. Afterwards I went out on the playa just outside the temple and ran into an art car full of wonderful people. One thing led to another and I was able to find someone to let me talk out my troubles that have been eating inside of me. I wish I remeber her name or where she was from but Thank You if you get to read this. Thank you for listening and caring sincerely. I was the one doing coin magic and conjuring (Light Magic). I cried tears of joy and felt more at home then anywhere in the world there. I am already counting down the days till next years burn!!!

As always, Greeting is my favourite time on the playa. Hands-down. I greeted for 4, 4-hour shifts (Friday pre-event to Monday) and met so many sweet, funny, happy people and got so many hugs! Giving someone a good Greeter experience is such a good start to the Burn.

Tied in with that, my "Playa Provides" moment of the year:
-a friend rapturously going on about hamburgers Friday before the event opened, to the point where I was super duper craving a hamburger. I said that what I wanted more than anything was for someone to bring me a hamburger on my Greeter shift that night (knowing that in 4 years of Greeting, no one had ever gifted me any foods but beer). Sure enough, that night a random person brought a sack of hamburgers through the Greeter station. Wow! Delicious.

Other good stuff: I saw a guy riding a unicycle with a bag of ice on his head.

Riding around on my 2nd ever (in 6 years) art car ride with a dear friend driving, him moving people out of the way by yelling "OINK FUCKING OINK!" and just cruising around finding adventures.

Spending some time with a virgin friend of mine, dressed as Unicorns, me wearing my "I (Heart) Virgins" shirt and having Virgins come up to me for hugs and smiles.

Riding around more by myself this year than ever before, talking to people, making connections. As an inherently shy person, it's difficult sometimes in a place where it's all about the people and interactions!

On our first night on the Playa most of our camp rode out together to visit the man. As we rode, we burst into singing "Do-Re-Mi" like we were the Von Trapp children on an outing. Another group of cyclists passed us going the opposite direction, and picked-up the song as they went by. We could hear them singing in the distance after we finished the song.

Naked karaoke

So many favorite moments, so many favorite moments...my mind is spinning with favorite moments...

Stumbling out to the man on Saturday night in a full-on white out, the kind where as soon as I got to the Esplanade and stepped beyond the 5 feet of viz, I was completely disoriented. I felt like a bedouin, wandering thru the Sahara. After walking and wandering around for a while in the pelting, stinging dust storm, an art car loomed out of the gloom, motoring slowly along with a BR Ranger escort. I hoofed it along after the art car, and presently we came out of the storm and up to the man. La Voila!

And in that moment when the wind had cleared enough so I could see, I heard, from behind me, "Blysse? Is that you?" Instant recognition (I think it was my el-wire dragonfly) and instant belonging. Yay. fuckin'YAY! That night turned out to be, arguably, my best burn night ever.

More please!

(bump)

This year was full of many great memories. We were camped next to the porto potties, so many of my best memories actually involve those.

3. We placed an 'out of order' sign on one of the porta johns and watched them all day to see if people would avoid the porta john. Believe it or not - they actually did. Some people would even look in but not use it and walk away looking disgusted. Funny how the mind plays tricks on you. Needless to say, my camp had a clean porto potty for a day. People eventually figured it out. Gotta love Playa Pranks!

2. We would perform POO HAIKU'S for porto potty visitors. I loved getting applause from both those waiting and those inside. We even got requests for them.

1. My camp-mate WON BURNINGMAN. Most awesome thing i've ever seen on the playa.

Okay...i'm still trying to untangle one favorite moment from the next...

So I'm gonna describe a series of four favorite moments. The first favorite moment was meeting Sail Man, just cuz he's a really cool guy.

The second favorite moment took place in the center of kidsville with him and a bunch of my campmates. There was a little girl's bike with the cutest little moop sack hanging from her handle bars. It had her name and a cute little design sewed onto it. My sister-in-law (virgin burner) asked me to take a photo of the moop sack cuz she wanted to show it to her kids, or perhaps inspire herself to make something like that for her kids. So just as i was lifting the camera to my eye (it's the disposable kind cuz mine broke just before the event), the little girl (around age 3) who owned the bike and moop sack ran up to me and said, "Me take picture!" I look down at her and she is the cutest little girl EVER! She's totally dirty, has snot running down her nose, matted hair, and the presence of an Amazon. She repeats, "Me take!"

So I give her the camera and she takes the photo and then, of course, looks to the back or the camera to see the photo she took. I explain, "This is a different kind of camera, honey, the picture is inside and we can't get it out until later". She's about to be really disappointed when favorite moment #3 happens...a giant Hillbilly House suddenly drives into Kidsville right where we are standing. Actually it's being pulled by a tractor. There's a huge front porch on one side, a hillbilly kitchen on the other side and an outhouse in the back. The people involved with it are all dressed in period clothing, old overalls, barefeet...

Then, the guy in the kitchen yells out, "COOOOOOKIES!!!!!!!!!" and the little girl runs toward the car as kids from all directions come running as well. Meanwhile, the guy in the kitchen is pulling out fresh baked cookies from the working oven in the kitchen. The kids excitedly line up and the smell of cookies wafts through Kidsville.

Favorite moment #4 occurs next...my sister-in-law, overwhelmed by the beauty and joy of the moment, and missing her 3 kids at home, bursts into tears. She's crying, laughing, hugging me, pulling away, speechless, gasping for breath. And I'm standing there, surrounded by friends, kids, and this amazing art car, taking it all in, a deep breath full of love and awe and the smell of freshly baked cookies.

I guess the final "P.S." favorite moment of this series was when I got home and developed the photos...the little girl had taken a photo of her BIKE and the moop sack was off to the side, not visible in the photo. :-D

I witnessed the bloody carnage that occurred when the Animal Control wagon met the Billion Bunny March. What a riot. I was biking across by the man when I spotted the red van with two lines of AC folks double-timing it in back while a guy with a megaphone on top of the van, rabble-roused them for the upcoming action.

The van was dangling a giant, fake carrot. The megaphone guy exhorted the animal control folks, all wearing identical red coveralls, to a fever pitch of preparation as they shouted, jogged in placed, and brandished their nets.

Finally, a big art car approached up the six o'clock aisle with a maw that opened and closed with the Billion Bunnies arrayed behind it. The megaphone guy shouted, "let's do this for their own good!" and the fun began.

Red coveralls rolled in the dirt with bunnies, bunnies scampered and leaped for giant carrots, nets were flung, bunnies danced and ran. A mobile cage taunted bunnies with a carrot on a fishing pole, then when they grabbed they bait, they were thrown into bunny jail.

Even the Man got into the act with a crane holding a bunny ear construct behind his head.

It was chaotic, inspired nonsense. Kudos to all who participated. A fine piece of absurdity.

One of the top moments was while giving orgasms. A neighbor woman/friend referred her girlfriend, a fire dancer/hooper to come and see me. My friend is really in touch with her body. Her friend was even more so. Amazingly so. We both felt so comfortable with each other. It was intense. Divine actually. A privilege and an honor

That was one of my favorite moments. Thank you very much for this thread. <smilles>

My interview on BMIR with Esteban from the London Burners about Nowhere Omnibus project, the European Burner scene and Nowhere in Spain.

Working in the serving line at Ka Palina lual in memory of Big John, (Hawaiian Regional Contact) then leading his memorial ceremony afterwards.

6 hours on a couch on the Esplanade snuggled up with my two best friends, Eyefleye and Faery Girl.

Some years my favorite Burning Man moments are ones of giving, while other years they're ones of receiving.

The playa provides.

On Tuesday while assembling flame effects apparatus for an art car my right hand cramped up quite badly. On Wednesday, a virgin campmate was reading the What-Where-When guide (that's the best thing about virgin campmates: they tell you what's going on) and suggested we get hand massages at a healers' camp. I found a wonderful massage from a spirited gal with the most gorgeous eyes... we lost track of time and I was there for an hour!

When I went back a couple of days later to thank my masseuse for the perfect tune-up she wasn't around, but one of her male campmates offered me a follow-up massage and we had a great chat. The loving and healing energy I received on those two camp visits was amazing and helped set the stage for a wonderful burn.

Singing in the choir, to (re)discover that when the audience is primed by our soulful director speaking of her spiritual journey, and they rise and smile and grow tears drawn forth by our singing of modern spirituals, seeing such happiness and such connection in the faces of beautiful strangers reminds me of the religionless worship of life and love that singing makes possible and moves me so deeply that I can not sing until I breathe it all back in, let the emotions go, and with a fresh breath try and do it again, and again, and again.

The dust didn't help. But being in the jazz cafe and out of the direct sun did.