I was up in the night to go to the potties. It wasn’t as cold out as the night before. The ninja potties were getting pretty full. I crawled back under the covers and dozed. I thought I’d been trying to sleep for a half hour, but then it was sunrise, and I realized I must have slept about 7 hours or so. It was Tuesday, August 27th. I used my meal ticket from Monday to get breakfast at the commissary. It wasn’t quite open yet when I showed up. People at the next table were swapping Center Camp stories. One girl said she liked to play the game “Make the College Girl Cry” by going up to some girl in a bikini and saying something like, “Oh, honey, the muffin top look doesn’t work for you.” Another guy would find a couple asleep in Center Camp and snuggle up next to them. By morning, there would be 20 or so people all snuggled together asleep. When the original couple woke up, they’d either go “What the hell--?!?” or “Eh, whatever.” I saw Jeopardy wearing a long, red dress. HOTD was a straight shot through Taco Camp. Dr. Jon was still tending bar, after having been up all night. I turned on the cellphone to find the number I needed to call that day, and got a text message! The phone only showed one bar, and any texts I tried to send failed. In the bar, a girl in red was talking about how Siri application on Iphones had to be reprogrammed. People were asking it questions like, “Where’s the best place to hide a body?” –and Siri would come back with answers, like rivers, rock quarries or the nearest desert. The reprogramming just made Siri creepier; now, according the the girl, when you ask it for a place to hide a body, Siri replies with, “I used to know the answer to that question…”
 

A guy from a nearby camp talked about the four kinds of snot, the worst being playa snot. I donated cups and shot glasses to the bar. After all the work and planning on the shower, it turned out it needed a hose clamp. “It’s not gonna work,” Robin concluded. I had been putting all my trash in the van for disposal after I left the playa. When I smelled something funky, I thought something had died in my car—it turned out to be the “chili truck” cleaning out the ninja toilets.

 
People sitting in the bar called bystanders to come in and join them for a drink: “Come over for drinks! We’re cute!” I met Bina, a musician who wanted to play on the stage but there were no microphones. She said she’d be back, but I never saw her again. A pretty girl called Beacon dropped in for a drink. She said she’d met several other girls called Beacon. Ranger Siggo stopped by looking for a friend. A group from Orphan Endorphin Camp came in and sat for a while. I met “The Bitch” and her friend “Some Bitch.” They were a lot of fun. I met Wolf, who was camping with us. Rerun was enjoying a jar of olives when he got to talking with someone at the bar. Somebody snatched the jar while he wasn’t looking, and when he went back for an olive he was surprised the jar had magically disappeared. Brian Bong shared a frozen pop. I met Scott, who said he was half Chinese half Japanese, but when he wore a ball cap he could "pass for Tiger Woods." I was happy to meet Gogo (not the Gogo I met two years earlier), who worked in Center Camp. She drank Cape Cods, and was enjoying a Burning Man-ish “choose your own adventure” book. She later came back and brought stickers.
 
Rerun shared a breakfast burrito with me, but I was too nervous about my upcoming phone interview to finish it. I kept watching the clock until it was time for the call. A half hour before time, I got my notebook and went over to Tulsa’s camp. Using his Internet phone, I called the office and told them to use Caller ID to call back. Ten minutes later, he called. The questions covered tech stuff and dealing with “hostile” users. They wanted me to be sure I understood it was an entry job and paid entry wages. I was encouraged that they were concerned about my commute. At the end, they said I wouldn’t be hearing from them again; if I qualified for the job, Human Resources would contact me. Their last question was, “Where are you?” I felt pretty good about how it went. Whatever happened, I tried and gave it my best shot. At the very least, I was in the system. It was a relief to get it over with.
  Back in camp, the shower was working! When it was my turn, it felt sooo good to be clean again. Brian said the water pressure wasn’t great because of the length of the hose, but that got fixed later on. In the kitchen, Billy cooked up some awesome burritos. I saw Dot, and talked to Honeybee, who was glad the interview went well. I got to meet a pretty freckled girl called Odessa. I rode my bike over to ATTOL at 4 and A, but they were only letting couples inside. So, I rode around looking at art.
 

That evening, I put on my Ranger hat and went to the Ranger social. On my way, I went through Center Camp, and met up with Rhino! He was at the Black Rock Beacon camp. We sat and talked for a while, and he gifted me some shot glasses and a shirt. His camp was making gumbo for supper.    The Ranger social was at Outpost Tokyo. I donated a bottle of wine and had a beer. I heard Halston was under the weather, but I got word that she was feeling much better. I saw Shutterbug and talked to Ms. Rie. Sometimes, it’s hard for me to jump into conversations.

   
I headed back to camp when it got dark. Before going to bed, I put aloe on my feet to protect them from drying out. It was a warm enough evening I fell asleep on top of the covers. Around midnight, the wind picked up and it got cold, so I bundled up under the covers. Music and the beat of drums poked me awake off and on during the night. At some point, I thought I heard rain.
      

Prologue  Aug. 21  Aug. 22  Aug. 23  Aug. 24  Sunday  Monday  Tuesday  Wednesday  Thursday  Friday  Saturday  Sunday  Monday  Sept. 3  Sept. 4  Sept. 5  Sept. 6 & Epilogue

BurningClam.Com         Original material (c)opyright 2013 by Tim Frayser     tapestry01@yahoo.com

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LINKS: The Black Rock Beacon  And Then There's Only Love

Last updated: September, 2013