Cuddlefist

I taste a liquor never brewed —
From Tankards scooped in Pearl —
Not all the Vats upon the Rhine
Yield such an Alcohol!

Inebriate of Air — am I —
And Debauchee of Dew —
Reeling — thro endless summer days —
From inns of Molten Blue —

When “Landlords” turn the drunken Bee
Out of the Foxglove’s door —
When Butterflies — renounce their “drams” —
I shall but drink the more!

Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats —
And Saints — to windows run —
To see the little Tippler
Leaning against the — Sun —

-Emily Dickinson

(Off to Euphoria. See you Monday.)

I had a dream that Euphoria was over and I had terrible post-event drop. Fortunately, I was distracted by a bizarre break-in at my parents’ house that was somehow linked to a pirate ship artcar speeding around their neighborhood too fast. Midway through the investigation, I developed the ability to see who was linked to the conspiracy just by looking at their face. 

It’s good to have stuff to look forward to, I suppose.

I don’t have anything significant to write today, but it’s a heavy-writing day, so why not here, too?

I started a new gym membership, and it came with a free consultation with a personal trainer. He measured my body fat (25.6 percent) and started talking about how I could probably manage to get down to 20 or 19 percent. I felt pretty defensive, and also I seemed to recall something about fertility being better at at least 21 percent- not that I am in any hurry to reproduce, but I like the option and, more importantly, I like the way I look. 

I’m skipping Serendipity this coming weekend in favor of not planning and packing for a burn. There’ll be Euphoria-related inventory instead, which I feel like I should be doing anyway. With all the org issues and frustration, I’m not really excited about any burn, but I know that will change. The dread will subside and the adrenaline will take over and I will be excited to have helped create the setting for the magic that people find and make at these events. I’m almost to that point.

The job hunt continues. My internship continues. I like my life pretty well. Sometimes I feel like I’m doing too much extracurricular stuff, but Euphoria will be here before I know it, and then there’ll be one less thing. I dread the post-event drop.

State of the Cuddlefist

Okay, yes, hi, I am back on the internet! My housemates moved to a beautiful new home, so my partner Dan and I have been fetching things from storage and beginning to occupy our space more. We now have running water and internet and we moved into the master bedroom, turning our old (PINK) bedroom into a shared office space, and adding in a new housemate. I also spent last week as a coffeeshop nomad, writing and researching a little bit for Food Tank, and trying to get my resume in order to begin another round of job applications.

I went up to Huntsville Friday night to get some equipment from a friend, and then Dan and I headed to La Fayette, GA, to stay the night. On Saturday, a crew of Euphoria/Alchemy volunteers cleaned out the storage container and checked some infrastructure. There’ll be a later trip to do a more detailed inventory. Seeing everything got me pretty excited about Euphoria! There’s a lot of excellence in the works. Dan and I stayed in La Fayette one more night, heading to Chattanooga to catch a dollar-theater showing of Les Mis. 

So there it is: life is busy, and frequently humbling, but overall, it’s pretty good. 

Oh, and now that we have a backyard again, the guinea pigs are very appreciative.

Upcoming Stuff

The Convention and Burn Seasons have begun in my world.

Among them: 

Serendipity: May 9-12

Euphoria: June 13-18

Play On Con: July 18-21

And all of the relevant packing and planning and meetings in between! 

From Caveat Magister’s Who the hell are “Burners”, anyway?

The idea that we’re united by our actions, rather than our motives, ideals, or thoughts, means that when we try to communicate Burning Man to the rest of the world, we do it by doing. In many ways this is already happening: Burning Man’s policy to the press has always been “come and participate” – never “come and watch and we’ll explain it.” The Los Angeles area Burners have a brilliant tactic of explaining Burning Man to newcomers by having them join in the creation of a community garden … it’s much easier to get Burning Man across when you’re creating something special with others.

So, what is a Burner? It’s someone who Burns. And what is to Burn, told while standing on one foot? To Burn is to act as an agent of possibility: creating a space where something amazing can happen, letting anyone join, and then cleaning up after it when it’s done.

Go read the full thing, please, at Burning Blog. This spoke to me in a big way: the process of creating a space for the surreal and magical is why I fell in love with fandom conventions and it’s what expedited the process of falling in love with burns.