Wild Weekend #1

October and November are the months of costume fun it seems! Last weekend was the kick off. Friday we were at Zot for a Gaian Mind monthly, much fun. And I got to wear the patchwork pants so I was a happy camper (I made them out of an old pair of jeans and fabric scraps from projects at work, they are flippy and fun!) When we were danced out Adam joined Frank and me for some post midnight falafel at Maos, very yummy.

I managed to sleep until 2 Saturday afternoon, rather impressive even for me, but it felt so good. The rest of the day was putting finishing touches on costumes for the PEX Decompression party that night. 3 floors of epic silliness, dancing, snuggling and fire. I have to say that the only thing missing was a trampoline! Pictures can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/31411487@N03/sets/72157608411016038/

We ended up at a diner around 4 AM for coffee and munchies, then home to pass out. Sunday was working on the next costume and visiting with Connie while Frank diligently did some work. Amazingly for as busy as the weekend was it was also rejuvenating. That turned out to be a good thing, Monday was an angry beast! But all is well now and I'm looking forward to pumpkin carving at Monie's on Friday and the annual Wenzel Halloween Spook-tacular on Saturday.

Boo y'all!

Dear Red States

This was posted by a friend on Tribe and I thought it deserved a wider audience (all 3 of you!)

Dear Red States:

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share. Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines, 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the war, the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

Finally, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.

Peace out,
Blue States

Playa Del Fuego

"Beach of Fire"

Well, it wasn't really a beach, but a camping park, but there was a whole lot of fire!

Friday afternoon Frank and I loaded up the car and headed to Townsend DE to set up camp and enjoy the events of Playa del Fuego, Delaware's baby Burning Man. We'd spent the last two Sundays helping Camp Bangarang (sister camp to arThou, the one we were camping with) build a funky ship for the event so we were psyched to see it put together.

We got there a little before 5 to find that their camping area was full and we were to start filling in an annexed area. At first I was a little bummed about this, but once we were joined by Mel and Pat it wasn't a big deal. We named it The Old People's Home/Stepchild Area and decided not to defect to PEX's camp. As it turned out it was nice to have a quiet spot to unwind.

Once the tent was pitched, and Mel and Pat's tent was up, we started the adventure known as dinner. We'd decided to try camping food ("just add water!") and had 2 ways to make it. One was army style with saltwater and a reactive metal, the other was sterno. This is when I started thinking of us as camp chemical. It was fun figuring everything out though. Dinner was fine for what it was and then we headed out to see who was out and about. First we helped set up Mike's tent. We were becoming pros!

We wandered to the boat where Pat was spinning and danced a bit, Frank took a spin on the stripper pole. Mel was helping Neff with deco at the chill dome so we got to see the orange fur laid out. It actually worked out pretty well. No fur for Sex-O-Dome though, and that was probably best. We caught up with Jen and Adam, a nice surprise and after some wicked fun on the trampoline made our way back to camp to call it a night.

The day had been hot but the night was cold! OMG! Morning dawned still chilly and dew filled. Frank basically got peed on by the tent overhang when he went outside. We had a breakfast of poptarts and Frank started coffee. Adolphe joined us with his grill and started whipping up a feast. Coffee took a can and a half of sterno, which was funny to a point. Mel and I broke ranks and traded jokes for coffee at the little cafe set up at the pavillion.

Unfortunately I started to not feel great later in the afternoon, but it passed enough for me to enjoy the rest of the day. We were gifted cookies as we wandered, saw some sights then headed back to camp to make chili for the potluck. And of course get dressed for the Pirate Booty Ball. We walked the chili over to the other campers then helped break up firewood (okay, Frank broke it up and I carried it over to the burn barrel). Soon it was time for the pony to burn.

An explanation: At Burning Man they set a giant wooden man on fire. At Playa del Fuego they light up a wooden pony. But this year it was a wooden seahorse, which was kinda cool.

It's amazing how fast that much wood can burn. And quite warm. Once the seahorse had fallen we grabbed jackets and did some wandering and dancing, ending up crashing in the chill dome before we decided to head back to the tent.

In the morning I was still feeling under the weather so I slept in while Frank hung out with Mel, Pat and Adolphe. Frank was once again my hero by preventing a small dog from wandering into our tent while I slept. I woke up to him shooing it away. Once I was up and dressed I felt a good bit better, but we still decided to call it a weekend. We packed up camp and headed home where there were showers and general collapsing.

All in all it was fun, but not quite what I expected. If you want to see pictures check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/31411487@N03/sets/72157608032221537/detail/

Connie Day!

On Oct. 4th Connie turned 26 and we hauled her butt out to celebrate. With the help of her friends Nickie and Rayna we gathered her peeps and descended upon the Shanachie. A special thanks to Monie and Frank for being my sanity and keeping me from throttling Brianna.

After a stratagy planing session outside the bathrooms a few of us returned to find someone (Brianna) had told the band on stage that Connie sang. Though refusing to sing, she did gamely go on stage to beat a drum for a song.

Post dinner we went to hang out at Noah's and all in all I think every one had a good time. Connie was all smiles and tipsey by the time we took her home. Mission accomplished!