Burning MAN!

"What is Burning Man?" - I wish I had a simple answer like, "It is an art festival." or "It is a music festival" or "It is a hippie thing." - But Burning Man is incredibly complex. With 60,000 people - Burning Man becomes ALL things.... If you want to dance, Burning Man has dance clubs, big beautiful and vast. If you love art, there are over 500 art installations, spread out for miles in the desert, they will even give you a guided tour. If you are a recovering alcoholic, they have AA camp and meetings every day. If you love yoga and spirituality, they have classes all day, every day. They have silly camps like dodge ball camp and taco camp and happy candy camp and Lord of the Rings camp. Literally, if you can dream up a camp, it exists there..... They even have a Zombie Unicorn camp (whatever that might be...)

And all that stuff is fun... yep

But...  I would not drive 5,000 miles for silly camps in the desert, nope - The magnet that pulls me to Burning Man... is the COMMUNITY!..... Neighbors at this festival really become your family, your closest friends... Can you imagine knowing every single person on your street where you live? At Burning Man - that happens.. By the end of the week, you know every single person on your street. You share meals together, you share you stories together, you share your costumes and your batteries and your tiki lights.... You sit under tents in sandstorms together. These people come from all over the world - Japan, Australia, Belize, Iceland....The atmosphere is unbelievable and full of culture and friendly faces.

Matt and I have made so many friends over the years - Not just from Burning Man but also the regional burns: We have friends in the Boston camp (Firefly) - Friends in the AZ camp (Toast!) - Our LA crew, the Chicago kids... Matt and I are in a wedding party on Thursday! Jen's getting married! Yay! A bunch of models are going this year: V Nixie, Scar, Model T, Tracy. Becker, from LA, might shoot me on the playa again this year! Whoot!

I love this festival like no other..... It keeps a light inside of me going.... It reinforces my idea that ALL things are possible... The biggest step to Burning Man, is just *getting* there... Once you are there, the city, the art, the landscape, the people, and the community embrace you... It is an beautiful festival.

New Apartment! Yay!

IN LOVE with this new apartment - I have a difficult time imagining a better place to live.. Open spaces, gleaming hardwoods, high ceilings, unbelievable ambient light, brand new windows, a front porch, a backyard, the most amazing living room to hang out in... I have been looking for this apartment for years.... it *found* us.

Matt and I were actually on our fifth apartment walk through of the day - A guy with a bunch of boxes, called out across the street, "Hey! Are you looking for an apartment? This one is going up on craigslist next week...!" - Although the place was under a ton of construction and dust, I absolutely knew it was our apartment... It literally Shouted at us - Two days later we signed the paperwork... the place was ours....

Currently we are interviewing for a third roommate - Basically, we are just looking for someone who could be an amazing friend. I have a HUGE issue living with people that I cannot connect with on a personal level... Surface conversations make me uncomfortable and I tend to hide in my bedroom to avoid it (my job is surface conversation.. bleh)... I just want someone who wants to participate in living together........ Dinners once a week, market on the weekend, craft night at Lux...

Rochester is NOT Austin (not even close), but The Wedge does have a few Austin-like qualities! There is a funky coffee shop just like Mozarts (without the lake) two blocks down. A fancy bar called Tap and Mallet which is JUST like Ginger Man (but cheaper), three houses down. I have an organic supermarket at the end of my road. BurningMan-like bar, Lux is only a few doors down. Equal Grounds Coffee Shop (the gay coffee shop!). The German House. The Wedgestock Festival is this weekend, on my street ...