Burning Man - Part 3

daily routine

I camped in a two-person "ultralight" tent underneath a shade structure which covered the tent and prevented direct sunlight from hitting it, though that didn't really stop my tent from getting pretty warm at something like 8 or 9am, or perhaps earlier. It's hard to say because one of the defining differences of each day at Burning Man from a day in the so-called real world was to generally not know what time it is. There were some exceptions, but on those first four or five days at least, entire days would pass without my once knowing the time. I would wake up with the sun and the heat. I shut off my phone on the first day and did not turn it on until later in the week to try in vain to send a text message to my parents to let them know I was alive. It didn't feel necessary or appropriate to turn on electronics really. I ate when I was hungry, slept when tired, and if somebody asked what time it was, usually a shrug resulted with an occasional shared look at the sun to try and estimate based on its position in the sky or the length of the shadows. There were talks and workshops and other gatherings listed in the guide book given to us at the gate, and actually an incredible number of them, all of which necessitated knowing the time so as the week progressed, people asked this question more and more and as the population of the city grew, the feeling changed a bit but in the early days of camp building and just as the gate opened, it was pretty easy to remain timeless. 

I got out of my tent quickly in the mornings when the heat became such that I could no longer sleep. I would emerge from my tent and fill up my water bottle from my cooler adjacent to my tent and underneath my shade structure. Due to strategically purchased blocks of ice and probably owing somewhat to my shade structure as well, I had cold water for pretty much all of Burning Man. After the first day, I borrowed a discarded gallon water bottle from a friend and used my Leatherman (which came in handy a lot) to cut it in half giving her one half and myself the other. These bottle-halves were our basins for tooth-brushing and gray water. I couldn't clean myself very well at Burning Man, just the best I could do with cloths and handy-wipes and spray bottles, but I could brush my teeth and I'm not sure it ever felt better to do so. I would spit the small amount of water I used to rinse into my little basin and within a day or less in the sun it would evaporate and be gone. One time I washed my hands like this, but I gave up on that idea pretty quick cause no matter how clean you get them, they were dirty a minute later. I stuck to handy-wipes at the end of the evening in my tent though I met people with access to showers in RVs or solar showers of various construction. 

In the early morning I'd head to the bathroom. Honestly the bathrooms were much better than I expected. Feel free to skip this paragraph. The portable toilets were spread out throughout the city and there were large banks of maybe 30ish toilets in several spots near our camp. Our camp was at 3:30 and Esplanade, the innermost ring, and the nearest toilets were at 3:30 and C, so a few minutes walk or less than 30 seconds on a bike. It was common for people to grab a bike from the racks for a trip to the toilet. I did not have my own bike most of the time, but many people would share bikes for that purpose at least, or just take an unoccupied one for a few minutes. It was only a few minutes to walk anyway. In the mornings I would head to the next bank of toilets at 3:30 and G, a bit farther out from the busiest part of the city, and often find toilets that were in better shape than the closer bank. Sewage trucks seemed to come pretty regularly and empty out the toilets although that does not mean it was not possible to find one in conditions less than desirable. Thankfully I was spared that and for the most part found the toilets to be pretty usable. Certainly the first day I was a bit squeamish but that passed quickly. The extremely dry air, heat and dust somehow made things feel a bit more sanitary, at least that very few things every stayed wet very long. All the toilets had urinals in them for the guys (and for the girls with pee funnels, a much-discussed item at Burning Man) which means that the toilet seats (when they existed) were not covered with urine and in fact stayed pretty clean. It is true that if you made the ill-advised decision to look into a toilet you might see more than you bargained for, but often this was not quite as horrible as one just-arrived from the civilized world might expect and all told, this concern of mine largely faded after the first day or two. At night during party time things could be a bit more chaotic and so I reserved my longer sojourns for the morning, but there was never really a time where things were beyond any reasonable level of horror. The first morning I pulled my bandanna over my nose and tried to hover. I realized quickly this wasn't going to last and really by the second day I became pretty good at finding a quiet and cleanish toilet where I could sit in peace as necessary. I guess we adapt to circumstances as necessary. 

I had considered one toilet alternative which I'd read about before arriving. One person wrote an article online which said that if you're really squeamish you can bring a five gallon bucket and a bag of potting soil. So I did, just in case. I figured it was about $5 worth of supplies for a little peace of mind just in case things were more awful than I thought. I'm glad I had that little security blanket, not that I was so excited about using it, but it was nice to think that if things were as awful as I once saw at Ozzfest, I'd have an alternative. In the end, it's all just part of being people and the squeamishness about bathroom-stuff is definitely elevated in the western world. I think those two weeks in the desert made me care a little less and feel a little more like wherever I am, it's all going to work out just fine. As it was, by the second day I was bringing a book with me. 

I would usually eat something soon upon waking up. I kept my food in a plastic storage bin in my tent. I might have a Clif bar in the morning, some nuts or trail mix, a fruit bar or dried fruit, maybe some cheerios, and I had a few small single-serving containers of almond milk that didn't require refrigeration. The sun would be out already and only getting stronger, so I'd grab my sun hat which I wore each day and which started black but ended up white and layered with dust more and more as each day passed, and my sunglasses which I never wore so much in my life as during my time at Burning Man, and I would head to the communal shaded lounge area to sit with a few other recently-awake people and share stories of activities of days past and present. There would always be people milling about at all hours. Sometimes in the morning there would be people at the bar drinking or doing shots or people who were still tripping or drunk from the night before. Sometimes as the early-risers would sit and eat breakfast, people would roll into the camp in various states of disrepair or elation. To try and describe the costumes people would wear wouldn't do them justice, simpler to just ask Google Images and survey the cross-section of humanity bedecked in more or often less clothing, neon, flashing lights, crazy hats, neon, spandex or perhaps giant animal suits. As our camp was along the Esplanade, the main road around the inner ring of the city, we had an expansive view before of us of the man and all that passed back and forth be it a couple of people rolling by and smiling on bikes, a giant octopus shooting flames, or a few naked people chasing behind the water-spraying trucks that wet down the dusty streets as they scrambled for the closest thing for many people there that amounted to a shower.

Each day I'd sit and trade stories with people of what they'd done the night before and it is a testament to the scale of the city that quite often they'd seen and done things I'd not heard of yet and vice versa. Each day it seemed like there was an endless array of activities and experiences which never seemed to run dry. By the end of the week, a few of the largest installations were known to the people who'd been there the entire time, but more often than not each story elicited wonder and interest and a request for an address or some kind of direction as to how to find the thing described. Sometimes people would be leafing through the guidebook and talking about a class or workshop they intended to attend that day. Some people preferred to wander and see where the day took them. I felt overwhelmed and often opted for the second of those two but simply for being overwhelmed by the options presented to me and not wanting to do anything other than fill my days with rich experience and explore and also for the sake of not forcing myself to know the time when it didn't seem necessary. Once in a while I might set out towards something I'd heard about with a friend or two but that trip would result in hours of exploration in new and unintentional directions without ever necessarily reaching the original objective. 

The days began with waking up, eating, sitting and talking a bit perhaps, and then heading out into the city or the desert in some direction perhaps with a goal in mind and perhaps just to take a walk or a bike ride and see what resulted, and periodically to return and refill a water bottle or eat or connect with a friend who wasn't yet awake when I left. Some people slept during the day so as to maximize energy for the night. Some people tried not to sleep at all except when absolutely necessary. Napping during the day was impossible in my tent for the heat, though the hammocks and shaded areas presented the possibility of a breeze and comfortable spot to close one's eyes during the day perhaps. I had a few days up late and one day til the dawn, but in the face of a pretty challenging environment already, I was glad to get a not unreasonable amount of sleep each night and generally keep myself feeling healthy and functional throughout the two weeks I spent there. 

So with what activities and experiences were the days and night filled?