Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Entry #204

Burning Man 2007 was awesome. Once again it proves to be one of the most free places on the planet for a week.Ben and I arrived in Black Rock on Tuesday around sunset. It gets dark FAST there as soon as the sun sets over the mountains so we set up our tent and camp real fast after finding our friends at 5 and A (the address). Wednesday was spent mostly integrating. It is VERY dry there so when you get there, you're body goes through this whole process of realizing it's losing water at a rate it's probably never experienced before. You drink and drink and still you're dehydrated! Gatorade is a friend out there. Thursday we got into costume as the sun set and made our way in a group to party on the playa. It was fun although we were exhausted! We spent the past 6 months planning our wedding, the weekend before executing our wedding plans, and then dropped ourselves into Burning Man three days after our wedding! Ironically, we found a subway entrance out there. An art piece someone had made. It looked like a subway entrance for somewhere in the East Village of NYC. We felt right at home. There was a couch at the back wall of the structure. We took a nap on it! We were trying to party but we were too tired! So, we got back on our bikes and went to camp and fell asleep.Friday was a good day for our energy. We did another wedding ceremony out on the playa at the Temple right after sunset. Our friends Kevin and Leslie led it. It was a Hand-Fasting ceremony. It was beautiful! This was actually our third wedding in one week!Afterwards we had been invited to a sushi bar on the playa (a camp that created a sushi restaurant, all vegetarian.) so we biked there and although there was a very long line to get in, Glenn asked for our friend by name (who had been at our wedding in Shasta), and we were seated right away! It was great. What fun. Crazy Burners! We had a very magical night and danced, partied, eventually came back to our own camp and Dave and Heidi brought out their fire brazier and lit up a nice fire. We had people around the fire all night from all over the planet. Our camp was "Z Bar" as in "Z bar is over there." So, as soon as the lights in Z Bar lit up, Burners flocked and our friends tended bar. Saturday was spent with Ben and I packing up our tent and cleaning up what we could of our camp. We drove out of Black Rock as our friends were finishing getting in costume and were leaving to watch the Man burn. There were only about 3 other cars on the road. This was my 9th year at Burning Man and Ben and I both felt that leaving when we did was clever and one of the only ways to actually do everything we needed to and make our plane on Sunday night in Oakland. We drove to Reno that night and slept for 4 hours. We drove to Mt. Shasta Sunday morning and gave back the truck we borrowed from our photographer and ate delicious lunch at Billy Goat's Tavern and then drove to Oakland, dropped off the rental car and got ourselves and 7 huge bags on the plane for NYC. Now we've been home for a little over a week and life is back to normal and WE'RE MARRIED!!!Jessica Star-Sanders!

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Entry #203

Well, I'm a married woman! Ben and I just got back home to NYC from our whirlwind trip out west to get hitched! We first went to Boulder, CO to meet up with our good friends and go to Reggae in the Red Rocks~ very cool! What an amazing amphitheater! Also amazing was that the next day, Sunday, everyone went back to the show and I opted to stay at our friends house by myself and did the best yoga! I did yoga out on their balcony overlooking the mountains and trees and open sky. I needed the time alone to wrap my head around our then upcoming wedding festivities. It was blissful.Then we flew to San Francisco and drove up to Mt. Shasta on August 20th. We were crazy busy pretty much the entire time we were in the most restful place I know! When you throw a party for 100 plus friends and family, a wedding no less, there is A LOT to do and it's all timely. We did enjoy all of it though. That's the key. My best friend and Maid of Honor, Micaela Colley (Google her name, you'll be amazed!) said that being real busy is not really the problem; it's when you realize you're busy and resist the flow that it becomes a problem. So true, so true. So, I just DUG being busy and it was like riding down the rapids on a sturdy raft. We had our beautiful ceremony right on the mountain herself at a place called Red Fir Flatt. We had the most beautiful ceremony. It was Jewish style being that Ben is Jewish and I'm not yet. We stood under the Chuppah and had a female rabbi officiate. She did such a good job. Her name is Rabbi Jacqueline Brodsky from Ashland, Oregon. We had our reception down the mountain at the Mt. Shasta City Park at the Upper Lodge. Our friends and family decorated it so sweetly. We had Brenda from the Buddha Belly in Weed, CA cater it with her great staff. The food was heavenly. Hardcore Coffee of Sebastopol provided the java, Lani Phillips of Rare Images in Mt. Shasta was our official photographer, and Ed Russ (DJ Jah Karma) of Austin, Texas spun the tunes. The most fun part of the reception I think for me was the Hora. It's when the bride and groom get picked up on chairs and the crowd lifts them up and dances around them to this great music! We were on folding chairs! Don't ever use folding chairs for this! Both of them broke while we were up there! It only added to the danger/excitement! We had our first dance to the Big and Rich song, "Lost in this moment". We were going to try to have an after party at the chalets where we were staying but we were finished! The next day after a little running around (more like walking slowly around) we made our late way up to Castle Lake and it was so perfect and pretty. Two days later we were at Burning Man in Black Rock City, Nevada!!!So that is my entry for now, hopefully I'll come back and fill you in on what all happened at Burning Man 2007!!!Jessica Star-SandersPretty nice, eh? Someone who sands/polishes the stars!