What's In A Name?

This weekend was fabulous. Friday night I unpacked my kitchen, bathroom and got my room arranged the way I want it. Still boxes everywhere, but there are fewer of them! Saturday morning I woke up and went for a run. Man was that painful! My lungs hate me. Came back, showered and packed for camping. Went and got my hair cut which was badly needed. Yea haircuts! Then I met some old family friends (honorary family) for lunch at Rose Pistola in SF. Really yummy! We were sitting by the window and would watch all these people dressed strangely go running by. My friend Steve said, "What in the heck is going on?" Without batting an eyelash I said, "Oh, it's just the Urban Iditerod." It's amazing what you become used to after living in SF.

After lunch I headed down to RWB Beach in Santa Cruz. A Burning Man crew was doing one of the monthly beach burns. This was the first of the season. The weather recently has been pouring so I was a bit concerned, but it was gorgeous. The sun was shining and a drunken croquet game was going on. I never did figure out the rules, but it did involve a lot of drinking. Then we played Fizz Ball. What is Fizz Ball you ask? I asked the same question. A guy had altered a bat by putting in bolts that stuck out a bit. You then take cans of really bad "beer" like Natural Light, shake them up and pitch them. The person hits them w/ the bat which generally tears the can in two and sprays beer everywhere. Hey, when you're drunk it's fun. Hell, I was sober and it was fun. Of course, then you have to clean up all the can remains at the end. Took a bit of a nap in the car and then the evening festivities started.

There were tons of DJs who each had about an hour set. They were playing some pretty good tunes. People started breaking out the fire poi and staffs and started spinning. I was completely intimidated because I've only spun fire two nights before that one and some of these folks kick ass! I didn't want to spin in front of them, but got talked into it. As I was going out, this guy Coyote says he'll be my safety. I warned him it was only my 3rd time and he told me not to worry and to have fun. It was great. Sure, I made mistakes but it was fun. At the end he hugged me and said, "You may not have all the transitions down yet, but you are beautiful to watch. I'd safety for you any day." I said, "Thanks Ice Man." I ended up doing one more spin as well. It was cool. Everyone was really supportive which was nice. PF was telling people it was only the third night I'd lit up and everyone was saying, "No way! You must be lying." So that made me feel a bit better.

Then the drinking began. Met tons of new people which was great. Some of you know I've been badly in need of a good makeout session. There were a couple guys there who I'd been chatting with who at various times kept telling me, "You are so beautiful, inside and out. Do you have any idea how sexy you are?" etc etc. Though I don't believe them, hey it's nice to hear. Then about 5 minutes later I'd get introduced to their wives. Just my luck. Right, Still attractive to married men. Good to know. Ugh.

A bunch of us were hanging out in a motorhome at one point. I introduced myself to those I didn't know and someone asked what my playa name was. I said since this was my first year I didn't have one. I was just using my real name - Annika. They said, no no, you need a playa name. I told them my hash name, but that wasn't good enough for them. I think they came up with several - Anniconda (which I haven't been called since I was like 8), SweetTart, Mama Mama (this was one that had been come up w/ prior to the burn and means "giver of love beyond all love")...makes you wonder - what's in a name? Apparently my real name wasn't cutting the mustard w/ a few folks. They said it's a work in progress, but for now any one of those would do. Umm...sure...just keep me posted.

Later that night I met this guy G and we were hanging out chatting and laughing. All of a sudden he just reaches over, grabs me and kisses me. Normally that'd be kinda cool. After all, I really needed a good makeout session. So what's the problem you ask? Well, the problem is the man was not a good kisser. Could someone please explain how someone that is 40 and had been married in the past for 7 years is a bad kisser? I just don't get it. How do you tell someone that and then extracate yourself from the situation? "Hey, just so you know. Any attraction I had to you and any desire I had to makeout w/ you has now gone out the window because you're a bad kisser." See, it just doesn't work. Terribly disappointing. Bad kissing is worse than no kissing.

Anyway, the evening went on and I eventually crashed out. Since I didn't have a tent and G had offered space in the back of his truck, I crashed there. No, nothing happened. Honestly, I just told y'all he's a bad kisser. What did you think was gonna happen? The next morning a bunch of folks had brought various ingredients and someone cooked up some scrambles for us. YUMMY! Then we did some more dancing, did some chair dancing, drank some mimosas, etc. Around 2:30 I headed for home which worked out well as it's when the rain started. Got home and took a nap. Then Scrummy came over and we cut some fur for our faux fur coats. Official decision - making your own coats sucks ass! Was back in bed at 10pm and made it up at 5:15am for the gym. Now I just need to figure out how to get home in time to get my poi which I forgot for my class tonight. Oops. Damn those 4:30pm meetings.

This weekend recap was brought to you by the letter N and the number 5.