To the odd gentleman who ‘crossed the street’ to avoid you: I hereby flip you the bird.

Have you coined any new words relating to the overall survival experience (so far, given it’s a from-here-on-out thing)?

The Rangers and Dirtwitch made it largely possible by offering me the option to take Ranger Echelon afternoon shifts in the air-conditioning. Even though it wasn’t the strongest A/C out there, it definitely made a difference getting through the hottest part of the day. We camped in the shade and mostly moved around at night since at that point I was still having a MUCH harder time with temperature regulation.

Some of the nicest hospitality I received was from the Purple Taco camp. One of my few daytime adventures was walking over to get lunch tacos, and I ended up having to hang out in their shade, sitting in front of a fan, drinking the tastiest koolaid ever (must have been needing it) for about an hour before I could get the energy to venture back to camp. Even though they were in the middle of serving tacos I still got to chat with Nikki, Julie, André, and others briefly as I rested. They also provided a lovely resting place and pleasant company and scritches Sunday evening, when Nathan and I needed a break from dancing at the pyramid.

Since I was wearing concealing and sun-sheltering clothes during the day, nighttime was the main opportunity to observe people’s reactions. Since many people have altered perceptions at such an event, it was hard to tell how many of them perceived what they were seeing, or understood it if they saw it. I know Sunday night one middle-aged drunk gentleman was one of the few exhibiting obvious surprise and alteration of his walking path to avoid me after he parsed the visual input.

Burn night itself was very…anthropological for me this year (I blame that darned Prehistory of Sex book I read after surgery). I had a lovely camp chair seat right next to where the firespinners entered, a great angled view of the effigy. And a lot of thoughts about how often we as thinking monkeys have been raising this sort of energy in various forms for thousands and thousands of years. Stuff like that.

Probably the most remarkable “only at Flipside” experience this year was the closure and reconciliation of sorts with my first girlfriend. As we were sitting in a camp taking a breathing break, she saw me (I’d seen her the previous year with the “Free Hugs” crowd so I knew she attended) and approached me asking forgiveness for her bad treatment of me during the break-up. It was obviously something that had been a psychic weight for her for many years, and with my new lease on life I was certainly in a place to give her that surcease. We chatted for about half an hour subjective time, a fast-forward summary of our years since we’d last spoken. Knowing her, I knew she would appreciate the scar (she’s had major rehabilitative surgery of her own and partially fetishizes scarification), and she did, eagerly asking if she could touch it (she could and did). She found it beautiful, which it is.

Many good gifts received even though it was one of the hardest physical activities I’ve ever set myself (not counting cancer and surgery, of course); quite worth it.