jonesin' for brain candy?

Chris and I bought our Burning Man tickets last night off of Craigslist from a random guy in Venice who sold 'em to us for more than face value, so that he could "pay his rent."

We waited a long time before buying 'em because we weren't sure Chris was going to get the time off from work so that we could go.

This is the 8th year I'll be going to Burning Man, and it's the 20th anniversary of the event. This year's ticket is gorgeously-designed, like last year's (photographed while driving through the desert to the event as a passenger in Derek's car).

The first year I went to Burning Man was 1999, and that year the tickets looked like any other normal Ticketmaster concert ticket. It also cost $65, while this year's tickets began at about $185. Here's what I wrote in my online journal on August 16, 1999 before I attended the event. And here's the diary I wrote about my experiences at Burning Man in 1999.

It's interesting to read what I was thinking about seven years ago, and to see photos of my friends and myself looking so much younger. I couldn't have imagined this future that I live in right now. In 1999 when I attended the event, I lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I worked at a now non-existent company, Wildweb.com. Going to Burning Man in 1999 changed my life in so many ways. I decided to move to the West Coast a few weeks after returning to Boston and I left for good one month later. I met Owen at Burning Man in 1999, and we both ended up moving to San Francisco. I met Esther and Jason at Burning Man in 2001.

Owen, Esther, Jason, Andy, Jeff and Mindy won't be going to Burning Man this year due to work, school, world travel, and oher reasons. I'll miss them so much, but I'm still glad to be going to the desert. And I'm very glad that Chris has decided he wants to go. (He's never been before.) It'll be an adventure. We're doing an art project, similar to the one my friends, August, and I built last year (the psychiatric help booth). This year, we'd like to do something very similar (because a *lot* of people in Black Rock City seemed to want someone to talk to about their lives and problems and it was good to be able to help out), but we're thinking of calling it "Help with your past, present, and FUTURE" to fit the future theme.

There's an art installation this year called "Future You Post" by Betsy McCall and her description of the project is:

It looks like an everyday mailbox, with paper, envelopes, and pens available. But the intention here is that you write yourself a letter and it is delivered to you five years from now. The intention is for participants to write their hopes and fears, only to be surprised by them in the future. Especially for people whose off-playa lives are very different from their on-playa lives, the experience of receiving this letter from themselves in 2011 could prove extremely powerful.
I'm not sure what I will write to myself, but it will probably begin "Dear Jessica, I'm not sure how or where this letter will find you, but I hope you are still around and healthy in 2011, and I hope you are still enjoying life as much as you were in 2006. (But maybe not working quite as hard.) I hope your loved ones are still around you, and I can not imagine what you will have accomplished five years from now."

What do YOU think about the future? If you could write yourself a letter that you would receive five years from now, what would it say?

I needed to fly up to San Jose from Los Angeles to attend some meetings at Yahoo!s main office up in Sunnyvale, and I had a very tight schedule and was worried about how the airport situation just hours after the announcement of the London terror plot would affect my trip.

If I didn't make it through the security lines in time, I would risk missing my flight, and consequently miss all of the fairly important back-to-back meetings I had scheduled.

Also, I don't know about you, but it sort of just makes me a tiny bit nervous to get on a plane when I think about bombs going off inside planes filled with people. I tried not to think about that and instead worried about whether or not I would be able to get my toothpaste and deoderant through the security clearance. I only had one bag with me (an beautiful oversized cream-colored Marc Jacobs purse that I use as my overnight bag and that certainly would not have survived being checked through underneath the plane), and I was going on an overnight business trip. I don't know about you, but deodorant and toothpaste rank pretty high on my list of overnight necessities for overnight trips.

At LAX haggared travelers were not sure about what they could and could not take onto the airplanes. There was a lot of confusion, because not everyone had had a chance to read the news yet and familiarize themselves with the list of things that were banned. At the security chckpoint, I removed my shoes and put my bag on the x-ray belt and held my breathe as I walked through the metal detector. Luckily, the screeners let my toothpaste and deodorant through. (I had a tiny travel-sized Crest toothpaste, and solid Secret deodorant, so these may have been deemed acceptable. It's hard to say. I didn't ask for clarification, because I didn't want to call attention to these contraband products, lest I risk them being taken away!)

Water and drinks were the #1 thing they were taking away from people at LAX. The grown woman in front of me in the security line was brought to tears when her brand new bottle of sparkling Calistoga water was grabbed and pulled out of her bag. "But I just bought this in the airport!" she demanded to the security screener guy. The guy told her that that didn't matter. "You can't take any liquids through to the gates," he said. He told her she had to give it to them. She started to cry, "But can I just have a sip first, please, before you take it away?" People were stressed and it was making everyone thirsty. (It's very dry and warm in Los Angeles, and this adds to the thirsty-factor.)

When we landed in San Jose (a much smaller airport in Northern California at the bottom of Silicon Valley), I noticed bins filled with banned items taken away from passengers. I snapped a photo of this one with my cameraphone. At San Jose airport, they were taking away deodorant and toothpaste, in addition to water and beverages. Also, I thought it was interesting that they were taking away chapstick too! I felt so thankful that they didn't take away my lipstick and moisturizer. It's very very dry in California, and it's not recommended to give a presentation with dry skin and chapped lips.

Does the foiled London terror plot make you more afraid to fly? Or does it make you more confident about flying? Also, how do you feel about the increase security checks and increased list of banned items to take on planes? Have you had anything weird taken away from you before boarding a plane?

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