Transportation and Theoretical Logistics

The summer adventure vacation is approaching.  I still have to work for another week, which is good since I need the money to pay for the vacation.  It's beginning to look like I'm going to blow a couple of the extra paychecks 100%, but it's not the first time I've blown a paycheck and, insha'allah, it won't be the last.

Once I made the appointment with Max for "Boost and Hair" which is what we've come to call my Cut & Color with ACIM mentoring on the side, the rest fell into place.  Now I just have to secure a ticket to Burning Man.   Research suggests that people all over the county who bought their tickets back in February will be discovering to their chagrin that they can't make The Burn after all and will, consequently, be trying to unload their tickets at the end of July.  I'm registered for STEP - secure ticket exchange program - since I wouldn't know a burning man ticket from a grocery receipt and have never bought anything on craigslist, anyway.  

I feel fairly confident - not fully, but fairly - confident that if anyone will be sleeping in the dust instead of in Pinko's air conditioned RV - it will not be me.  Pinko and I have been chatting via IM.  We still haven't talked on the phone, which is a little weird when you consider we'll be bunking together in roughly five weeks, but I prefer it.  Although chatting is immediate, you still have the opportunity to check yourself before you hit "send" so you can tailor the conversation to make yourself look like less of an idiot (theoretically).

In any case, from our virtual conversations, I've gathered that Seldom Seen was a pleasant interlude for Pinko, but that's about as far as it went.  It's nice that he exhibits lingering feelings of affection and responsibility toward her because it indicates that he's not a fucking asshole.  He may even be a gentleman, but having never met the man in person, I'm not willing to go that far yet.  Nevertheless, there are indications in our personal communication and in the facebook group that Seldom Seen is fully Last Year's Female.  The good news is that until last year, Pinko wasn't collecting females on the playa at all.

Apparently, he hasn't really been collecting females at all ever in his whole life although he's had a few substantive relationships.  I get the feeling he's kind of shy, but because of his job as a nightclub DJ, tipsy women hit on him.  These days, however, those women tend to be younger and looking for someone to straighten out their Daddy issues.  I wouldn't be surprised if Seldom Seen fell into that category.  From what I've heard, it sounds like she attached herself to him once The Man had burned and turned into a pile of glowing embers.  These burners like to extend the burning experience - in what they call the After Burn.  It's hard to say who was hanging onto whom as the ashes flew off in the wind, but he wound up storing all her camping stuff while she roamed around South America, and now he's toting it all back to the playa for her.

Meanwhile, he won't even meet me at the damn bus stop which is like 200 yards from the campsite.  

I'm not sure how far it is from the campsite to the little BRC air strip.  A girl always needs an exit strategy, and it's nice to know I can stomp off into the dust in a huff, grab a puddle jumper and fly off with the dawn if I feel like it.

"Intersection," installation by James Reagant and Charles Fields, 2010

I doubt such a course of action will be necessary.  The main thing is that Pinko and I have established that this episode is, in fact, a date.  He was evidently confused about my intentions because he's not sure how to interpret what's going on when a Nice Girl is being nice to him.  Typically, he thinks we're just being nice.  Given that he drives a taxi back and forth to a (legal) whore house, I can see how he might not have much experience in the land of Nice Girls - although certainly he must have run across Nice Girls in his travels.  Not lately, though.  Friday night, he took a coked-up stripper out to her boyfriend's place.  It was a roundtrip, so he made some good money and got a story out of it, too.  He's writing up the stories for a series over at Roundtree7.com called Scenes from the Toaster.  I don't know why the taxi is called a toaster, but it's got a sign for the whorehouse on top.

You'd think a taxi driver would be glad to pick up an old broad at the Burning Man bus stop - and it's possible he's fucking with me just because he can.  It doesn't matter in the slightest, however, since I'm getting plenty of milage of my own off this story about having a blind date at Burning Man.  I tried out the story on a waiter the other night when Nicole and I were having dinner after Drunken! Careening! Writers!  The waiter was so impressed he gave me a fist bump and said, "Say hi to Molly for me."

I feel guilty on account of Nicole and I kind of ditched Rex Visigothis - actually we were kind of merciless about leaving him to fend for himself at KBG - but we had girly things to discuss.  I can't remember what they were right now, but that's just how Nicole and I roll.   Once I get settled into the school year, she and I are going to start working on a segment I like to call Two Redheads Walk Into a Bar for the I Love Nicole Show.

Nicole being Tuff!