elvendoll

this year ... i think it just was, if that makes any sense.
it was hard in a number of ways, split about even between internal and external. luckily, i knew there was a good chance it'd turn out like this, so the fact itself is easy to live with. gotta take it where you can, right?
for a brief synopsis:
saturday - getting out of oakland took a long time, and we were late picking up the truck and getting into reno - so much so that a few errands got pushed off.
sunday - a few of us had brunch together at carrows, and then did 5 hours of shopping. in the grand scheme of things, the shopping went well, but there were definately a couple of things that need to be reworked. we had dinner at carrows again for ease of cat herding, and got on the road three or four hours behind schedule.
it was dark when we got to BRC,

maighread and i set up the tent and were about to head off to the man when i noticed the truck pulling in and headed back to welcome

sol3 home. when the truck was parked, we ended up just going straight to bed.

monday - i woke up and ventured out to see what could be done to start setting up the kitchen. unfortunately, the smaller truck was picking up the necessary storage items, and i spent a few hours chilling around camp while waiting for the truck to get in. things were a little stressful at the beginning of dinner prep as it was starting much later then i intended, and i was totally shocked to serve it on time - pulling that off was definately one of the high points of my week. after dinner, i opted to go to bed early to regain strength for the next day.

tuesday - i woke up needing to pee, and put on a labcoat to run to the bathroom, thinking i'd come back and change afterwards, and go out exploring. instead, i ended up working around camp till sometime between 3 and 4 in the afternoon, and then rode out to see collosus(i think?) by center camp and pop into autosub before dinner. after dinner,

goat and

tcb popped in, and we went wandering the nighttime deep playa with them for a few hours.

goat got tired first, and i was starting to wane shortly afterwards, and we called it a semi-early night.

wednesday - i woke up, went out to the porta-potties, and got dizzy in the dome when getting dressed. i thought it might be the heat, wandered out to the pantry, had breakfast in the shade of the truck and still didn't feel better. the next day was spent in that shade, running (well, biking) to the porta potties every half hour or so and stressing on why i'm not holding onto anything. i kept myself mostly together, but i felt like shit. for dinner, i had rice with butter and soy sauce, and then wandered out with people for a little while despite not being sure that i was well enough to do so. when i got back to camp, i realized that i felt less dizzy and nauseous while moving then not, but was a good kid and just went to bed rather then heading out again. it took a long time to fall asleep both at first, and when

sol3 popped in on me, and then i woke up on my own at the (actual) crack of dawn - and couldn't fall asleep again.

thursday - i stayed in the sleeping bag until it was warm enough outside, and wandered out, still feeling like crap. ran into a couple of campmates who confirmed that i should go to the med tent if i wasn't feeling better soon, and who thought i had a fever and gave me a tylenol pm to help with that and put me to sleep - i laid down again, but had no luck falling asleep. after an hour of that, i got

sol3 and we went to the med tent - where they told me i was going all of the right things already, gave me electrolyte pills, let me rest on a cool bed for a bit and told me to come back if i'm not feeling better in a day. there,

sol3 and i got to talk, and he calmed me down a lot by explaining that my symptoms are normal for him - because doing all the right things and not feeling any better out in the desert was scaring me shitless. eventually, we wandered back to camp, and i sat around (and ran to the bathroom a lot) while he was unloading the truck to take it back to reno. i decided to go on the reno run with him, and because it started so late, we had to spend 24 hours off playa - which, while having a couple of perks, was far from the ideal way of handling the reno run.

friday -

sol3 and i woke up in reno, and he let me sleep in a bit while running a couple of the smaller errands. we then went to costco and managed to be in, out and loaded in about 3 hours, which is pretty good for nearly a thousand dollars' worth of shopping. we get back to playa around 4:30, and i stuck around camp until dinnertime. after dinner, there was a camp meeting, and after that, i made it out of camp to wander around for the fourth time during the week. i saw the thunderdome, did a whole bunch of wandering the deep playa, and eventually headed back to camp in hopes of getting to the dome before being totally ready to pass out - which didn't really happen.

saturday - i got up earlyish to help with the meal, but ended up just chilling while the food was brought out, and after some putzing in camp,

sol3 and i biked to autosub, hung out there with a few people and then biked off to the deep playa with

goat and

tcb. we biked around for a few hours and by the time we got back, i needed a nap. sadly, the nap meant

sol3 missed seeing the burn with our campmates, and when we came back to the dome to change for the rest of the night,

sol3 wasn't feeling well and we just went to bed.

sunday - sunday was spent ineffectively trying to tear down camp. due to a couple of off things, noone left in camp after the storage run left had a good idea of what exactly needed to be done, so there was a lot of wheel spinning and some work done, and then the temple burn. sadly, i watched the burn without

sol3, as the storage run took longer then it should have (sadly, i think they all do), and we did a bunch more work afterwards.

monday was also spent tearing down and leaving, and then some hanging out in reno. and if i can forget how much yesterday sucked for

sol3, i might write about it.

today, i'm at his place, trying to concentrate on workstuff - getting into the spin of things after 2 weeks off is interesting.
tonight, i head over to my place, and see about starting to make my place be a home.