I woke up a few minutes before my alarm went off at 2:30am, and changed into the “space babe” superhero outfit that I’d packed to wear for my Greeter shift. I had found the base of this costume at a playawear sale in Berkeley a week or so before the burn. It was a zip-up, silvery black spandex bodysuit thing with short sleeves and super short shorts, with a long red spandex cape attached at the shoulders and six large round turquoise plastic “buttons” down the front that each had a circular infinity light inside of them. It was something I originally pulled out of the rack and looked at and went “naw, I can’t possibly wear that, it’s too small, too revealing, not flattering to my big butt and thighs”. But some other little voice inside me said “aw come on, just try it on and see...besides, every time you think some piece of apparel or accessory is just too outrageous, you wind up loving it later.” So I tried it on and it did fit (yay stretchy spandex), and it was in fact revealing but I decided to experiment with it anyway. I added black, fringed fingerless gloves, black thigh highs, sparkly silver UGG boots, the silver and turquoise crown I made at Gaming Camp and big star earrings. And thus was the superhero version of Supernova born. As it turned out, the night was mild and I wasn’t even cold so I didn’t have to put on a jacket over the outfit, and the light ups in the bodysuit were perfect for the night part of the shift. I wish I had some pictures of the moment but I will always remember how good it felt to be standing tall and proud at the Gate at sunrise with my cape flying in the wind behind me.

And being a Greeter turned out to be super fun! Anji, Kathy, Michelle and I rode our bikes out to the Gate and got there early for our shift, so we sat around for a bit in the Greeter station and got oriented by the very nice shift leads, and then when it was time, we all sort of randomly picked a spot in the Gate lineup to get started. We overlapped with the previous shift for a few minutes and watched how it was done, and then we were on our own for four hours. The Greeter before me gave me some great stickers that he’d made to keep handing out to people along with the usual What-Where-When guide, map and other materials. The traffic was pretty slow (it being so early in the morning) but pretty much everyone who came through was super stoked to have finally arrived and happy to chat and talk and do some ritual if they were first-timers (virgins).

I told virgins that we had two different Burning Man rituals for them to Participate in (they could lie in the dust and do a dust angel or some sort of dust encounter, and they could ring the bell next to the gate and shout “I am no longer a Burning Man virgin!”), and invited them to try one or both. Every virgin I talked to at least rang the bell, and many of them also did some sort of dust angel. I also told them that since the theme this year was Radical Ritual, they were particularly lucky to be able to do their virgin rituals at this burn. I told them this because I wanted to make the moment special and meaningful for them. (One of the gifts I like giving people at the burn is an awareness of/appreciation for a small, positive moment that they’re in.) I also encouraged people to Participate in the ritual of hugging the Greeter and did my best to welcome each and every person with enthusiasm and excitement. (I told people “oh man, I’ve been waiting for you for so long, and I’m so glad you’re finally here! I’m so glad to see you! Welcome home!”)

Anji was in the Greeter line next to me and she and I had fun playing around with trying to get incoming cars to come to our own line and not the other person’s. I would gesture towards the car or RV like I was trying really hard to pull it towards me with invisible ropes and then tell them when they got to my line “did you see that? I totally moved the car with my mind!” It made people laugh and it certainly entertained me. I asked people if they knew where they were going to in the city, and I gave people some PSAs about the heat we’d been experiencing and warned them to take it easy and watch for dehydration (and come by and get water from Pink Heart if they wanted). Other than that I answered any questions they had, gave them their materials and then sent them on their way. I particularly remember greeting an entire RV full of 7 guys both young and old, who turned out to be a rock band called “Daring Greatly” (isn’t that a great name?) that was coming to perform all over the burn. Many of them were virgins and they had a fun time doing all the rituals. I told them about Pink Heart and our water and ice cream and encouraged them to come by.

The four hour shift went by pretty fast, and all of us agreed it had been super fun and we’d do it again next year. After we were relieved we sat around the Greeter station for a bit waiting for the porta-potties to be cleaned so we could use them before we headed back. I will admit that the Supernova superhero bodysuit was particularly difficult to use the potty in, but I eventually managed. (You also just get a lot less fussy about cleanliness and hygiene when you’re out there in the desert. You kind of have to.) We went by Center Camp on the way back to get some drinks (I had a lovely iced Yerba Mate), and ran into Mom and Mama Doody and her friends Kathy and Katherine there, which was a fun coincidence. We didn’t stay long since we were pretty tired, but we did manage to see a few cool art pieces on the way back to Pink Heart.

Once we got back to camp, I changed out of my Supernova superhero outfit and puttered around for a bit and then finally laid down for a nap because I had another volunteer shift at Arctica (the ice-selling place) coming up at 3 that I had to leave for around 2ish. Thank goodness our yurt had an A/C unit and was still relatively cool on the inside so I could do that. (Mid-day naps really saved my butt this burn.)

I changed into a unicorn outfit for our Pink Heart Arctica shift (I figured white was appropriate for Arctica) and headed over with Josh and a bunch of other Pinkies. Just like last year, I was a Greeter for this shift also (greeting and welcoming people is one of my superpowers, after all), and also just like last year I was stationed right at the entrance to the Ice Dome. So I fell into the same shtick as last year, where I would welcome and joke and tease and ask people if they were “ready” (really I just had to make sure they were ready with their order so that they wouldn’t hold up the line once they got to the cashiers, but as is my way I wanted to make it a metaphorical question and a perspective shift as well). I would say “Are you ready? Are you clear? Clear as crystal? Do you know what you want? Are you focused, prepared, and confident? Because you know, ready people get what they want. And I want you to be successful here and get what you want.” People would laugh and say they were ready and I would say “okay, ready people cross the line!” and invite them to step over the threshold into the dome. At a certain point there was virtually no line and I would greet people by saying “guess what? I have an awesome gift for you. Check it out: no line. Savor this moment and remember that sometimes things really do work out in your favor.” (Again, the gift of awareness/perspective and assistance appreciating a moment.) We all had a good time “pinking up” Arctica and we got lots of tips and ice to bring back to camp when we were all through.

After we got back to camp from the Arctica shift, there was a camp dinner and a camp meeting, where we all squeezed into our kitchen/chill area and talked about All The Things. Anji and I had planned on doing a “newbies orientation/ice breaker” afterwards but the meeting had so much info and went so long that we said never mind. After that Josh and I took a shower in our newly remodeled Pink Heart shower (I didn’t really need a shower yet but Josh hadn’t had a shower since he’d been there for build, and it seemed like a good opportunity and experience to share), then we changed into night clothes and went and hung out on Headspace for a bit for the Headspace Homecoming dance, and hung out in frontage for a while too. I think I made it until around eleven or midnight and then I went to bed because I had a workshop to lead the next morning at 10 and I didn’t want to be cranky tired.

[Radical Rituals at Burning Man: Preamble and Prologue]

[Radical Rituals at Burning Man: Part 2]

[Radical Rituals at Burning Man: Part 3]

[Radical Rituals at Burning Man: Part 4]

[Radical Rituals at Burning Man: Part 5]

[Radical Rituals at Burning Man: Part 6]

[Radical Rituals at Burning Man: Part 7]

[Radical Rituals at Burning Man: Part 8]

[Radical Rituals at Burning Man: Part 9]

[Full set of Radical Ritual pictures on Facebook]