my ride showed up with pink flamingos on the top of her car. probably the most fabulous thing about her. she wasn't scary or dangerous or really wierd, but she also wasn't charming or interesting or cute, either. she really overestimated our time- when we got to hart, MI at 4.30AM we pulled into the mobil parking lot to nap till we were alowed to get in line.
not everyone follwed the 7AM rule- we were 10 min early and we weren't in the first 200 cars. we'd been waiting for maybe 10 min when i heard leah outside! i hopped out of the car and hugged her and rachel. i continued with them on their walk to count cars. when we got back to the flamingos my ride didn't seem to be having any fun, so i went on to their cars, where their girlfriends (dana and erin respectively) were sleeping. they wanted to find their friends from lansing, MI, so we continued walking...the lansing girls' car was in the 400s. Lots of people at this festival. 6,000 some, actually.
the lansing girls are who leah went to visit after she came to visit me. when i met laura, i remembered leah worrying about how cuddly laura is. laura's friends were heather and another laura. we all went back to leah and rachel's car and woke up erin and dana and the 8 of us hung out on the bumper. they said, this is what life is like at our campsite, only with alchohol and beer. it was a long wait, but i was glad to get to know my fellow campers better. the lansing girls were a a bit tiring, and i was glad that they'd just be hanging out with us, not actually camping at our place. but it ended up as the week went on, i really appriciated having single friends who weren't caught up in the drama of leah and dana, rachel and erin (heretofore labled "philly dykes") and having this group, these SEVEN people to hang out with, was pretty fabulous. at 1 the gates opened and i found my ride, and we inched up the road for 2 hours, unloaded the car, and said goodbye for the week. i did orientation, signed up for my workshifts, and then there were the philly dykes, ready to haul our stuff onto the tractor, and be driven onto The Land.
they got the space they like the best, where they've camped the past few years. we set up our 3 tents, the living room tarp, all our chairs, the hammock, clothesline and banners (the "philly dykes on a move" and "Fucking Insane S(omething) Totallyhotmamas") to make some pretty posh camping.
gosh, i need to condense. i'll make lists for awhile.
new things:
i learned how to walk on stilts
women with facial hair
the majority of women being gay
gendered language (not saying, "you guys," reading womyn and saying "herstory")
i smoked pot
eating dinner with 6 clothed people and one naked one
lots of music: alix olsen, bitch,
pamela means, ember swift, the butchies...things that made me uncomfortable or sad or confused or lonely:
going to the christian workshops
complicated relationships: leah and dana breaking up, dana and erin being together, growing relationship between heather and leah
my stuff getting wet in my tent after the rain
walking around after dark with my very weak flashlight
being very cold (or wet, or hot)
knowing nothing about flirting, sex, or relationships
things that made me comfortable or happy or excited:
just leaving my bag lying around, my dishes hanging by the kitchen, etc.
hanging out in a large group (look at me and my 7 friends!)
vegetarian food prepared for me
seeing leah
having her friends like me
singing along with the indigo girls at the top of our lungs in a big heap at nightstage
cuddiing with laura
walking on stilts in the parade
dancing with the lansing girls the last night
things i bought:
lots of fudgecicles
a tiedyed dress
3 cds- the new pamela means, erin mckeown and amy ray
fest shirts (have you seen their great logo?)
a d.i.t.c. tanktop (dykes in the city, doncha know. it makes me sing "dykes in the city look prettty to me, dykes in the city look fine. music comes spilling out into the street, colors go waltzing in time..")
i think that's a pretty complete picture. i don't think i took any actual photos, but i have lots of those life postcards to send back in time.
for the moment i first saw the "and it was my rebirth" on leah's sketchbook, i'd like to send the postcard of us on the tarp at the indigo girls. i told them all afterwards, what i miss most about church is getting together with all my friends and singing my favourite songs together. and this was the same feeling, it was fabulous, it was spiritual.
to me all by myself at the philadelphia folk fest when mom was working in the annex: the postcard of our fabulous campsite with a bunch of us hanging around talking and drinking.
to me in michael's apartment, turning down the joint- the postcard of us on the top of the hill, passing the lovely blown glass boll, someone lighting it for diffencient me (i can't work cars or lighters. so sue me.) i feel like a christian talking about sex, but i'm glad i waited, cause i wanted it to be someting really special.
to me in the train sitting 6 inches away from a: the torchlit postcard of laura and me cuddling at closing cermonies. how happy i am to find someone to fill the cuddling shaped hole in my heart.
me selling ice cream bars on my workshift, drinking woopwoop wine from the bottle, letting a stranger take a picture of my lepard print boots. being a socialist and sharing my nalgene.
these all should be sent back. leah's sending her pictures out on disk, so hopefully i'll get a copy of the one with me walking on stilts in the parade. but no one else but me has the movie of walking 3 feet above the admiring throngs, turning the corner and picking faces out of the crowd, smiling and waving to me, erin on the right and leah on the left, crouching behind their slrs- i feel it was perhaps my 15 min. of fame.
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