Oh man, there’s so much to write up. I’ve been out of my mind these last few weeks. Work has been busy and the small vacation I had was fun but I worked there too. I need a week or three to just sit, do nothing, hang out and watch movies.
AutumnMeet 08 was a lot of fun. It seemed smaller but that just made it more intimate. Normally it is a very large gathering where I can do my job and hide out the rest of the time. I see the people I want to visit with and then stay secluded in camp or the kitchen away from the rest of the people. This time there was a smaller staff and it just seemed like I needed to be out and about more than usual. I liked it. I got to meet a lot more people. I helped out more than a few noobs that just needed a quick answer and I felt good about it. I guess I could say I “joined in” more than usual. It was a good thing. These people don’t bite (unless you ask them to) and my irrational fear of crowds is diminishing as I begin to feel more confident. I even made the coffee a few times!
I really missed Becca and Teresa this event. They were super busy and unfortunately, these were commitments that they couldn’t put off or switch dates. She’s the Girl Scout troop leader so she has to be part of a lot of the big meetings. These dates don’t get set until the start of the school year so she’s stuck at a leadership meeting, Becca is staying after school for her pre-SAT prep testing (only 7th grade, SAT already!?!?!?) and they were part of the Breast-Cancer Walk on Saturday. Basically they could have come out Saturday night for a couple of hours and been exhausted when they get there. So, they weren’t able to make it and I really missed them a lot this event. Teresa doesn’t believe it but lots of people asked about her as well.
A lot of people were missing this event. We were down to a skeleton crew for staff but it seemed to work out alright. Another thing missing was the social drama. No rumor mills running off at the mouth (that I heard) this time. It was a nice change, no worrying about who’s pissed off at whom and no “did you hear what he/she said about him/her” going on. I liked that a lot. It was just a lot of fun and everyone got along just fine. We did have one unpleasant dramatic event but it was less related to social-drama than to alcohol consumption (or so I’m told). Unfortunate, but not totally unexpected. That is why we have Guardians and why we trust them to protect the group. They did an outstanding job and you’ll have things like this occur with any cross section of people.
The drumming was a laborious, yet rewarding affair. My drum head blew out last month and with time/money like it has been I just haven’t had a chance to get it re-headed. So I brought out Becca’s drum to play on. That thing sounds just fine when it is in the background but when it is played as a lead drum, it hurts! We were without our drum coordinator so it kind of fell to a few of us to pick up the reigns and make this circle work. I couldn’t play Becca’s drum as a background drum because there were only a few drummers out there. We needed every drum we could get. So I beat that thing for everything it had in it and it made me pay for it. My hands are beat up hamburger. It was pointed out that the drum just doesn’t like me. It’s used to a 12-year-old girl playing it for 20-30 minutes at a time. Then here comes a big power-hitter who slams this thing for 5-6 hours straight every night. I really need to get my drum re-headed. And I had offers to help me with that endeavor. Now I just need the time to do it.
In the end, we all had a good time. We missed Nighthawk but we pulled off a good week of drumming. I normally wait a couple of hours after drumming gets started to join in. Coming in late ensures that the testosterone-drummers have burned out and the really dedicated drummers come in around 10pm or so. But this event I was summoned by radio to come down to the circle almost as soon as the drumming started. So I was first in, last out. We played from 8pm(ish) to around 2-3am every morning. We’d start with 10 or 12 drummers and it would slowly peter out through the night. I’d normally say we peak around 1am with the best dancing and drumming but due to our smaller numbers and the drop-out rate, I’d say we peaked around 11pm every night. By midnight it was down to three of us and the other two would drop out about 1am. I’d stick around for as long as there were dancers. That made for some long nights but there is something beautiful about being the lone drummer for a couple of dancers slowly making their way around the flames as the moon and stars silently drift by overhead. No dancer was ever left stranded and I never left the circle until all the dancers were in bed. This often meant getting only 3 hours sleep but then, I was sleeping on the ground so maybe that was a good thing.
I never overslept, breakfast was served on time or only moderately late (10-15 minutes late) and that is actually the norm. Dinner came in early and we didn’t have any major emergencies. We really missed our kitchen regulars. Teresa wasn’t able to make it this time and Joan has been unable to make it the last two events. I’m not giving up hope that they’ll be back, the kitchen is empty without you guys.
Filling in this event was Zephyr’s beau, Jay. He’s a great guy with even less tact than I have! I got to spend some time with him and got to know him a lot more. I like him, he’s a good man. Now if only we can get him to shut up about Bigfoot! Damn!!! But he’s a really great people-person and I hope he comes back to the kitchen next event. It will be perfect with Teresa and me running behind the scenes cooking stuff and Zephyr and Jay dealing with the front-line and the crowd. I think we found a way to make this kitchen thing work. But, who knows what the future holds. Don’t make any plans until you know what you are planning for.
Another big kitchen help was Kristin. She stuck around and helped us out when she could and that made all the difference in the world. When we were running five burners hot, things boiling over and other things burning on the grill, Kristin was the life saver that could run and ask questions or get things when all our hands were full. I also witnessed another selfless act she pulled off when she stopped something that was important to her to assist someone that was fooling around and making a scene. It did not go unnoticed dear and I’m sorry you never got what you were after.
What we really need is kitchen staff that doesn’t drum or dance! It is killing us to play all night and be up cooking early in the morning. 8am is too damn early to serve breakfast, especially since we have to be up at 7am to cook it, 6:30 on pancake/sausage day…
There’s so much more that happened, it would be impossible to write it all up. Just imagine me at work, being pushed 24/7 and stressed out to the redline. Then I go off to festival, being pushed 24/7 and the stress melts away just inside the black. Now I’m back to work and I’m having trouble getting started again because I don’t want to go back into the red. I had too much fun at festival. It was too short but it was perfect. I cooked, I drummed, I chased small children around and I listened to the wisdom of my elders. I slept out under the stars and when I woke up I warmed myself by the fire and went to bed. Then I got up and did it all over again.
I joked around with Wade and said that I needed to decide between the drum and the kitchen. He said I have no choice, I wasn’t allowed out of the kitchen. We laughed about it but I wouldn’t give up that kitchen for anything. It means the world to me to be able to cook for all these people. Now more than ever I am feeling the power of the community. I feel it when I cook for them, I feel it when I drum for them. I feed them, they feed me. I think I am starting to understand just how important this community is to me. My anti-social nature is cracking and I am embracing this group as one of them, not as one outside of them. The staff of this community has rotated over the years, some have gone, some have come. I have been with this group in one way or another for nine and a half years and finally I have allowed myself to become part of it.
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