Thursday, September 27, 2007

Ohno

Well all my plans to get caught up ended almost as quickly as they began. I am in a wrist and thumb brace for at least a week, possibly longer, as we try and figure out what is causing the nerve pain. It is most likely carpal tunnel, but having some strange symptoms too, so this is frustrating and painful. I had no idea how much pain it could be, and being a migraine sufferer, I have a high pain tolerance. I definitely have new respect for those with this condition, I truly had no idea.
I am hoping to find some way to continue working on my beading without stressing my hand. I guess one thing in my favor is it is my left hand and I am right handed. Maybe I could work on some sort of stand up frame, or something like that. I am creative and an engineer, I can make this work :)
Well that is the end of my whine for today, plus typing is tough with the brace lol.
Trilly

Monday, September 24, 2007





I just realized it has been well over a month since I wrote anything here. I had the most wonderful vacation ever. Burning Man was awesome. We had two burns, miserable weather conditions and the most fun imaginable. I met many new people this year and volunteered with some different groups, as well as having an incredible time with my campmates. We gave away many of the necklaces and pins we made and it was really great to get the feedback and compliments on our work. The pendants we made from old glass plates we found at a garage sale really looked great and made beautiful gifts. They also ended up being worth a lot more than we would have expected when we needed an obscure pipe fitting during the week and finally found one we could barter for, and our end of the barter ended up being a couple pendants.

Here are a few pictures from the event. The dust storms were pretty incredible at times, and were common the whole time we were there. The full moon was awesome, as well as the eclipse. One day we had a little rain on top of a dust storm and had an incredible double rainbow, as well as the single one shown in the picture. The last two pictures show the playa at the end of the event, practically empty and during the event, very full of people and camps.

So much happened there, both for me personally and at the event in general that I don't even have it all straight in my head 3 weeks later. I did a lot more on my own this year and really loved it. I set an intention to stay completely open to the experience, without any expectations, and it surpassed anything I could have even hoped for in terms of interaction with others and time alone with myself. It was also a wonderful time for Mike and I. We found a good balance between doing our own thing and making time to do something together every night. I found myself leaving Burning Man more in love with my partner and more at peace with myself than I could have ever dreamed.

Needless to say, the three weeks we were gone has me now a bit behind on my project. I finally got started on the August piece a week ago and hope to have it completed this week. I haven't found inspiration for September or October yet, but I have a feeling that will come as I complete August and move out of the Burning Man mode. I usually stress over missing a deadline, but I am staying calm through this and will get caught up over the next couple months as winter moves in and I have more indoor time. I will put a picture up in the next few days of the August progress.

Trilly