In today’s #PlayaTales, our hero talks about playa time, skips out on a promise to himself, and does some Mark Fooking Day, Right Now!
Burners accept that “Playa Time” is a real unit of measurement. Playa time means that nothing starts when it is supposed to, because no one is wearing a watch and you never know what could happen prior to doing anything. Most events are designed with playa time in mind. Rocky Horror Picture showings may say “10:30pm” knowing that it may be 2am.
Now there are those exceptions that are scheduled by people who have real agendas. At 5pm was an actual “non-Playa time” event. It was to be a cancer survivor walk from the Man to the Temple. I didn’t do it last year because I wasn’t a survivor. This year I was and had it on my schedule to do. But as it got closer, I was feeling less and less like doing it. Seeing the Temple the night before and my reaction to it was weighing heavily. I couldn’t do it. I really could not go out there and face this thing inside me. I was scared, and this was not going to go anything like I had imagined in the real world. Maybe next year…
One of the things I did really wanted to do was go by and see Mark Day. Mark Day is Burning Man famous – he does these videos about Burning Man that are watched by tens if not dozens of people every year (his 2018 video has 100k+ views). His camp also has a photo booth where Leori takes professional photos of the participants of Burning Man. This was happening only during a certain time on certain day – fuck this willy nilly Playa Time bullshit.
I had a couple of encounters with Mark last year and then another one on Facebook this year. We had exchanged some banter, send friend requests, private messages back and forth, and was invited to his camp to get our pictures taken. Which makes this sound more like a plot to gay porn than intended. Regardless, this was definitely an invite I was wanting to keep. My Zebra, General Kitty, Pockets the Overgrown Leprechaun, and myself rode our bikes over to his camp.
We found Mark barking into a megaphone on the street to get people to come in and take pictures. We got hugs and introductions to our friends. I got a few moments to talk to Mark and harass him about cutting me from his video last year. He pulled me aside and told me why it was cut, which was not necessary but appreciated (hint: fuck cancer). We joked around and he wanted me to tell Krissy (the girl with the bunny ears) that her story was his favorite. (If you haven’t seen the video, I’ll put a link in the comments below).
We got in line to have our pictures taken. General Kitty and Pockets had a couples picture, Zebra and I had our couples picture, and then we took a prom style picture of the four of us together. We thanked Leori, and said goodbye to Mark. It still amazes me to know someone whose videos I have been watching for over a decade and am now kinda friends with. It puts into perspective how much my life has changed over the years and even between years.
With pictures taken, we headed back to camp for naps, costume changes, and prepare for another night on the town… the thought of the survivor walk firmly out of my mind and replaced by a semi-naked Scottish man…
Yeah, that really does sound more homoerotic than necessary…