by Lauren Bereza Murphy, guest blogger

Hey friends and family and curious folks. I started telling a few people about our time in the desert and I quickly realized that I would be repeating myself over and over again to each new person. Already the tale was becoming rehearsed. SO not Burning Man.

What about Immediacy? and Radical Self Expression? and my Civic Responsibility to share the true experience?

Already feeling like I’m losing some of you with the eye rolling and such. I apologize for any future self-indulgence making.

Soooooo…..how was it?

But first, if you need the backstory or philosophy or whatever, the folks at Burningman.org would do a much better job than I. Go spend some time there.

Anyway, here’s my small take. Burning Man is hard. It’s expensive and requires plans upon plans upon plans. Tickets are tricky and arrangements trickier. I did almost nothing else for the month leading up to the trip.

As Jack Blakey puts it so well, “The number one rule of Burning Man is NEVER STOP TALKING ABOUT BURNING MAN.” It was an obsession. What are the best goggles? How do I make sure all my stuff doesn’t fly away in a dust storm? How will I keep my hair from locking up on the first day? I need more costumes. How much water should I bring?

What kind of lights do I need? What is Playa Foot? I need more costumes. Do I really need 100 extra batteries?  7 packs of baby wipes?  80 ziploc bags? What is the best shade structure and how do I keep it from also flying away? Port-a-Potties for EIGHT DAYS? I need more costumes.

It’s the “HOLY SH**!!” the first time you reach the Playa on bike and see how insanely immense it all is. It’s your slack jaw at the lit up ocean-liner, or dragon, or pirate ship, or flaming octopus, or 40ft tall vacuum cleaner cruising by at midnight. It’s seeing a dust storm and knowing in 30 seconds you won’t see your hand in front of your face. It’s the pin drop quiet of 30,000 people watching the temple burn beautifully to the ground. It’s the realization that you’ll only see 20% of what is there.

It’s thinking you’ll probably not meet that many new people (you have enough friends already) and then find yourself in 30 really awesome conversations with some very very amazing people. It’s the constant umpha, umpha, umpha, of EDM. It’s the joy of stumbling upon live music – marching band, orchestra, cuban rhythm, karaoke.  It’s the dust.  It’s the dust.  So.  Much.  Dust.
It’s not for everyone.  But it kind of is.

Suuuuuuuuuper deep.  So here are some pictures.

This is an excerpt from a much longer blog post by Lauren  about her amazing Burning Man experience.

To see more photos and compelling video about this Major Happening go to Lauren’s original blog on www.laureza.com It’s really worth doing.  You won’t be sorry.  Seriously. Take the time to watch her videos.

Then start obsessing about Burning Man 2017.