Burning Man

For the last two weeks I’ve been on an adventure with Tom. Tom has gone to Burning Man in the past few years twice. Each time my heart wanted to go with him, but I was unable to because of work. This year I was honored to be part of the outreach team (made up of 40 people from the US and Scotland) that went to Burning Man.

What is Burning Man? Here’s a brief description from their website:

People make the journey to the Black Rock Desert for one week out of the year to be part of an experimental community, which challenges its members to express themselves and rely on themselves to a degree that is not normally encountered in one's day-to-day life. There are no rules about how one must behave or express oneself at this event (save the rules that serve to protect the health, safety, and experience of the community at large); rather, it is up to each participant to decide how they will contribute and what they will give to this community. The event takes place on an ancient lakebed, known as the playa. By the time the event is completed and the volunteers leave, sometimes nearly a month after the event has ended, there will be no trace of the city that was, for a short time, the most populous town in the entire county.
Everyone on the playa has “playa” names. It’s part of the experience. Tom is Godfather and I am Momma Bear. So when I talk about the team I will refer to them by their “playa names.”

There are many creative people that come to Burning Man. Some build art installations and others build “art cars” that are driven around on the playa.

About six months ago one of the team members (Horizon) started building this giant shopping cart that you can drive and carry people on the playa. He and his team of helpers did an amazing job.

Horizon lives in Ohio. He needed help driving it from Ohio to Nevada where Burning Man takes place in the middle of the desert in a place called Black Rock City. So Tom and I (even though I didn’t drive) and another man (Dr. Phil) drove straight through, only stopping for gas.

My next post will talk about our adventure to Carson City, where the team meets to prepare before heading to Black Rock City.

I hope you join me as I share my experience through words and pictures.

© Nadine Zawacki 2010

A Fresh Look

I’ve had the same look to my blog for a couple of years now and I wanted something a little different but not completely. I wanted to keep my header. That wasn’t possible so . . .

My wonderful hubby helped with the new header. He did such a great job. I love the way it looks. He kept what I liked about the header but made it look fresher. Thank you so much honey.

I hope you guys enjoy the new look.

I leave you with this little joke Uncle Al sent to my hubby. I'm not sure where it's from so if you heard of it, I'd love to give credit to the author.

A frog goes into a bank and approaches the teller. He can see from her nameplate that her name is Patricia Whack.

"Miss Whack, I'd like to get a $30,000 loan to take a holiday."

Patty looks at the frog in disbelief and asks his name. The frog says his name is Kermit Jagger, his dad is Mick Jagger, and that it's okay, he knows the bank manager.

Patty explains that he will need to secure the loan with some collateral.

The frog says, "Sure. I have this," and produces a tiny porcelain elephant, about an inch tall, bright pink and perfectly formed.

Very confused, Patty explains that she'll have to consult with the bank manager and disappears into a back office.

She finds the manager and says, "There's a frog called Kermit Jagger out there who claims to know you and wants to borrow $30,000, and he wants to use this as collateral."

She holds up the tiny pink elephant. "I mean, what in the world is this?"

The bank manager looks back at her and says...

"It's a knickknack, Patty Whack. Give the frog a loan. His old man's a Rolling Stone."

(You're singing it, aren't you? Yeah, I know you are........)

© Nadine Zawacki 2010

A Hatnappers Tale

I know that you will find this hard to believe but there’s a hatnapper holding Tom’s Giant’s hat captive. I received another call from the hatnapper today demanding payment or else the leather hat swims with the fishes in his pool. Cruel isn’t? What makes this story even more disturbing is I know who is torturing the hat. He is a family member. His demands are steep . . . an entire dollar. How can a brother be so cruel? Growing up with him, I should have seen it coming.

My brother, who is ten years older, loved practical jokes. When I was younger he made our basement into a mini house of horrors and charged me and my friends a nickel to scare us. The crazy thing was that we paid him, but then again I was only seven.

If you want to read about what he did to my braids then click here.

When Tom and I were dating, Tom worked with him. Tom had the habit of falling asleep in the truck on long rides. My brother hated that. They had a customer who was located in Huntington. That was at least an hour or so away without traffic. Tom fell asleep on the way and my brother took oily, left-over pizza paper (I know gross right. They didn’t clean out the truck from their lunch the day before.) and placed it where the family jewels are. Then he lit it. That’s right you read correctly. He lit it. There was lots of smoke and my brother had to open a window and look out to see where he was going because of the smoke. He then yelled, “Fire!” which woke Tom up. No damage done, but Tom never did fall asleep in the car again. Sometimes he wakes up though yelling, “Put it out! Put it out! – only kidding.

I would have to say as he gotten older, he has mellowed some. Now he’s just a hatnapper. I’ve already forgiven him, but I’m still not paying the ransom.

I love you Frenchie. You always make me smile.

© Nadine Zawacki 2010

Broken Flip Flops

I was running around doing errands when suddenly one of my flip flops broke. Lucky for me I was in Wally World. Sure I could have just bought another pair, but these were my favorite pair of flip flops.

Did you ever try to walk with a broken flip flop? The only way to do it is to drag your foot and have your toes grab on to the two straps that are left. I dragged my foot until I found the aisle with the safety pins and my flop was saved. I guess I could have taken my flop off but have you seen the floors at Wally World?

It got me to thinking. A flip flop has three straps and it is impossible to walk with them if one of the straps is broken. A comfortable pair of flip flops is priceless. You can walk and walk and your feet feel free and cool. I hate wearing shoes on my feet. I like being bare foot the best and flip flops are the closest thing to that for me.

While I was struggling to walk with my broken flip flops, I thought what if God represented the flip flop? The three straps could be the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When one is missing from my life how could I walk? I guess I would drag myself along and maybe use a “safety” until I could get it back in working order. So what’s my safety? It seems it differs from time to time. Sometimes it’s prayer. Sometimes it’s sharing life with a friend. Sometimes it’s worship. Life is much easier when I have my God flip flops on and none of the straps are broken. I walk better. I’m not dragging my foot around. I’m really comfortable.

© Nadine Zawacki 2010

My College Grad

Here’s a little background information on our daughter. After high school she went on a mission trip for six months with YWAM (Youth With A Mission). She spent three months in Perth, Australia and three in Cambodia and Viet Nam. We were very proud of her. When she came back she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, so she took some classes at the local college until she found her passion. I’m proud how she actively pursued choices until she came upon what she wanted to do with the rest of her life – psychology.

She went to Eastern Washington University and graduated Summa Cum Laude last week. We are very proud. We flew to Spokane, Washington just in time for an Awards Convocation. She received the highest academic honor her college bestows – the Frances B. Huston Medallion. A professor nominates a student who shows excellence in both academic and extracurricular activities. This year there were about 2,300 graduating students and only 20 received this award. Every professor we met told us what a great student she was and what a pleasure it was to have her in their class.

We had the joy of spending time with friends back in our old neck of the woods. Tom preached at our former church. It was fun to see so many friendly faces. The current pastors are dear friends and they housed not only Tom and I but both our kids.

The best part of the trip was seeing our daughter and our son, who flew from LA to see his sister graduate. The worst part was saying goodbye to them.

As far as my girl is concerned – Tom and I are so proud of what she has accomplished. We know she will do great in grad school this fall. (Did I mention she was accepted to three grad schools?)

We love you baby girl. Way to go!!

Here are some pictures from the trip. This is the whole family on Awards Night.
Our kids on Awards Night.
EWU
Graduation Day
© Nadine Zawacki 2010

Maybe We Should Have Done This On Our 5th Anniversary?

Today Tom and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary. My wonderful husband suggested we go to Montauk Point Lighthouse and have a picnic. How romantic is that?

It was an absolutely beautiful day. The weather was perfect. The Lighthouse has a museum that displayed interesting facts about the first Lighthouse commissioned by President George Washington in New York. Below are some pictures of the museum.
The Lighthouse @ 1796The Lighthouse @ 1860
The Lighthouse @ 1945 until present

Previous light.The Lighthouse itself has 137 steps to the top. Below are pictures of these stairs.
I didn’t let my bad knees deter me from getting to the top. I took one step at a time and rested when I could. After a while my pocketbook felt like it weighed 100 pounds. My very sweet, handsome husband could tell I was struggling and carried my pocketbook for me all the way to the top. He’s such a stud.

While eating our picnic lunch, I commented to Tom, “Maybe we should have done this on our 5th anniversary when we were young and had healthy legs.” We had a good laugh.

Enjoy the pictures. It was a great day. Thank you handsome for planning this wonderful day.


The view from the top of the lighthouse.
© Nadine Zawacki 2010

Taking Chance

On Memorial Day, Tom and I watched the movie, “Taking Chance.” I’m glad we did. I highly recommend this movie to everyone.

The movie is based on the true life journey of Lt. Col. Mike Strobl as he volunteered to escort the body of Pfc. Chance Phelps home. I was moved to tears by the honor and respect shown to our fallen military heroes. I had no idea all that is involved in this process. So many scenes had little dialogue, but none was needed.

Thank you to all of you who sacrifice so much for freedom – the soldiers and their families.

This HBO movie was well written, well acted and simply well done.

© Nadine Zawacki 2010

Hat tip to Dad for suggesting we watch this movie.