Entries by TATIANA

I got a milk frother. A Breville Milk Café frother to be exact. So this evening I made a London Fog at home! I am excited!
I am going to learn how to make more foam but yeay now I can make my lattes and London Fogs at home. And I got some vanilla syrup and I will also look for lavender syrup. I like my London Fogs with vanilla and lavender syrup. I saw that there is an oat milk by a brand called Califia Farms called Barista Blend. I will try that next.



Although will miss my baristas at the coffee shop I have been going to almost every day. They are my girls. So I will have to swing by once in a while and get a latte.

Today the ticket registration for Burning Man opened. What I did not realize back in 2012 when I decided that I was for sure going to Burning Man that year (or so I thought) is that getting a ticket is a rather complicated matter. Tickets are not sold at the gate. You can't just show up and hope for the best although there are brave souls that do just that every year and I guess it works out for some of them. Maybe tickets used to be sold at the gate at some point but not anymore! So since I had not educated myself on how to get a ticket back then I missed out and instead 2013 became my Birgin year. Birgin = a first timer at Burning Man.
The first time I heard about Burning Man was around 2004. I was at Ash Springs hot springs in Nevada with my ex boyfriend David and a person there told us about this event up by Reno. We thought it sounded amazing then but didn't go for all those years and we lived in Nevada too. Well I didn't go until almost a decade later. I wish (of course) that I would had went sooner than 2013. I know I missed out on all those earlier years, so that is a regret of mine.
This year it will be a fight to get a ticket. The number of overall tickets decreased by about 20 000 and the number of tickets in the main sale, the sale I register for, are reduced to ONLY about 10 000 tickets.
A serious reduction from the 2019 main sale that had, if I recall it right about 30 000 tickets. Had I belonged to a theme camp my chances of getting a ticket would increase but I do no affiliate with a camp at Burning Man. I like to do my own thing. This year Burning Man decided to drastically reduce the amount of tickets in the main sale and instead increase the tickets allotted to the different registered camps.
You can also get a FOMO ticket but those are expensive, $2,500/ticket and then there are some for $1,500/ticket. Plus fees and taxes added on top of that. The main sale ticket cost is $575.00, plus fees and taxes.
So....I am hoping for the best.

A big change this year at Burning Man is NO MORE Center Camp Coffee Shop. Here is what Mango writes in The Burning Man Journal about the beloved Coffee Shop.
"In 1995, the Center Camp Coffee Shop was born as a single espresso machine sitting on top of hay bales. Rumor has it that a storm took out the bedouin-style tent that housed the bales, but the espresso machine and its offerings persevered — an early testament to the dedication and resilience of Burner culture. In 2000, the Center Camp Coffee Shop moved under a huge structure that can withstand 120 mph winds, truly an engineering feat. Since then, the Center Camp Coffee Shop has grown to over 1,000 volunteers and into a vibrant community.
Black Rock City is a continuously evolving, living experiment. As we shared at the end of last year, we will no longer do coffee sales at Center Camp in 2022. There are other big changes to our city, as well. This decision is ever so bittersweet, and it was not made lightly.
Center Camp Coffee Shop volunteers, you have for many years contributed to Larry’s idea. Under the guidance of Center Camp managers P Segal, Dana Harrison, and Marcia Crosby, you created a culture and an organic community. The Center Camp Coffee Shop is a beloved chamber of the beating heart of Black Rock City, and will forever be a part of our history. The memories and deeply-rooted value of your quarter century (!) of service is not taken lightly, or for granted. You have been inspirational and welcoming, and we can’t wait to see where and how you bring your energies, joy, and playfulness next. People like you are what makes Black Rock City… well, Black Rock City. From the entire Burning Man community, we offer a deep bow of gratitude to the thousands of the volunteers who have made the operation of Center Camp Coffee Shop what it has been."

Read the whole "Love Letter to the Center Camp Coffee Shop" here,
https://journal.burningman.org/2022/02/black-rock-city/building-brc/center-camp-coffee/

It IS bittersweet. I get tears in my eyes when I read that. I am sad that the Coffee Shop is no more. I LOVE that place and I started volunteering as a barista there in 2016 and did it through 2019. And it was amazing. I will miss everything about the Coffee Shop. Perhaps I will make my own coffee shop at Black Rock City. Many camps serve coffee and I did notice a decrease of people coming by the Coffee Shop starting in 2018. I understand Burning Man's decision to put an end to the Coffee Shop but yes bittersweet is a good word to describe the feeling.
I am hoping to find another place to volunteer at Burning Man. ❤️
The Man burns in 164 days.

The cherry blossoms are in full bloom and Portland is pink and pretty. The trees look like fluffy pink clouds and make everything feel better. The time to see them is now before the petals fall to the ground, they don't stay fluffy and pink forever, it is a fleeting moment albeit a yearly moment.
It rained all day yesterday so my plan was to go to the Waterfront Park today but I did not make it down there until after sundown. So I am hoping for another visit later this week.....before it is too late.

Hi.....checking in. I had a pretty crappy week but today was a good day so the week ended on a good note. But my crappy problems are nothing compared to what some people are going through so I should not complain.
What I can say is something that I have said before, people suck. People are fake, some are hypocrites and I hate humans in general.
Of course not all humans. There are some good ones. Like my friends.
I recently got Roku so now I have all kinds of stuff to watch. It is nice to watch a movie on a rainy Sunday evening. So tonight I watched Footloose. First time for me. Did you know that the movie is based on a true story? When I hear the song Footloose which might be the worst song in that movie btw, it is actually. Well when I hear it I think of a club I worked at for a bit a long time ago in South Dakota called Holiday House. The DJ played Footloose for me a few times. The first time I was like whatever. But after the third time I went up to him and told him to stop playing it for me. Play some Rihanna or something. Footloose? No thanks.
This week will be interesting. I have a few phone calls to make and emails to write. A couple of meetings to go on and see what develops out of those. And work aka sit in the dressing room for four hours and talk with my girlfriends or read and spend about an hour total going on stage. And if it stops raining I want a picture with a cherry blossom tree, they are blooming now and are a sight. This was me last night. And now I am going to play Wordle and read.

Today I have been dealing with car problems. I get very stressed when my car has an issue, car problems are some of the most stressful things that can happen to me. This problem included two tows and no car for a week. Well, not my own car for a week at least. There is a place in Portland where you can take your car to and fix it yourself, there are lifts (?) that hoist the vehicle up and all kinds of other tools available for use. Super great place and a super nice guy, Mike owns and runs the place. Today me and my mechanic used a transmission jack. I have the best and most patient mechanic ever, he is also my friend. So I had the fuel pump replaced on my car. And while doing that, we put in a new fuel filter. Then the oil got changed and the oil filter of course. I have some more things to fix on my car but they can wait for another time. It is an older car but it is perfect for me. I have replaced and repaired a lot on it BUT I am not in the market to purchase a new car and I think that if I get another used car things will break down sooner or later so I am sticking to my car while it works.
I like watching and learning plus helping out with smaller tasks while my mechanic works on my car.
I had a long day and I am about to go to sleep. Monday tomorrow.
If you are reading this - have a great week!

In one hour, when we go from Friday to Saturday the indoor mask requirement will be lifted here in Oregon. It is up to the individual if they still want to wear a mask and private businesses can also decide whether or not to implement mask wearing indoors. Some settings will still require that people wear a mask though, like on public transportation. Oregon has declared that the emergency phase of the Covid pandemic has ended. This of course can be reversed should some other Covid variant surface for example. Oregon had some of the strictest Covid restrictions in the US. Although I think California was stricter when I went there in September 2020. They wanted people to wear a mask outside when you got within 30 feet of each somebody.
I am not vaccinated and I am satisfied with that choice for now. You do not have to agree and I am not having any opinions on what other people chose to do as far as vaccinations go. Take three more boosters if you so wish. I can say this, one of my friends passed away within three weeks of getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine from a blood clot that went to his lung. He seemed pretty healthy prior to that. And somebody else I knew was vaccinated and boosted, got Covid in December and passed away in January.
All of us probably have stories about Covid and how we got affected by it by now. It's been two years since the first shut down here in Oregon, if I recall it right on March 20 2020. The freeways were kind of empty for the three first weeks or so then people started moving around more. The unusual lack of human activity out in public was refreshing. I know people that did not leave their house at all for the first three weeks. Total isolation. Did not touch their mailbox for even longer than that in fear of contaminated surfaces. I disinfected most of the heavy touch surfaces in my place twice at the beginning.
And upped on the hand washing. But besides that I did not change much else. I am not in the habit of flying to various locations to get a tan or have a desperate need to dine out anyways. Of course I have been wearing a mask when needed to but not outside (except when I spent a few days in CA in 2020) and not inside my car when driving.
I think some people definitely took their fears to another level but it is their life, not mine.
I talked to my Mom today and I asked her what the situation is in Sweden nowadays with Covid and she was like, Ha Ha nobody talks about Covid anymore, all you hear about on the news is about Ukraine. Now that the medical companies made money on the vaccines.....the propaganda quieted down. There you go.
I wonder what the truth behind this virus is? Is there some sort of hidden agenda or is it simply another virus that happened to spread among us filthy humans and become a pandemic?
As far as wearing a mask goes....I feel that wearing a mask in public when you are feeling under the weather yourself is a considerate way to act towards others. I like various forms of consideration. Like they did and still do in certain Asian countries, prior to Covid. Just like knowing how to cough and sneeze in public out of consideration for others. And just like not littering in public out of consideration.
Stuff like that.
I personally get irritated when people stare at me, so the mask definitely removes some of that feeling. A face mask adds a level of privacy. I get stared at enough at work. Don't need it outside of work. And at work a mask adds a layer in between me, my private space and people's breath. Don't need any breathing in my direction and on me either. Yuck. I do not like that at all.
We had two about three month long shutdowns here in Oregon.
I enjoyed that. I love being at home doing "nothing" because I can get busy with reading, writing, taking pictures, communicating with friends, being outside, sleeping in, watching silly and interesting shows etc and still not have enough hours left in the day to do "nothing". Basically enjoying life. I could easily live with two three month long stay at home orders a year.
I totally understand why hordes of people left their jobs and that they do not want to return to spending meaningless soul destructive hours in some depressing office or other work space. Getting up early (I hate getting up before 9 am), having to squeeze into some appropriate office attire, spending sometimes an hour or more (!) commuting to a place of employment and then spending that same time going home. Humans are not made for living to work. And most people do not looooooove their work and should know that work does not love them back. Some are fortunate to love or at least like what they do for a living and that is great. But many don't and that must be a sinking feeling to feel on a regular. I am for a shorter work week for those that want it and I am also for universal basic income. There are ways to go about that and make it work. Just because a 40 hour plus work week Monday through Friday is the norm doesn't necessarily mean that it is the way it should be. Like what is the reason for that norm?
The history of that norm?
So yeah.....I do not have to wear the mask tomorrow in the grocery store or at work. And I can if I want to. It will be my choice.