Gotcha. keep plugging away at your career and ask again in a few more years.
Also, just because no one else has posted it, I'm going to drop the "Don't divorce your parakeet" bit of wisdom. I think it's from last year, but with these kind of forwards, who knows....
> from Arctic Monkey on the NY Burners guide:
>
> ====================================
>> The Arctic Monkey's Post-Playa Decompression Guide
>>
>> In the interest of helping give a concise, helpful, guided re-entry
>> into civilization after being at Burning Man, I wrote down a series of
>> rules for Radical Re-Entry. After seeing four email threads flare up
>> and two potential life-changing events start up with various friends
>> over the years, here's the short version:
>>
>> Monkey Re-Entry Rule Number 1:
>> Wait three weeks before you make any life-changing decisions.
>>
>> But let me change that up a bit so it makes more sense.
>>
>> When returning from the playa, you will be hot, dusty, tired,
>> exhausted. Your body will have undergone immense stress, and if you
>> live in a vastly different environment, your body will likely react by
>> getting a cold (especially if you kissed anyone at the Space Froggie
>> Free Kissing Booth).
>>
>> Step 1. Take a shower, hippie. Shave, shower, steam everything off.
>> Take two. Or three. Then go to sleep. You need it.
>> Step 2. Clean your gear. Wash your clothes, car, stuff, or pack it up
>> into the Burner corner of your house. Pack it away and dry it out.
>> Recycle, do your garbage, and wash your dishes. Get it put away.
>> Step 3. Breathe. Go through all your Burner stuff from this year, sort
>> and organize, and then happily stash it away for good memories for
>> later.
>>
>> Now that your physical needs are out of the way, let's go to the mental
>> needs.
>>
>> OMGWTFBBQ THAT WAS AWESOME!
>>
>> Yes, it was! Wow. Did you see that one guy with the thing? Those two
>> girls? That...why are you looking at me like that? I'm just trying to
>> explain it to you.
>>
>> Right. The people who didn't go are going to eye you with either
>> jealousy or trepidation, and your social acceptability standards while
>> on playa are different from the real world. While you CAN expect the
>> world to change to fit the Burning Man model, it seems to work better
>> if you don't try to put your shoulder up against the wheel of the Real
>> World right away until you figure out how that whole leverage thing
>> works as more than just a metaphor. A single butterfly may make
>> changes to the world's weather, but sometimes they just get blown into
>> a bug zapper by the wind. Slow down there, Mr. Burner Evangelist.
>> You've got 360 days before you're heading back to the Awesome. Let
>> your own brain process the nifty neato cool awesome, then hand it off
>> to others.
>>
>> You just don't get it.
>>
>> Okay there, Mr Cranky McCrankerpants. Did you forget to take your
>> 5-HTP afterwards? Are you still dehydrated? Are you wondering what the
>> $3,490 charge for "snacks" might be on your visa bill? That's your own
>> stuff and it's not up to the people around you - your loved ones, your
>> hamster, your dog, your listmates, your campmates, your neighbor - to
>> make accomodations for your emotional state post-playa. That's
>> entirely your bag of playafied emotional entanglements to work
>> through. Take a few more minutes to consider what you're saying on
>> email to people. Reread, check your emotions, and maybe put down the
>> phone to keep yourself from doing irreparable harm to your
>> relationships because you didn't sleep for a week and are still seeing
>> the Sleep Deprivation Leprechauns in your dreams. Slow down. Put your
>> gear in order, wash your dishes, go for a long walk. Then go back and
>> talk to your friends. If this is directed at people you camped with or
>> your patience level is abysmally low,
>> ?maybe you should also take what we in the business call "A Chill
>> Pill" and go shut up in a dark corner with some Funyuns for a while.
>> Not bitching people out for supposed insults or slights or yelling at
>> people for their "stupidity" is a good way to keep and maintain your
>> friendships. Also, try not to play Mr. Huffy or Ms. Huffy about
>> imagined or unimagined stuff that went on or didn't go on at the event
>> that you failed to communicate and ergo, the other party SHOULD have
>> known by magically reading your mind/emotional state. You will keep
>> people from thinking you're a total whackjob and/or raging asshat who
>> can't communicate. And you may keep your friends, instead of driving
>> them before you.
>>
>> And now back to Monkey Rule Numero Uno, PERIOD. (See? I ramble, but I
>> return to the point.)
>>
>> DO NOT MAKE CHANGES TO YOUR LIFE FOR AT LEAST THREE WEEKS AFTER YOU
>> COME BACK FROM BURNING MAN.
>>
>> Do not quit your job. Do not divorce your wife, husband, sister, dog,
>> parakeet. Do not sell all your possessions and move to Tibet to be a
>> monk. Do not ditch your car and travel the world. Do not found Hobbit
>> Camp. Do not plan a giant zeppelin for next year's Burn. Do not move
>> out of your house, break up with your girlfriend, boyfriend, get
>> married, move in your playa lover, sell your car, ditch your friends,
>> or make other rash decisions after you come home. This is important,
>> because the playa is still going to be in your brain, and the effects
>> are like that of rareified stupid sometimes. It will make total sense
>> to have a threesome with your significant other and someone in an
>> enormous rabbit costume at the Burn; in reality the ears get caught in
>> the ceiling fan. Make sure if you have major life decisions to make,
>> you make them AFTER you settle down and settle in. The emotions and
>> the stress will still be in your system for some time; do not allow
>> them to unduly influence y
>> ?our life.
>>
>> Take some B-vitamins, some 5-htp, drink plenty of water and eat a good
>> meal or two that you cooked yourself, go to bed early and read a good
>> book. You earned it. That major life-changing decision will still be
>> there in three weeks, and if you reduce the sheer volume of stress you
>> have, it will make those decisions easier to deal with AFTER you have
>> time to put away all the other issues and emotions post-Burn.
>>
>> You might not pay any attention to this little guide, or you might
>> say, "That's for suckers! Real Burners quit their jobs and go work in
>> an iron foundry with those guys they met that one night on the playa
>> or go get married with that beautiful playa nubnub in Vegas! We don't
>> need your stinkin' recommendations, Monkey!" And you would be right
>> (and I will happily watch you run off while popping my popcorn and
>> pulling up a chair). But if you want to have an easier time recovering
>> from the playa, you might take a little time down to remember what the
>> rest of your year goes like, and adjusting your brain, your living
>> patterns, and your emotional safety nets accordingly. It really does
>> help, especially if you THINK you got all the dusty bananas out of
>> your tent before you packed it away.
>>
>> Anyway, that's it. Don't stress. Pack your stuff away, and wait three
>> weeks before making any life-changing decisions.
>> Oh, and be nice to people. At the end of three weeks, you can be a
>> jerk again if you want to.
