Free Spirit Gathering 2024

I was really excited to teach at Free Spirit Gathering this year because I’ve been going to the UToS ritual there for years but haven’t really stayed for the event before. There was one year I ended up staying longer than just the UToS because my friends were running the fire crew and  were short a few sets of helping hands so they told me I was staying but I didn’t really explore the event or the community beyond the fire circle that year. Even though it was raining on and off the first couple of days it was a pretty relaxed event.

However, getting to the event involved lots of quick changes in plans. My first flight got canceled several hours before I even got to the airport. I didn’t realize right away but I got automatically rescheduled on a flight but I had to change it because they had picked a different airport for me to fly into. Since my travel was delayed a day I no longer had a ride from my friend’s house to the event site so I ended up renting a car because I did not have the logistic spoons to try to figure out a new ride. Even though I had booked a direct flight none of the rescheduling options were. I missed my connecting flight by less than five minutes after sprinting through the airport and the new flight I was put on got delayed so I wasn’t going to be getting into DC until almost 10pm. Since registration closed at 10pm I knew I was going to have to spend the night and head up to the event site in the morning. My friend and I were able to prepack the car with all the camping gear so I’d have less to do when I woke up at 5:30am.

I was able to skip most of the morning DC traffic and I made it to the event site just a bit after 8am. Even though registration didn’t open until 9am a friendly face from UToS got me all checked in. There was just enough time to unload the car and then get it parked before my class. I had trouble finding the location of my class, but once I did I was delighted to find a handful of folks waiting for me and we collectively decided to relocate to an area with seating. My first class was a Grounding, Centering, and Balancing Skillshare and it was a fantastic way to settle myself into the event. After teaching my class I went to check in with my firetending friends and got to build a fire with one of my very good friends. Then I finally set up my tent.

At the event I experienced great connection with the community, finding a good blend of my smaller communities: fire tenders, UToS people, and queer folks. One of the UToS folks asked me to drum for their journey class/ritual they were leading. There was an LGBTQIA+ Coffee Chat on the schedule and even though it was raining a handful of folks turned up to chat. I felt like I got some good family time and some kiddo time. I was even able to fit in a festival fling, luckily I had thought to pack some Covid tests with me. I had a wonderful evening drumming for the UToS ritual and just drumming a bunch in general at the event. 

I didn’t think much of it but I went to bed early on Saturday night and then I felt a little weird driving back to my friend’s place on Sunday. When I was unpacking and settling in I checked messages and figured I should do a Covid test since some folks had tested positive for Covid. My test was positive so I texted some folks that I had close contact with over the weekend, I also let my friend that I was staying with know. I also asked a friend if I could send them whiny voice memos since I know that I get whiny when I’m sick. Sunday night was the worst of it, even though I didn’t have a thermometer I knew I had a fever. Everything hurt; my head, my body, my joints. The timing of my period was impeccable and my heavy bleed day was right after my worst Covid day. My friend Amanda was amazing to me while I was sick in her space. She made sure I had Vitamin waters and Gatorade, I knew for sure I wasn’t feeling well when I requested Gatorade. Thankfully I’ve been visiting Amanda’s place for almost 15 years so the whole being sick in someone else’s space didn’t feel weird. Her cats were also amazing caretakers and were checking on me a bunch over the next two nights.  

I had to fly back to Phoenix on Tuesday and thankfully I had gotten through the worst of it. I felt a bit bad about traveling with Covid but I didn’t want to risk having an experience like I had getting out to the East Coast with lots of quick changes and delays. When I returned the car rental I made sure to wipe down all the surfaces I had touched and drove with the windows cracked so there was air flow, I didn’t want the workers that would be cleaning out the car to get Covid from me. When I got on the plane I had a moment where I thought I was going to have to tell someone they were in my seat but it was a mother and daughter and Mom had taken my seat, the middle, to sit next to her daughter. She said she figured no one would be upset about getting the aisle seat instead of the middle and she was right. 

Once I got home I was so happy to be back in my own bed with Gravy snuggling me. My BFF/roommate picked up the caretaking duties, she got me more Vitamin waters and some soup. I spent a lot of time gaming the first few days I was home because l my stuff was all packed up to move and I didn’t really know what to do with myself. I have a real hard time resting and my brain was still fuzzy so I wasn’t getting any kind of admin work or writing done so gaming was a good distraction. I also made sure to register my Covid test results once I got home at Make Your Test Count.  

Now I’m feeling a whole lot better. My move date has been up in the air but I'm still making that move to Portland. I am also feeling the need to reevaluate Events and their Covid policies. I strongly suspect that if folks had been required to test prior to entry a whole lot of infections could have been avoided at the event. This experience is also encouraging me to get more involved with disability advocacy because I meet a whole lot of people who haven’t thought about what moving through the world now for immunocompromised folks looks like.

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