It’s been a (very literally) hot minute so here’s an update. I’ve been back in Austin just over a month and the most common question after “Where are you?” is “What have you been doing?” I hope you’re sitting down; it’s pretty exciting!
What I have been doing (in the order in which it appears in my mind, not necessarily order of importance or frequency:
Going to the gym
Calorie counting as I do my first cut (getting less fat so we can all better see the muscles I have built and so that at least some of my jeans may fit again; dat ass)
Swimming at Barton (mostly night but occasionally during non-vampiric hours)
Walking with my friend’s dog to get in the mental clarity steps and have a ladies’ night (she’s a lady)
Ordering all kinds of shit because America is great for restocks
Making lists and updating my “contents of storage unit” spreadsheet
Composting (duh!)
Propagating my friend’s plants and then texting them updates about every little leaf
Boob sweating (like a champ)
Putting a little maple syrup on a lot of things
Book stuff
Visiting my home sweet storage unit
Reconnecting with friends (but if I’m being honest I haven’t felt super social and I’m ok with that)
Expanding my land holdings to include garden space at my gym and also temporarily borrowing back a sliver of my community garden plot (with permission!) for summer zinnias
Wearing the same outfit almost every day (spoiler: it’s amazing and yes I have multiple sets of the same thing and it’s just this and this in all black and yes it’s worth trying the online-only petite sizes if you’re short or short torso-ed)
Yelling (to myself in my car) at all the inept drivers
Buying a hot dog 🌭 costume for the book and then never wearing it because it’s so goddamn hot
Not understanding why men are the only people who listen to shit on their phone at full volume and without headphones in public spaces
Wondering if those merino bras are worth the hype (if you know, please let me know and send links)
Planning the next legs of my travel
My life is very small right now and it’s not really a problem
This is a season of simplicity: I can focus on as few logistics and belongings as possible, change and upgrade plans easily and just enjoy my life. Is it lonely? Sometimes, but change comes at a price and I’m much happier to pay it than to not change.
Building blocks
As loathsome as it is for me to bring startup culture into this, the term MVP (Minimum Viable Product) really is useful to explain what I’m doing right now. I’m reducing my life down to the fewest parts I need to stay healthy, happy and having a good time while collecting experiences and inputs to inform my next big decisions.
The formula for what my life needs to run right now is:
▢ A climate where I can recreate outdoors in some way (preferably walking, swimming, touching grass)
▢ Gym access
▢ Access to good nutrition (groceries) and a place where I can cook meals
▢ Either existing friends or places where I can easily meet new people
▢ Daily access to nature/plants/animals
▢ Access to gardening opportunities (either my own or maintaining someone else’s)
▢ A car or good public transport
▢ Internet so I can work
▢ Either air conditioning or palatable summer temps
▢ A snake plant in the bedroom (they make oxygen at night!)
▢ Ideally a place to bring my compost (it is a brutality upon my spirit when I have to throw my fruit and veg scraps away, only to fill and stink up the garbage)
▢ A bonsai project on every continent (just kidding but one day I might not be)
The rest I can find in my mind or in a series of clicks. You may notice standup is missing; I’m kind of off the wagon for now but I’m sure I’ll pick it (or some version of it) up again at some point. I have enough other hobbies to keep me entertained (a product of high self complexity as I learned from this podcast at roughly 35:00. High self complexity means having a variety of interests and resulting identities that you can dip into and out of as desired/needed).
Broadening my concept of home
While home is technically where the storage unit is, I surprisingly don’t actually live there! (This joke’s been made more than once.) I’m bouncing between short term rentals, friends’ places while they are away and pet sits (we may finally cure my cat allergy by force this summer; exciting!). I find more of a sense of home in someone’s else’s actual home than in some random rental, so I’m leaning toward spaces where other people already live full time. I can punctuate any space I’m in with a few beloved objects/small weird artworks, a sleeping pillow of my liking and a snake plant in the bedroom and I’m all set. A lot of the comfort with this style of living is about relinquishing control, being grateful for all the time flexibility, travel opportunities and access to other peoples’ great spaces that I have and reminding myself that this itinerant phase is not forever—just a stepping stone to something better suited to me in the long term.
What’s Next?
In a few weeks I’m heading to the east coast to cat sit for an old friend (both the friend and the cat are old friends), go to the beach and play Plant Uncle. Then I’m off to the UK for another cat sit to wait out August tourist season before I reenter the EU (I have some locations in mind but taking suggestions!). Spain viability research continues and visa research is eternal. As with everything, it’s about finding a fit.
Keep me a-titty of your own summer plans, and feel free to delight in some referral codes for services that are making my life run more smoothly:
Trusted Housesitters (How do you think I got that sick UK cat sit? Use in combination with Top Cash Back for $35 back)
Top Cash Back (usually better than Rakuten, free money)
Mint Mobile (e-SIM compatible, keeping my US phone plan low cost, easy and sans long-term contract)
Lobster Mobile (my Spain phone plan, 100GB for €12.99 every 28 days, works in lots of other spots too but you do need a physical SIM)
The Breakfast (in 32 cities, go make new friends!)
Les photos:
