Well its winter in Ohio. Winter Solstice is in three days and Christmas is in six days. Amber and I have been working quietly in the Mansfield area for the past seven weeks. I've been working at a Chipotle and she has been working as a full time baker at Aspen Bread and Bagel. We've paid off all of our debt, and since we've been staying with the folks, we have been living comfortably in an actual house on a real bed! Amber often goes into work at 3 in the morning, but I must say that she has picked up some ability as a baker that my sweet tooth is thankful for. And my job has the benefit of providing fresh, good, filling, free vegetarian meals almost every day of the week.
We've got a little set up in an upstairs room of the house where we have been working on our music without too much pressure. We've done some writing and some recording, but most important of all we have done some chilling. We've hung out with family and we ran into an old friend, Brandon, who we've done some hanging with, too. Of course, all of the serenity was mixed with an overall feeling of disconnection. It seems that the Mansfield area is still as boring as ever and there are not really any (there must be some, but they are well hidden) people like us here. There are no places to play shows or open mics which sucks, although i think the temporary removal of these from our agenda lifted enough pressure so that we could actually practice and write without so much frustration. There were times when we had to take trips to Columbus just to feel like we were people again.
Anyhow, the good news is Jacob has hooked us up with the sort of travelling sales / infomercial / demonstration job. That means we are packing up and heading for San Diego in the first week of January!!! We'll be in San Diego for probably a month or two and then we are off to Hawaii for a couple months. We just found this out a few days ago. Supposedly the job pays well, too, and it is easy to get time off.
We are still debating over whether to fly out to San Diego or drive. Flying will be faster and cheaper considering gas and food combined for the drive, but it would be advantagous to have a car to get around with. Driving 10 hour days we could make it in 3-4 days. Driving slower would be more fun.
The downside to driving is choosing which car to take:
-Midsummmer, the 78 VW van would be perfect, but does not run.
-Stella, the 95 Dodge Avenger stalls, idles rough, and has some kind of unsolvable fuel injector problem. It's also sporty and so small that we can't fit much luggage in it. It's also a bitch to sleep in and it has 192K miles or something. It does have an alarm and a nice stereo, but the dome lights don't work which sucks at night. One tire leaks air over a period of time.
-Abner, the 89 stationwagon stalls on occasion, doesn't start in the cold, runs out of gas near the 1/4 tank mark "sometimes", leaks transmission fluid, oil, coolant, the transmission slips when it is cold, the engine fan has been rigged to work with a manual switch, the blower has been rigged to only blow out the defroster vents (yes no front or feet heat), has no cd player or tape deck and the radio is flaky. It does provide enough space to all the belongings we would need, including our guitars, a comfy place to sleep and change clothes, a rack on the top to put even more stuff if necessary, only has 137K miles, the dome light works, we've drawn all over the inside with sharpie markers, so it is kind of cool. It doesn't have an alarm as of yet, and oh yeah, the floor board has rusted though so the entire floor is falling out, but has been strapped up to help slow the process.
I'm sure there are more quirks I'm too tired to mention, plus I'm losing interest so I'll move on. Tough choice, though. I'm open to public opinion on this one.
If we fly, we won't have to sleep in any hotels or sleep in the car where it is warm enough to, we wont have to eat as many meals out, and we can arrive on a day that our lodging will be provided by the company. We can't really bring much luggage or our guitars and we won't have any means of transportation, so we'll be either renting a car, taking the bus, or walking. I doubt we'll have the money to rent a car right away. Also if we fly, we won't be able to explore California at will, and I think if we drive and end up there early, then we can stay at a youth hostel or in the car outside the city somewhere for a couple days.
We probably need to start packing and planning or something like that. It is only like 2 weeks away, but with all the Christmas and New Years stuff going on it's gonna seem like a lot less time than that.
Anyways, I've got to get to bed. We're making a trip to Columbus tomorrow to finish up our Christmas shopping. I should be awake for it.
Peace and happy various winter hoildays!
Monday, December 19, 2005
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Autumn is here.
Well autumn is here... and it's actually begun acting like it! The leaves in some parts have started changing to yellow, orange, red, and brown. Most of the leaves on the trees in Columbus have just tarnished to an odd shade of green and they'll probably turn straight to brown and fall off.
We had been staying with my sister during the week and commuting to school and work and coming up to my parents house on the weekends. We decided after almost being robbed that we needed a place to feel safe. I'm all done with class, but I have two finals on Monday and one on Tuesday. Amber has finished her last day of work. I have a few scattered days of work left, and we figure we need to get out of everywhere for a little while. We are pretty behind on our bills so we are taking the advice of our own tarot reading which has just recently been realized. We are taking a step back, seeking refuge, and returning home until after the holidays are over with. We have done a lot of reflecting and we've both experienced a lot in the past couple of months. We both think rather than throw ourselves at the mercy of West Virginia in our current condition, we should reset, get seasonal jobs, get caught up on our bills, fix our beloved (but needy) VW Van, maybe even save some money, and just allow some stability into our lives for a while, if only for a moment. I think we owe it to ourselves to set sail with sanity.
Meanwhile Abner the stationwagon has been treating us well. He has become our main mode of transportation because of the space in the back. It's so wonderful: we have been keeping our guitars back there at all times and we have room for bags and luggage whenever we need to bring it somewhere. If only he didn't piss out transmission fluid like a drunkard, we would be set for now with him. Also: his 25mph maximum handling of any hill too high to see over calls his vacuum integrity into question. We like him, though.
I learned to sleep in the back quite comfortably as I had been doing so every morning in the parking lot of Caribou while Amber was still working. Amber went to work at 5:30 and 6:30 in the morning but I did not have to be at class until 9 or 11, so I would throw our book bags in the front seat, let down the adjacent rag rug curtains, tuck up the fore and aft towel curtains, crawl under the sleeping bag in the back and curl up to sleep beside our guitar cases. This was not the same as sleeping in the car on a dark, shitty street out of pure necessity. It was actually a comfort. There was much room, few items in the car, it was dawn, and I was in a nice place where I felt safe. Best of all, I knew Amber was safe in the coffee shop, the sun would wake me up when it rose, and I could go inside for coffee and bread or a muffin and talk to Amber and some of her co-workers before I left for school. It may not sound like much, but it was pretty nice.
Well for now I'm off to enjoy a rented movie and eat real food while sitting on a couch. Again, it may not seem like much, as I'm sure none of this does, but we have learned to appreciate things like this, and I like that.
We had been staying with my sister during the week and commuting to school and work and coming up to my parents house on the weekends. We decided after almost being robbed that we needed a place to feel safe. I'm all done with class, but I have two finals on Monday and one on Tuesday. Amber has finished her last day of work. I have a few scattered days of work left, and we figure we need to get out of everywhere for a little while. We are pretty behind on our bills so we are taking the advice of our own tarot reading which has just recently been realized. We are taking a step back, seeking refuge, and returning home until after the holidays are over with. We have done a lot of reflecting and we've both experienced a lot in the past couple of months. We both think rather than throw ourselves at the mercy of West Virginia in our current condition, we should reset, get seasonal jobs, get caught up on our bills, fix our beloved (but needy) VW Van, maybe even save some money, and just allow some stability into our lives for a while, if only for a moment. I think we owe it to ourselves to set sail with sanity.
Meanwhile Abner the stationwagon has been treating us well. He has become our main mode of transportation because of the space in the back. It's so wonderful: we have been keeping our guitars back there at all times and we have room for bags and luggage whenever we need to bring it somewhere. If only he didn't piss out transmission fluid like a drunkard, we would be set for now with him. Also: his 25mph maximum handling of any hill too high to see over calls his vacuum integrity into question. We like him, though.
I learned to sleep in the back quite comfortably as I had been doing so every morning in the parking lot of Caribou while Amber was still working. Amber went to work at 5:30 and 6:30 in the morning but I did not have to be at class until 9 or 11, so I would throw our book bags in the front seat, let down the adjacent rag rug curtains, tuck up the fore and aft towel curtains, crawl under the sleeping bag in the back and curl up to sleep beside our guitar cases. This was not the same as sleeping in the car on a dark, shitty street out of pure necessity. It was actually a comfort. There was much room, few items in the car, it was dawn, and I was in a nice place where I felt safe. Best of all, I knew Amber was safe in the coffee shop, the sun would wake me up when it rose, and I could go inside for coffee and bread or a muffin and talk to Amber and some of her co-workers before I left for school. It may not sound like much, but it was pretty nice.
Well for now I'm off to enjoy a rented movie and eat real food while sitting on a couch. Again, it may not seem like much, as I'm sure none of this does, but we have learned to appreciate things like this, and I like that.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Bad week, Good weekend
*I've decided the term "urban camping" is actually incorrect for our situation. It will now be referred to as homelessness.*
So as it turns out Amber and I have been homeless now for a month to the day. We've been sleeping in the station wagon for about 2 weeks now. Things are getting rougher. When you live in the city, and I don't mean in an apartment in the city, I mean actually IN the city, you see everything. You feel everything. You witness extraordinarily beautiful moments in peoples' lives, and some of the most unimaginable ugliness. You hear people getting home late at night looking for a place to park. When it gets cold at night, you get cold. When the sun
claims morning and begins heating the car, you get hot. When it rains, you get wet because its still too hot to close all of the windows. The gusting wind commands your very bed to sway and every conversation walking by in the night awakens you. When you live on the street you become like a part of the city. You become a little more permanent and you are more of a fixture than a person in the places you frequent. This allows you to see things the way trees and sidewalks and buildings and gods do instead of the way a person would when speeding by and peering out tinted windows.
We haven't felt like ourselves in a long time, I think. We have been spending all of our time surviving and none of our time living. I haven't played my guitar in too long and I hardly find the time or sanity to write or read. I haven't even picked up my cameras in a while. It is discouraging. We have to tell our friends and family that we are staying with people because no one would stand for us to sleep in the car, but we don't feel good about imposing so we kind of prefer our own space. Nothing about another person's house feels comfortable except the bed and the bathroom. The car may only have a makeshift bed and no room our safety or privacy etc etc etc BUT at least it is OUR tiny little space. People notice that we are sleeping and living out of the car. It is hard to hide, I suppose, with all of our belongings being moved into the front seat of the station wagon every night and the rag rug curtains being dropped in the back to conceal us as we climb in the back to change our clothes and sleep. We named the station wagon Abner. We are going to paint the perfectly good exterior with peace signs and poetry and other art that comes to mind.
We run out of money quickly after a payday, because we have no place to cook and we are usually to hungry to have the patience to try to use our camp stove. This leaves us to eat out, and cheaply I might add, but it becomes expensive quickly, and with gas being just under $3 per gallon, we don't drive far, either. We use public restrooms in various places and brush our teeth at giant eagle most nights and caribou or the school most mornings. It is awkward trying to do regular things in public that people do at home without drawing notice from others.
I think that we were doing okay and were starting to settle into a routine, getting as comfortable as two could get living in a station wagon. As luck would have it, however, the "safe place" that we have been parking- right near our 'ex-apartment'- is no longer a place that we feel safe parking. Two days ago a man approached us with a hand in his pocket while I was adding transmission fluid to Abner. He began asking us curious questions and noting how much stuff we had in the back of the car. Sitting in the drivers seat, Amber became suspicious and dialed 911 on her cell phone but did not hit send. She held the phone to her ear. The man began to tell me that he used to be a burglar for 25 years. He then began to ramble about going to prison, then to college, then getting several degrees including a PhD. and passing the bar to become a lawyer in Ohio. Finally he told us to have a nice life and wandered away. We watched as he stopped halfway up the street to tease someone's dog who he did not know until the dog barked and he hid around the corner. We felt that he may have had a knife or gun in his pocket but he did not act because he saw Amber on the phone. A friend of ours was robbed a few months back by a man who acted in the same manner. Where will we park now?
Directly after the incident with the shady man, we drove up to a target in a nicer part of town. We had only some loose change and no gas and we were hungry. We also thought we could find a nicer street in that area to park for the night. As we pulled into the parking lot of target I noticed a silver Mercedes kind of cut us off. I then watched as the man driving it circled the lot for a close space and pulled into a handicapped spot. There were other spots not far away, so it was deliberate. He then proceeded to jog from the car into the store. His girlfriend sat in the car. Amber and I were kind of pissed, so we checked the car out for a handicapped sticker or at least one of those things that hangs from the mirror, both of which the car lacked. Amber then whipped out a notebook and wrote down the license number and we parked the car around the other side. We walked over and stood DIRECTLY in front of the car, read the handicapped sign that said $250 fine for violating and we headed into the store to go to customer service. We (especially Amber) had had enough of this crap. Before we even got to the counter I saw the girl was behind the wheel and moving that car- in a hurry! I pointed this out and we walked back out to see what was up. The girl was now driving in circles in the over sized lot and as she went by Amber held up the paper containing the license number. The girl noticed and shouted something back as she rolled by. We proceeded to walk on the sidewalk against the store and chat for about a minute when the car came buzzing by this time with the young man driving again and he spit at us and laughed a pretty forced fake laugh for our benefit. Lucky for him he didn't spit anywhere near us and probably got more on the outside of his car than he even did on the ground. The car came back around and he yelled obscenities at Amber that were pretty boyish almost to the point of amusement: "You're a cunt! You stupid cunt! Whore!" ... and so forth... and then he drove away. What a loser! Big man in a Mercedes parks in a handicapped spot (deliberately) then when his girlfriend is scared in to moving the car, he tries to spit on a girl and curse her out. Hope he sleeps well. Both of them actually.
So anyways, to sat the least we felt pretty unwelcome in the 'bad' as well as 'good' areas of town and so we funneled the last of our quarters into the gas tank and headed out to my sisters house where we slept that night and the next. We then came to Mansfield to see Amber's cousin Jeff who is home for a week or so from the military. We took him into town and he told us his stories about the war and about the army. We were a bit worried that he might be a little spiteful toward us for being anti-war hippie-types, but he seemed pretty comforted by our presence and our willingness to listen to his bitter news. We don't just sweep his pain under the rug and tell him all that "buck up and do your duty-believe in what you are doing" crap everyone else does. We really listen to him. He probably wouldn't admit it, but I think he appreciates that from us.
We have stayed last night and tonight at my mom's house. After a week of hellish despair and a sense of loneliness created by the complete lack of calls we received (except for Erica and my Aunt Flo, who is the biggest sweetheart by the way) wishing us a happy anniversary, we stayed to work on our van and relax. We also came to find out that Amber's parents couldn't call us because their only phone ran out of minutes, but they did not forget, in fact upon a really pleasant visit, it was the first thing mentioned: "How was your anniversary!?" As it turns out, MY parents and grandma didn't forget either. They had gotten us some presents and wanted to surprise us with them because they knew we would be up this weekend. We got a gift card to Bob Evans, a camping lantern, some chocolate, and some money, which we quickly spent on a Bob Dylan live collection cd and some of those wood-beaded seat covers to go in our van. We felt a little sheepish for doubting everyone but more relieved that they all liked us and remembered us.
We also spent the entire day vacuuming and scrubbing the van - inside and out. We found that the rust streaks on the outside rub off with a wet rag and some scrubbing. Cleaning up the van listening to live recording of Bob Dylan was about the best feeling we could have experienced until later when it got dark and we had a fire in an old potbelly stove and continued the music, roasting marshmallows and making smores while the dogs ran about the yard and played. My parents and my grandma sat on a bench further back and mused at the dogs mostly but Amber and I sat right in front of the fire and just absorbed the energy of the moment completely.
Finally, I got in the mindset to write, and it's late, but I couldn't be more contented than to have this level of sanity and calmness. I feel refreshed, and although I'm not sure either of wants to go back into the storm-like-disaster of homelessness that awaits us in Columbus, I do feel that this weekend was an important retreat and step back from it. I must be off to bed now, which tonight is in an actual bed. Good night, whoever.
So as it turns out Amber and I have been homeless now for a month to the day. We've been sleeping in the station wagon for about 2 weeks now. Things are getting rougher. When you live in the city, and I don't mean in an apartment in the city, I mean actually IN the city, you see everything. You feel everything. You witness extraordinarily beautiful moments in peoples' lives, and some of the most unimaginable ugliness. You hear people getting home late at night looking for a place to park. When it gets cold at night, you get cold. When the sun
claims morning and begins heating the car, you get hot. When it rains, you get wet because its still too hot to close all of the windows. The gusting wind commands your very bed to sway and every conversation walking by in the night awakens you. When you live on the street you become like a part of the city. You become a little more permanent and you are more of a fixture than a person in the places you frequent. This allows you to see things the way trees and sidewalks and buildings and gods do instead of the way a person would when speeding by and peering out tinted windows.We haven't felt like ourselves in a long time, I think. We have been spending all of our time surviving and none of our time living. I haven't played my guitar in too long and I hardly find the time or sanity to write or read. I haven't even picked up my cameras in a while. It is discouraging. We have to tell our friends and family that we are staying with people because no one would stand for us to sleep in the car, but we don't feel good about imposing so we kind of prefer our own space. Nothing about another person's house feels comfortable except the bed and the bathroom. The car may only have a makeshift bed and no room our safety or privacy etc etc etc BUT at least it is OUR tiny little space. People notice that we are sleeping and living out of the car. It is hard to hide, I suppose, with all of our belongings being moved into the front seat of the station wagon every night and the rag rug curtains being dropped in the back to conceal us as we climb in the back to change our clothes and sleep. We named the station wagon Abner. We are going to paint the perfectly good exterior with peace signs and poetry and other art that comes to mind.
We run out of money quickly after a payday, because we have no place to cook and we are usually to hungry to have the patience to try to use our camp stove. This leaves us to eat out, and cheaply I might add, but it becomes expensive quickly, and with gas being just under $3 per gallon, we don't drive far, either. We use public restrooms in various places and brush our teeth at giant eagle most nights and caribou or the school most mornings. It is awkward trying to do regular things in public that people do at home without drawing notice from others.
I think that we were doing okay and were starting to settle into a routine, getting as comfortable as two could get living in a station wagon. As luck would have it, however, the "safe place" that we have been parking- right near our 'ex-apartment'- is no longer a place that we feel safe parking. Two days ago a man approached us with a hand in his pocket while I was adding transmission fluid to Abner. He began asking us curious questions and noting how much stuff we had in the back of the car. Sitting in the drivers seat, Amber became suspicious and dialed 911 on her cell phone but did not hit send. She held the phone to her ear. The man began to tell me that he used to be a burglar for 25 years. He then began to ramble about going to prison, then to college, then getting several degrees including a PhD. and passing the bar to become a lawyer in Ohio. Finally he told us to have a nice life and wandered away. We watched as he stopped halfway up the street to tease someone's dog who he did not know until the dog barked and he hid around the corner. We felt that he may have had a knife or gun in his pocket but he did not act because he saw Amber on the phone. A friend of ours was robbed a few months back by a man who acted in the same manner. Where will we park now?
Directly after the incident with the shady man, we drove up to a target in a nicer part of town. We had only some loose change and no gas and we were hungry. We also thought we could find a nicer street in that area to park for the night. As we pulled into the parking lot of target I noticed a silver Mercedes kind of cut us off. I then watched as the man driving it circled the lot for a close space and pulled into a handicapped spot. There were other spots not far away, so it was deliberate. He then proceeded to jog from the car into the store. His girlfriend sat in the car. Amber and I were kind of pissed, so we checked the car out for a handicapped sticker or at least one of those things that hangs from the mirror, both of which the car lacked. Amber then whipped out a notebook and wrote down the license number and we parked the car around the other side. We walked over and stood DIRECTLY in front of the car, read the handicapped sign that said $250 fine for violating and we headed into the store to go to customer service. We (especially Amber) had had enough of this crap. Before we even got to the counter I saw the girl was behind the wheel and moving that car- in a hurry! I pointed this out and we walked back out to see what was up. The girl was now driving in circles in the over sized lot and as she went by Amber held up the paper containing the license number. The girl noticed and shouted something back as she rolled by. We proceeded to walk on the sidewalk against the store and chat for about a minute when the car came buzzing by this time with the young man driving again and he spit at us and laughed a pretty forced fake laugh for our benefit. Lucky for him he didn't spit anywhere near us and probably got more on the outside of his car than he even did on the ground. The car came back around and he yelled obscenities at Amber that were pretty boyish almost to the point of amusement: "You're a cunt! You stupid cunt! Whore!" ... and so forth... and then he drove away. What a loser! Big man in a Mercedes parks in a handicapped spot (deliberately) then when his girlfriend is scared in to moving the car, he tries to spit on a girl and curse her out. Hope he sleeps well. Both of them actually.
So anyways, to sat the least we felt pretty unwelcome in the 'bad' as well as 'good' areas of town and so we funneled the last of our quarters into the gas tank and headed out to my sisters house where we slept that night and the next. We then came to Mansfield to see Amber's cousin Jeff who is home for a week or so from the military. We took him into town and he told us his stories about the war and about the army. We were a bit worried that he might be a little spiteful toward us for being anti-war hippie-types, but he seemed pretty comforted by our presence and our willingness to listen to his bitter news. We don't just sweep his pain under the rug and tell him all that "buck up and do your duty-believe in what you are doing" crap everyone else does. We really listen to him. He probably wouldn't admit it, but I think he appreciates that from us.
We have stayed last night and tonight at my mom's house. After a week of hellish despair and a sense of loneliness created by the complete lack of calls we received (except for Erica and my Aunt Flo, who is the biggest sweetheart by the way) wishing us a happy anniversary, we stayed to work on our van and relax. We also came to find out that Amber's parents couldn't call us because their only phone ran out of minutes, but they did not forget, in fact upon a really pleasant visit, it was the first thing mentioned: "How was your anniversary!?" As it turns out, MY parents and grandma didn't forget either. They had gotten us some presents and wanted to surprise us with them because they knew we would be up this weekend. We got a gift card to Bob Evans, a camping lantern, some chocolate, and some money, which we quickly spent on a Bob Dylan live collection cd and some of those wood-beaded seat covers to go in our van. We felt a little sheepish for doubting everyone but more relieved that they all liked us and remembered us.
We also spent the entire day vacuuming and scrubbing the van - inside and out. We found that the rust streaks on the outside rub off with a wet rag and some scrubbing. Cleaning up the van listening to live recording of Bob Dylan was about the best feeling we could have experienced until later when it got dark and we had a fire in an old potbelly stove and continued the music, roasting marshmallows and making smores while the dogs ran about the yard and played. My parents and my grandma sat on a bench further back and mused at the dogs mostly but Amber and I sat right in front of the fire and just absorbed the energy of the moment completely.
Finally, I got in the mindset to write, and it's late, but I couldn't be more contented than to have this level of sanity and calmness. I feel refreshed, and although I'm not sure either of wants to go back into the storm-like-disaster of homelessness that awaits us in Columbus, I do feel that this weekend was an important retreat and step back from it. I must be off to bed now, which tonight is in an actual bed. Good night, whoever.
Monday, September 26, 2005
8 year anniversary
So hey- today is Amber and my 8 year anniversary! That is- 8 years ago today we started dating. Tomorrow will be our 2 year wedding anniversary. We've really been through a lot- and still continue to. What's really cool is that we are both completely different people today than we were 8 years ago (of corse! we were only 14 eight years ago!). Looking at how we have evolved as individuals and as a couple is really interesting. It seems that we have both grown parallel to each other, closer to each other, and farther up, out, and in all directions as a result of each other.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
urban camping night #2
So we bought the 77 westy which is actually a 78. turns out that it needs much more work than we thought (about $6000 worth) but we decided to tow it to my parents and do it ourselves. right now im sitting in our avenger typing on the laptop mooching someone's wireless signal. I'm parked in front of our station wagon (hey my dad gave us his station wagon!). We decided to temporarily use it to sleep in so we bought some 83 cent rag rugs and used them and 2 of our existing towels to tuck in the plastic edging above the windows. They make excellent curtains, and while the ceiling is rather .... well.... low.... its still great to have our own space where we do not have to put anyone else out. It's at least sort of our own space. The battery is low on this laptop. It needs to be plugged in soon.
I don't quite feel homeless anymore. I still don't feel quite welcome being parked on the street this way because it seems that we are still vulnerable to speculation from people who could notice what we are doing here and report us. I think that is why we should find a couple different areas to go to... instead of always parking here on forsythe. It's getting late for me and I need to go join amber in bed. More news tomorrow...
I don't quite feel homeless anymore. I still don't feel quite welcome being parked on the street this way because it seems that we are still vulnerable to speculation from people who could notice what we are doing here and report us. I think that is why we should find a couple different areas to go to... instead of always parking here on forsythe. It's getting late for me and I need to go join amber in bed. More news tomorrow...
Monday, September 05, 2005
Wow dude what a month
So its been a while since I've written on here. alot's happened!
We became vegetarians... and quite on accident, too! We liked to eat organic quite a bit, and one day at an organic food store we came across some meatless hamburger and meatless sausage, etc. They are made mainly with soy. We decided to try it and a few days later noticed that we still hadn't eaten meat. After a week or so of still not eating meat, and not missing it, we agreed that we were now officially vegetarians.
We vended at culturefest thrown by Lori and Robert, our future roomies on the mountain. We made some money but didn't make a return on our investment. In addition they lost a considerable amount of money on the festival which is believed to be related to non-attendance due to high ticket prices. While in West Virginia, we saw the town of Princeton for the first time. It was a small economically depressed town. This was kinda bumming. We ate a meal with them before we left and revealed our interest in heading out west in maybe a year. We also revealed our interest in starting a coffee shop that travels to festivals, growing off of capital only and not getting a physical location until years later. They revealed their plan to rent a building in Princeton, start a music venue in it, and now thought it would be cool to put a coffee shop in it too. This wasn't exactly what we had in mind, considering the local economy and lack of demand for a hip, cool, hippie type of place. Businesses there seemed like they had enough trouble surviving. This was also bumming, but it'll work out. Vending the festival sure was fun, though!
We were in a car accident that wasn't our fault but pretty much totaled one of our cars. A girl at a stop sign evidently did not look both ways or something and smacked into us kind of hard. Turned out that she didn't have a valid license and her mom's insurance therefore won't cover her. Luckily I had full coverage, but I'm still waiting for them to do something about it. So we lost a car and my lower back hurts. At the time of the accident we were more upset that our plans for a quiet sunset picnic in the park had been foiled.
Meanwhile our other car finally got fixed at a repair shop in Mansfield where the mechanic said the repair shop in Columbus that we had taken it to 1st not only had no idea what they were doing, but also forgot to put a spacer back in the fuel rail thus causing gasoline to leak onto the engine putting us at risk for it to catch fire and or explode while being driven. Those same mechanics who almost got us killed had charged us over $1300, had kept our car for 2 weeks, and had given us the car back in about the same running condition as it was before they "fixed it"
We had found a 71 vw van for $5500 close by that was pretty much ready to go. We also didn't quite have the $5500. We were close though with... like... 1800 or so . The car accident blew our chances of selling that car to Amber's little sister Misty who had just days before requested to buy it. So we went to the bank. The loan that we had applied for at the bank was evidently out of my league as well as that of Amber and I combined as well as that of Amber and my grandma and I combined. In short, they told us no 3 times.
We began looking aggressively for a camper van to call home and found (an unbelievably affordable) one that ran and had most all the equipment in it. It was a 78 with the sink, stove, and fridge! The 71 only had a sink and icebox. It was listed on thesamba.com. We made plans to drive down just 10 miles outside of Washington DC to a town in Virginia to pay and pick it up. We would rent a car one way(and try to bill the insurance co. of the driver that hit us, not et knowing that she wasn't covered) and drive the vw van back. It was about a 900 mile round trip. Evidently you have to be over 25 to rent a car unless you have lots of money, so my parents offered to drive us instead. The whole trip was a disaster. I think every person I encountered the whole time was mean, nasty, or shady in some way. The guy that was selling us the van was 4 hours late, urged us not to go to the DMV because the plates were "still good!", DIDN'T have the title in his name, and kept trying to get us to meet him in parking lots instead of at the address he gave us. Not only this, but the title had writing in the wrong place, and was from a different state. Also the van was a manual transmission (of course) but turned out to be VERY tricky to drive - not like a newer stick shift at all. Gears were hard to find and we were not very confident about it making the 450 mile trip home. After much waiting and 2 days down there dealing with the DMV, they declined to issue us a temp tag to drive it back to Ohio, and told us that this guy we were buying from needed to transfer it into his name then ours, but first he needed to find the guy HE bought it from and have that guy get a duplicate title that didn't have writing in the wrong places. He was very apologetic and promised to get it taken care of on Monday, but when we got home we got an email that told us he had suddenly decided that we had wasted his time and that he should call the deal off. As if that were not enough, my mom saw him looking in car windows in the parking lot he met us in. We have concluded from the shadiness he omitted as well as the evidence and the sudden attitude change when we insisted on him going by the book with the title (so we didn't have problems with the BMV in Ohio) that he probably stole the van. He was, after all selling it ridiculously cheap. We were lucky to get out of the mess with our money.
Discouraged by the events of the past couple weeks and also the last couple months too (add us having to leave our apartment earlier than planned), we began to notice a negative pattern. It seemed that something was trying to get our attention and it was doing a good job. Among all the chaos, we hadn't yet packed any of our things and we had only days left until we moved out. We began giving things away, throwing things away, and packing what we wanted to keep. As we carted old books to a used book store on Lane Ave called 'half priced books', picking up a couple new reads and going to the neighboring Pizza Hut to get a vegetarian pizza to take home, we decided that it was important for us to change our course somehow. We questioned whether we should be going to West Virginia or if we should be trying for something else, like calif or Oregon. We grew sad to think of leaving such a cool, artistic, diverse, liberal city as Columbus with a culture for music, but we also knew that we felt such a strong attachment to Columbus that we needed to leave now if we wanted to see the world. We loved it too much and if we stayed, we would probably never leave. We went home and read our tarot cards for some both confusing and revealing news. I'm not sure that I can explain it all in full but basically we needed to stop boasting, stop bitching, and take refuge: take a step back. We didn't know what it meant, but troubled, we moved our remaining things into a storage unit in Crestline and ourselves into an extended stay hotel up ion 161 which was on the other, no so 'us' part of town. It's the bowling alley and strip club part of town. My parents offered to put us up for a week there (thanks guys!). Our cool attic / loft apartment is now in the process of becoming someone else's but it is no longer ours. It was the first place that Amber and I moved out of - ever - that either of us felt sad about leaving.
We have been going to the hotel only to sleep and have been spending all our hours wandering about the city in coffee shops, restaurants, on sidewalks, and in parks. I found an automatic 77 westy vw van in Ohio advertised on thesamba.com. It doesn't run yet. We went to the gallery hop on Saturday night and set up our stuff to sell. We got there pretty late and got our stuff set up even later. A good portion of the crowd had dwindled by the time we were set up. Still, after about 10 minutes of inactivity, people began to wander over and buy things. By the end we had made some good money for the short time we spent there. We had also met plenty of cool and interesting people. One girl talked to Amber for some time and recognized Fire, the little boy in one of my photographs from Bonnaroo. She had danced with him while there. After the crowd had almost completely vanished and the day spa that we had set up in front of closed and turned out its lights, we looked up to see something which was, unmistakably, a sign. A dragonfly fluttered over from the street to us. It ran into the brick wall beside us, then circled over us and our tables of stuff, then flew away. A dragonfly in the middle of the city, at night! I don't really know how common an occurrence this is, but I've never seen it happen before, and neither had Amber. We felt that this was a signal of good thing to come for us.
We also feel that maybe being at the hotel for a week was the first step in taking refuge and taking a step back from all of our situations. The tarot cards always make more and more sense as you watch things play out.
We drove up last night and checked out the 77 westy. It needed some work, but the guy selling it seemed real cool, and real trustworthy too. He's gotta do some stuff with the title this week, but we've decided to buy it, and we gave a deposit of $60. It doesn't have a stove built in, and it really just has an icebox that could be converted to a fridge later. It has some rust, and doesn't run. We hope to have it towed to Motorkars to have it repaired to the point of mechanical mediocrity. Since it is cheaper, we have some money left over to get it fixed: hopefully! As long as the vw mechanic there, Mike, can get it running, we can begin fixing up the inside and living in it. The question is, though, how long will this take?
The other day while walking down high st. as usual, Amber saw a guy and his wife that frequent her coffee shop ride by on their vespa and turn down a side st. Thinking perhaps they were parking to eat at one of the restaurants in the short north on high there, we turned and walked down the small side street. We didn't see them or their vespa, but we DID find a cool place called the 'Benevolence Cafe'. It seemed to be pretty cool with vegan meals advertised and environmental books lining the shelves inside. It also seemed to be closed, but we returned the next day to find the best homemade salads, smoothies, and bread known to Columbus, as well as a very chill, serene environment with some nice, nice people. What a find! It gave rise to talks of the coffee shop we plan to have one day.
It's now Monday and we are leaving the hotel on Wednesday night. We are still trying to figure out where to go, but we are not really so worried now. We can probably stay with Mark for a couple days, and there are other places we could stay but are less enthusiastic about. Most promising, though are the option of my dad's old station wagon which he was going to get rid of and has offered to let us *drive* (but which we plan to use to sleep in) and the option of reorganizing the car so that we can simply lay down the back seat so it opens to the trunk and putting our feet in the trunk and our heads on the laid down seat. I don't know how well the latter will work but it may be better than laying down the front seats in the car to sleep on which would make our backs stiff. The station wagon, unfortunately, doesn't have good brakes and doesn't run right, hence the motivation for him to junk it. It may or may not be worth fixing up to the point that it would make it to Columbus to park.
regardless, I think we are both okay with whatever and wherever we end up this week. It has been and continues to be a real adventure. It also feels good to write it all out finally. Writing has long been a good outlet for me, just not in the context of a journal until now. I'm happy to have had the opportunity to read some of those coveted National Geographic magazines I've been hoarding, but hadn't yet opened as well as a new book, Tex and Molly in the Afterlife. I've been going to bed early and getting up early, and I feel pretty cool about everything. I've been sitting in Vics Midnight Cafe now for hours reading and writing and previous to that I spent a couple of hours at Caribou reading. It doesn't feel the same as sitting at home or at the hotel all day, though. It feels enlightening, calming, and renewing. It also feels good to walk out the door of wherever I am and be in 'it'. That's what I'm going to do now. I've got my camera and a loose concept of time.
We became vegetarians... and quite on accident, too! We liked to eat organic quite a bit, and one day at an organic food store we came across some meatless hamburger and meatless sausage, etc. They are made mainly with soy. We decided to try it and a few days later noticed that we still hadn't eaten meat. After a week or so of still not eating meat, and not missing it, we agreed that we were now officially vegetarians.
We vended at culturefest thrown by Lori and Robert, our future roomies on the mountain. We made some money but didn't make a return on our investment. In addition they lost a considerable amount of money on the festival which is believed to be related to non-attendance due to high ticket prices. While in West Virginia, we saw the town of Princeton for the first time. It was a small economically depressed town. This was kinda bumming. We ate a meal with them before we left and revealed our interest in heading out west in maybe a year. We also revealed our interest in starting a coffee shop that travels to festivals, growing off of capital only and not getting a physical location until years later. They revealed their plan to rent a building in Princeton, start a music venue in it, and now thought it would be cool to put a coffee shop in it too. This wasn't exactly what we had in mind, considering the local economy and lack of demand for a hip, cool, hippie type of place. Businesses there seemed like they had enough trouble surviving. This was also bumming, but it'll work out. Vending the festival sure was fun, though!
We were in a car accident that wasn't our fault but pretty much totaled one of our cars. A girl at a stop sign evidently did not look both ways or something and smacked into us kind of hard. Turned out that she didn't have a valid license and her mom's insurance therefore won't cover her. Luckily I had full coverage, but I'm still waiting for them to do something about it. So we lost a car and my lower back hurts. At the time of the accident we were more upset that our plans for a quiet sunset picnic in the park had been foiled.
Meanwhile our other car finally got fixed at a repair shop in Mansfield where the mechanic said the repair shop in Columbus that we had taken it to 1st not only had no idea what they were doing, but also forgot to put a spacer back in the fuel rail thus causing gasoline to leak onto the engine putting us at risk for it to catch fire and or explode while being driven. Those same mechanics who almost got us killed had charged us over $1300, had kept our car for 2 weeks, and had given us the car back in about the same running condition as it was before they "fixed it"
We had found a 71 vw van for $5500 close by that was pretty much ready to go. We also didn't quite have the $5500. We were close though with... like... 1800 or so . The car accident blew our chances of selling that car to Amber's little sister Misty who had just days before requested to buy it. So we went to the bank. The loan that we had applied for at the bank was evidently out of my league as well as that of Amber and I combined as well as that of Amber and my grandma and I combined. In short, they told us no 3 times.
We began looking aggressively for a camper van to call home and found (an unbelievably affordable) one that ran and had most all the equipment in it. It was a 78 with the sink, stove, and fridge! The 71 only had a sink and icebox. It was listed on thesamba.com. We made plans to drive down just 10 miles outside of Washington DC to a town in Virginia to pay and pick it up. We would rent a car one way(and try to bill the insurance co. of the driver that hit us, not et knowing that she wasn't covered) and drive the vw van back. It was about a 900 mile round trip. Evidently you have to be over 25 to rent a car unless you have lots of money, so my parents offered to drive us instead. The whole trip was a disaster. I think every person I encountered the whole time was mean, nasty, or shady in some way. The guy that was selling us the van was 4 hours late, urged us not to go to the DMV because the plates were "still good!", DIDN'T have the title in his name, and kept trying to get us to meet him in parking lots instead of at the address he gave us. Not only this, but the title had writing in the wrong place, and was from a different state. Also the van was a manual transmission (of course) but turned out to be VERY tricky to drive - not like a newer stick shift at all. Gears were hard to find and we were not very confident about it making the 450 mile trip home. After much waiting and 2 days down there dealing with the DMV, they declined to issue us a temp tag to drive it back to Ohio, and told us that this guy we were buying from needed to transfer it into his name then ours, but first he needed to find the guy HE bought it from and have that guy get a duplicate title that didn't have writing in the wrong places. He was very apologetic and promised to get it taken care of on Monday, but when we got home we got an email that told us he had suddenly decided that we had wasted his time and that he should call the deal off. As if that were not enough, my mom saw him looking in car windows in the parking lot he met us in. We have concluded from the shadiness he omitted as well as the evidence and the sudden attitude change when we insisted on him going by the book with the title (so we didn't have problems with the BMV in Ohio) that he probably stole the van. He was, after all selling it ridiculously cheap. We were lucky to get out of the mess with our money.
Discouraged by the events of the past couple weeks and also the last couple months too (add us having to leave our apartment earlier than planned), we began to notice a negative pattern. It seemed that something was trying to get our attention and it was doing a good job. Among all the chaos, we hadn't yet packed any of our things and we had only days left until we moved out. We began giving things away, throwing things away, and packing what we wanted to keep. As we carted old books to a used book store on Lane Ave called 'half priced books', picking up a couple new reads and going to the neighboring Pizza Hut to get a vegetarian pizza to take home, we decided that it was important for us to change our course somehow. We questioned whether we should be going to West Virginia or if we should be trying for something else, like calif or Oregon. We grew sad to think of leaving such a cool, artistic, diverse, liberal city as Columbus with a culture for music, but we also knew that we felt such a strong attachment to Columbus that we needed to leave now if we wanted to see the world. We loved it too much and if we stayed, we would probably never leave. We went home and read our tarot cards for some both confusing and revealing news. I'm not sure that I can explain it all in full but basically we needed to stop boasting, stop bitching, and take refuge: take a step back. We didn't know what it meant, but troubled, we moved our remaining things into a storage unit in Crestline and ourselves into an extended stay hotel up ion 161 which was on the other, no so 'us' part of town. It's the bowling alley and strip club part of town. My parents offered to put us up for a week there (thanks guys!). Our cool attic / loft apartment is now in the process of becoming someone else's but it is no longer ours. It was the first place that Amber and I moved out of - ever - that either of us felt sad about leaving.
We have been going to the hotel only to sleep and have been spending all our hours wandering about the city in coffee shops, restaurants, on sidewalks, and in parks. I found an automatic 77 westy vw van in Ohio advertised on thesamba.com. It doesn't run yet. We went to the gallery hop on Saturday night and set up our stuff to sell. We got there pretty late and got our stuff set up even later. A good portion of the crowd had dwindled by the time we were set up. Still, after about 10 minutes of inactivity, people began to wander over and buy things. By the end we had made some good money for the short time we spent there. We had also met plenty of cool and interesting people. One girl talked to Amber for some time and recognized Fire, the little boy in one of my photographs from Bonnaroo. She had danced with him while there. After the crowd had almost completely vanished and the day spa that we had set up in front of closed and turned out its lights, we looked up to see something which was, unmistakably, a sign. A dragonfly fluttered over from the street to us. It ran into the brick wall beside us, then circled over us and our tables of stuff, then flew away. A dragonfly in the middle of the city, at night! I don't really know how common an occurrence this is, but I've never seen it happen before, and neither had Amber. We felt that this was a signal of good thing to come for us.
We also feel that maybe being at the hotel for a week was the first step in taking refuge and taking a step back from all of our situations. The tarot cards always make more and more sense as you watch things play out.
We drove up last night and checked out the 77 westy. It needed some work, but the guy selling it seemed real cool, and real trustworthy too. He's gotta do some stuff with the title this week, but we've decided to buy it, and we gave a deposit of $60. It doesn't have a stove built in, and it really just has an icebox that could be converted to a fridge later. It has some rust, and doesn't run. We hope to have it towed to Motorkars to have it repaired to the point of mechanical mediocrity. Since it is cheaper, we have some money left over to get it fixed: hopefully! As long as the vw mechanic there, Mike, can get it running, we can begin fixing up the inside and living in it. The question is, though, how long will this take?
The other day while walking down high st. as usual, Amber saw a guy and his wife that frequent her coffee shop ride by on their vespa and turn down a side st. Thinking perhaps they were parking to eat at one of the restaurants in the short north on high there, we turned and walked down the small side street. We didn't see them or their vespa, but we DID find a cool place called the 'Benevolence Cafe'. It seemed to be pretty cool with vegan meals advertised and environmental books lining the shelves inside. It also seemed to be closed, but we returned the next day to find the best homemade salads, smoothies, and bread known to Columbus, as well as a very chill, serene environment with some nice, nice people. What a find! It gave rise to talks of the coffee shop we plan to have one day.
It's now Monday and we are leaving the hotel on Wednesday night. We are still trying to figure out where to go, but we are not really so worried now. We can probably stay with Mark for a couple days, and there are other places we could stay but are less enthusiastic about. Most promising, though are the option of my dad's old station wagon which he was going to get rid of and has offered to let us *drive* (but which we plan to use to sleep in) and the option of reorganizing the car so that we can simply lay down the back seat so it opens to the trunk and putting our feet in the trunk and our heads on the laid down seat. I don't know how well the latter will work but it may be better than laying down the front seats in the car to sleep on which would make our backs stiff. The station wagon, unfortunately, doesn't have good brakes and doesn't run right, hence the motivation for him to junk it. It may or may not be worth fixing up to the point that it would make it to Columbus to park.
regardless, I think we are both okay with whatever and wherever we end up this week. It has been and continues to be a real adventure. It also feels good to write it all out finally. Writing has long been a good outlet for me, just not in the context of a journal until now. I'm happy to have had the opportunity to read some of those coveted National Geographic magazines I've been hoarding, but hadn't yet opened as well as a new book, Tex and Molly in the Afterlife. I've been going to bed early and getting up early, and I feel pretty cool about everything. I've been sitting in Vics Midnight Cafe now for hours reading and writing and previous to that I spent a couple of hours at Caribou reading. It doesn't feel the same as sitting at home or at the hotel all day, though. It feels enlightening, calming, and renewing. It also feels good to walk out the door of wherever I am and be in 'it'. That's what I'm going to do now. I've got my camera and a loose concept of time.
Monday, July 25, 2005
Erica, etc
Amber's friend Erica (from Michigan) visited us this weekend. It was really cool because I think for the first time ever we really connected as friends too. We didn't used to get along very well, and have long since reconciled, but I think that mostly meant that we started getting along. This was different. There was nothing forced about it. There didn't seem to be any mediation through Amber. I think thats a rare thing too, as I think it's hard for people to become friends with their spouse's / sig. other's friends without the weird mediation. Mediation makes them an acquaintance. I really felt comfortable around Erica and I enjoyed her presence. I think she probably noticed the difference in our interaction too and had a good time hanging out with me.
It makes me really happy to be able to say all of this, because I know how important Erica is to Amber. They have a special sister-like connection that I've always admired.
We had a pretty cool weekend. We hung out and I worked on my collage and organized my photographs while they made clothes and jewelry. We also walked through the short north and showed Erica around a bit. She walked quite a ways too- and she's 6 months pregnant!
Lori and Robert called us spontaneously and let us know that they would be in town from West Virginia, but unfortunately they got delayed by some circumstances and were not able to make it here before Erica had to leave. We are supposed to meet them for a bit tomorrow afternoon before they had back.
My parents also visited today while Amber was at work. It was nice to chat, but I think they just don't quite understand what exactly it is Amber and I are trying to do. They seem to have a steady stream of reservations about all the stuff that we're exited about. I just don't think I should really have to justify all of my actions to them. Sometimes I think they wish I would just kind of fall in line and settle for some modern version of what they have. My mother kinda swooped in today and started making plans to get a U-Haul and to get all this stuff loaded into it that I don't even want to keep. She tried to convince me to at least get a more sensible camper than the 71 VW we are trying to get. She even kind of assigned me to look into a storage facility in West Virginia, because I told her we were going to store a select few items like winter clothes, 1 of our tvs, our bookshelves, computer chairs, and a bare minimum set of dishes and cookware. We wanted to just load up that stuff in the back of my pickup truck and take it down. If we can't fit it all in the back of the truck then we probably need to get rid of some more stuff. I think she thinks that we are not really getting rid of anything, but instead that we are taking it all. Weird, because I keep telling her we are getting rid of all of our stuff. In fact, I've emphasized the fact that we are only keeping stuff that's really important to us. It's also hard to not keep them in the loop about things because they ask alot of questions and follow up... often. I guess spontaneity is okay with them... just only if you plan for it immensely before hand. Anyways I think it will all work out. We'll probably just end up getting the van and moving our stuff one day and giving away the rest and then we'll say "oh yeah- we did that all yesterday- no need for all the special arrangements-etc"
I called my grandma today to wish her a happy birthday. I don't talk much with her anymore. I also don't talk much with my aunt Flo. I haven't seen her in years, it seems, and I love her dearly. She has a pure, kind heart. I've been thinking of her for a while now and wanting to send her pictures of this apartment and columbus with a nice long letter telling her all the things we have been doing. Maybe I still will do so before we move away. I found a picture today that she gave me. It's of her and my mother and my grandma. The more I looked at the picture the more I thought about how nobody treats her the way that Amber and I do. It made me kinda sad actually, and I think perhaps the photograph may make me realize my idea of sending her a letter from us both.
It makes me really happy to be able to say all of this, because I know how important Erica is to Amber. They have a special sister-like connection that I've always admired.
We had a pretty cool weekend. We hung out and I worked on my collage and organized my photographs while they made clothes and jewelry. We also walked through the short north and showed Erica around a bit. She walked quite a ways too- and she's 6 months pregnant!
Lori and Robert called us spontaneously and let us know that they would be in town from West Virginia, but unfortunately they got delayed by some circumstances and were not able to make it here before Erica had to leave. We are supposed to meet them for a bit tomorrow afternoon before they had back.
My parents also visited today while Amber was at work. It was nice to chat, but I think they just don't quite understand what exactly it is Amber and I are trying to do. They seem to have a steady stream of reservations about all the stuff that we're exited about. I just don't think I should really have to justify all of my actions to them. Sometimes I think they wish I would just kind of fall in line and settle for some modern version of what they have. My mother kinda swooped in today and started making plans to get a U-Haul and to get all this stuff loaded into it that I don't even want to keep. She tried to convince me to at least get a more sensible camper than the 71 VW we are trying to get. She even kind of assigned me to look into a storage facility in West Virginia, because I told her we were going to store a select few items like winter clothes, 1 of our tvs, our bookshelves, computer chairs, and a bare minimum set of dishes and cookware. We wanted to just load up that stuff in the back of my pickup truck and take it down. If we can't fit it all in the back of the truck then we probably need to get rid of some more stuff. I think she thinks that we are not really getting rid of anything, but instead that we are taking it all. Weird, because I keep telling her we are getting rid of all of our stuff. In fact, I've emphasized the fact that we are only keeping stuff that's really important to us. It's also hard to not keep them in the loop about things because they ask alot of questions and follow up... often. I guess spontaneity is okay with them... just only if you plan for it immensely before hand. Anyways I think it will all work out. We'll probably just end up getting the van and moving our stuff one day and giving away the rest and then we'll say "oh yeah- we did that all yesterday- no need for all the special arrangements-etc"
I called my grandma today to wish her a happy birthday. I don't talk much with her anymore. I also don't talk much with my aunt Flo. I haven't seen her in years, it seems, and I love her dearly. She has a pure, kind heart. I've been thinking of her for a while now and wanting to send her pictures of this apartment and columbus with a nice long letter telling her all the things we have been doing. Maybe I still will do so before we move away. I found a picture today that she gave me. It's of her and my mother and my grandma. The more I looked at the picture the more I thought about how nobody treats her the way that Amber and I do. It made me kinda sad actually, and I think perhaps the photograph may make me realize my idea of sending her a letter from us both.
Monday, July 18, 2005
Down With Apartments!
After spending my entire rare break from school searching for an apartment that is short term and affordable, we have come to a consensus on one solution: Not to get one. Down with apartments! Why spend all that money on an apartment that we'd live in for only 2 months when we can spend it on something that we can keep; something we've both wanted for a long time; something that we can live in. That's right, we've decided to buy an old VW poptop camper van. We figure that living in it for 2 months shouldn't be too bad. We plan to park it in various locations in Columbus, including the 24hour Walmart and just up the street from our then-ex-apartment so that we can mooch off of Vic's (a coffee shop) wireless interet signal from the van. We can take showers at friends houses (a preemptive thanks to Buzz and Mark-- love you guys) or probably at my sisters in Marysville whom I have not asked but who I'm sure will not mind. This will also help us lighten our load of 'stuff'... because we'll have to. We have too much stuff. We are now attempting to get rid of it all so that we can live more simply. We wish to keep only 'a long vacations worth' of clothing, all of our stuff that pertains to art or music, our laptops, and just a small load of necessary items.
So now we are done looking at apartments and we've started scouring Columbus, the classifieds, ebay, and the rest of the internet for an old VW poptop. I've got to note that it's a much more pleasant search.
So now we are done looking at apartments and we've started scouring Columbus, the classifieds, ebay, and the rest of the internet for an old VW poptop. I've got to note that it's a much more pleasant search.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Apartments Hunted
So after a long week of scouring the city for short term lease apartments, I'm starting my term at school almost as exhausted as I left it. So far we've found a house for 675/mo for 3 months, a cool apartment in the short north above retrocat vintage clothing store for 625/mo for 6 months, an efficiency for 630/mo utilities paid for 4 months, and a bunch of other junk. It's come between the house and the retrocat place. We've also come to consider getting a cheap place for 300/mo and signing a 9 or 12 month lease. This would allow us a place to stay in Columbus any time we wanted and would make it easier to visit friends, visit family, sell at the gallery hop, play gigs or open mics, or escape to the city.
Amber and I love living in the city. We love all of the people. There are so many things to see and experience here. We'll both miss it and I know we'll both want to visit often.
Amber and I love living in the city. We love all of the people. There are so many things to see and experience here. We'll both miss it and I know we'll both want to visit often.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Apartment hunting
Amber and I went apartment hunting today. Our property manger just sprung it on us that we have to either sign another year lease or get out at the end of Aug. We were supposed to have the option to pay month to month at the end of this lease term, but i guess they changed their mind at the last minute. We planned on moving to West Virginia in late October immediately after I graduate. That leaves us without a place to live for 2 months. You cannot rent an apartment in Columbus for only 2 months. Most are a 1 year lease. We found that you can talk some people down to a 6 months.
Anyways, today we were stood up for 2 seperate meetings to view apartments. We spent our entire afternoon and evening walking about and calling every number we came across on a for rent sign. We actually thought it would be pretty sweet to try to move right up onto high st. in the short north and live in the arts district above some business like the coffee table, the retrocat vintage store, or a gallery. Unfortunately, these appts are even more expensive than the ones in the victorian village.
We looked at these efficiency appts just north of the short north. To get to them, you had to go in from high street, up some stairs, through a hallway where some regular appts were, back out a door, on a catwalk, in another door, and around a little hallway. We also looked at some places on campus. A hotel-like building's ad claimed to have flexible leasing. We'll find that out tomorrow.
I guess we thought it would be cool to kind of engulf ourselves in the city before we move. We are very stoked about moving down with Lori and Robert to live on the mountain in West Virginia. We just want to completely enjoy and experience the city while we are still here. This is why being forced to move from our current appt can be either a curse that sends us farther from the action or the opprotunity that sends us closer to it. Either way it seems to be the event that may drive us broke.
Well we maybe tomorrows search will be more conclusive...
Anyways, today we were stood up for 2 seperate meetings to view apartments. We spent our entire afternoon and evening walking about and calling every number we came across on a for rent sign. We actually thought it would be pretty sweet to try to move right up onto high st. in the short north and live in the arts district above some business like the coffee table, the retrocat vintage store, or a gallery. Unfortunately, these appts are even more expensive than the ones in the victorian village.
We looked at these efficiency appts just north of the short north. To get to them, you had to go in from high street, up some stairs, through a hallway where some regular appts were, back out a door, on a catwalk, in another door, and around a little hallway. We also looked at some places on campus. A hotel-like building's ad claimed to have flexible leasing. We'll find that out tomorrow.
I guess we thought it would be cool to kind of engulf ourselves in the city before we move. We are very stoked about moving down with Lori and Robert to live on the mountain in West Virginia. We just want to completely enjoy and experience the city while we are still here. This is why being forced to move from our current appt can be either a curse that sends us farther from the action or the opprotunity that sends us closer to it. Either way it seems to be the event that may drive us broke.
Well we maybe tomorrows search will be more conclusive...
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
A blog?
Odd as it is, i now have a blog. I've never even been able to keep up writing in a journal. Maybe this will somehow draw me into it. Maybe it will just sit here unused. There is a lot of exiting, crazy stuff happening this year, so it would be cool to have both an outlet for it and a sort of record of how i felt about things at the time. Anyways, on with the experiment...
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