Month One Ending

So tomorrow I’m flying from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, to Frankfurt, Germany to Boston to Orlando (totaling 27 hours) in order to join my family vacation. I am going to be completely exhausted, but at least I get to go for a few days. (In case you didn’t know, I am a closet Disney fanatic. I agree whole-heartedly with people when they say that Disney World is “The Happiest Place on Earth”. )

And from the Homeless point of view, it is a free place to stay, which will wrap up my first month of homelessness!

A few stats as month one draws to a close:
- Total nights I had to find my own place to stay: 6 (excludes nights stayed with friends and family)
- Flights I purchased that I wouldn’t ordinarily have: 0
- Approximate savings (versus renting my old apt): $530
- Amount of stress caused: minimal
- Amount of teasing ensued: quite a bit
- Overall evaluation: so worth it

Really the only problem that I'm having with this set up is that I still struggle knowing where my stuff is, and I’m beginning to realize that that part will probably never work itself out because I'm just not that organized. I worry for the months when there is snow on the ground and I’m not able to unpack and repack suitcases in hotel parking lots. But that’s still such a far ways away… so month two, here we go!!

Temporarily Evicted

I got a flat tire driving to Boston Logan airport this afternoon. Luckily, I had dinner plans in Boston, so this delay didn't make me miss my flight. First of all, I have to say that I'm mildly embarrassed that I don't know how to change a tire. Second of all, I had on a thin strapped sundress.. which turned out to be pretty much the most inappropriate outfit for attempting to change a tire. So since I have no idea what I'm really doing, I decide to call road side assistance. However, road side assistance won't come because I'm on the Mass Pike, so they refer me to another service, who refers me to another service that is just an automated system. So I decide to get a friend on the phone to talk me through it step by step.

Step 1: Remove the cover from the spare. As I am trying to figure out how the cover comes off of my spare on the back of my car, the wind is blowing, and my dress is going everywhere. Naturally, the wind blows my skirt up, I butt flash all of I-90, (I got a few honks). You're welcome if you were driving on I-90E around 4:30 this afternoon.

Step 2: Remove tools from my car. The tools of course are kept in the underneath part of my trunk, which means emptying my trunk so that I can lift up to remove the tools. At this point, all of my life possessions are sitting on a curb on the side of the road.


(this picture does not do justice to the chaos there was by the side of the road)

Step 3: Thank God before I ever got to step 3, some random guy stopped to help me. He had power tools and did it within a matter of 5 minutes. When I heard from my roadside again, they told me that they would have sent the police since it is not an area where they allow their service trucks to visit.

Never a dull moment. Never...

prolonged stupidity

This morning a wake up call rudely awoke my sleep at 3:45am. Last night I stayed in the Marriott near the airport because I wanted to maximize on my sleep by minimizing driving time. After packing up my things, folding my laundry, and reorganizing bags (I was too exhausted to do this last night) I headed to the airport with very little time to spare.

I know that I can push the limits on how much time I allow prior to departure because I was flying United and have highest status with them, so I skip all of the lines. Once I got there, I stepped up to the front of the Red Carpet line, hand the guy my ID and he tells me he can’t find my reservation.

Now let me say, I never book my own business travel, but I didn’t decide to go to Iowa this week until after 5pm on Friday, so I took care of everything by myself.

He continues to look up my information and he tells me that my flight is booked for next Monday, not this Monday, and that I need to call to see if I can get it changed because all flights this morning are completely full. Also, he mentions that I need to step out of line because he has to check in the rest of the passengers.

Fine, I get out of line and start asking around for the payphones (yes, I lost my phone this weekend… it’s part of the sleeping in the car story). Turns out payphones are now a part of history and no longer exist in the Bradley International Airport. So I get back in line to the ticket counter so that I can ask if I can use his phone.

Now at this point, my stupidity just completely overwhelmed me. Between the phone fiasco and this ticket mistake, plus exhaustion, I have tears welling up in my eyes. I was struggling to handle my life, and the guy was clearly feeling awkward about it

Magically, seats appeared on both of the flights that I wanted to get on; I made it through security and to the gate just as they were making a final boarding call.

The moral of the story is patience and tears basically fix everything. However, at this point, I’m not sure if he changed my reservation or what he did or how I’m going to get back to Hartford. Also, I have no idea if I have hotel reservations or if I did the same idiotic thing for that too. It’s not all fixed, but baby steps in the right direction.

a real homeless night

So, I think I'll leave out all of the events leading up to how I ended up here, but I felt that it should be documented in my blog that I woke up this morning in Boston and found myself in the backseat of my car curled up using a suitcase as a pillow and a towel as a blanket. True homeless style...

Priceline, worth the risk?

So, I have been using priceline to book hotels. For anyone who doesn't know, you go on line, put in where (what areas of town you want to stay), how many star hotel, and then bid a price. For example, for last night, I said: Hartford, Farmington, Avon, 3.5 star, bid $55. Then priceline either accepts or rejects your offer and assigns you to a hotel. In this case, I got downtown Crowne Plaza.

I have been getting incredible rates, but it's a bit of a risk each time (especially since some Hartford areas are dumps). When you book priceline it's more or less set in stone (no cancellations). Well, this morning I was up waay too early, so decided to book a room for Sunday night. I accidentally booked it for the wrong week (and I happen to know I most likely won't be in town that week). So now I'm stuck with this hotel. Even with the risk of no cancellations and of not knowing what hotel I'll get. At this point, it's still worth it.

Seriously, Hertz?

I arrived in Iowa on Monday and picked up my keys from the Hertz counter. My car was in stall D11, so I headed out the D isle and as I was walking all the cars D1-D10 are legitimate normal sedans, then I get to my stall D11 where there is a shiny white Nissan Cube sitting there. Thanks Hertz...

I’m wondering if someone there has a photomontage of me driving the funniest cars that they own. There is no other explanation. Not only this Nissan Cube, but my 4 previous cars were: Chevy HHR, Toyota Prius, and another Prius, and a Corolla that got a dead battery. There is a car rental conspiracy against me..

A visitor in my own home

I'm back at my parent's house for Stephanie and Derek's Wedding Weekend. I arrived in Detroit sometime late last evening, we rewatched the absolutely terrible call by Jim Joyce that ruined Galarraga's perfect game, and got my Dad all riled up again. Then we chatted for a long time, and went to sleep way past my bedtime (so like 10pm hahaha).

It's interesting to come back to Troy, because at some point in my life... I'm not exactly sure when, it went from being "home" to being "my parents house". It's really obvious I'm a visitor here in my childhood home. It isn't at all that I'm unwelcome or that my relationship with my family has changed, but it's clear that I'm in someone else's home. Few examples:

1. In preparation for my visit, Mom has to make up the bed for me in the guestroom (what used to be my bedroom long ago got converted into my little brother's Lego Room and has since become his Music Room where his drum set and keyboard reside)

2. I wanted to do a load of laundry, but Mom has a new washer that I don't know how to operate, so she does it for me. Yeah, I really can't complain about this, but at age 26 my Mom doesn't need to be doing my laundry.

3. I want to make something to eat for breakfast, but they just re-did the kitchen, so I have to open and search every cupboard and drawer to find the appropriate utensils needed.

This truly means, there is no where I call home. Anyways, I'll be staying here until Sunday, then after that, stay tuned..

Adjustment Period

As you know, my life officially fits into a 5x5 storage unit and the back of my car. However, as much as I had everything planned out, there were a few things that weren’t so well thought out.

1. I Can’t Find Anything: There is a big question of where I put stuff. I tried to be very deliberate and organized as I packed. Although I'm a fairly experienced mover... in my 5 years of college I moved 11 times, I never had to be that organized. Usually when I come down to the last few boxes, I just say “F it” (F = forget for the PG version of the story), throw everything into one box, and figure it out when I get there. However, despite my desperate attempts at organization, I’m still not sure where half my stuff is.

(This is my storage unit)

2. Unintentional Raw Foods Diet. I took over a drawer of the refrigerator at the office; however, right now I have no way to cook things, I am only eating things that don’t need to be cooked. I had a chat with my coworker Ammie today about what small appliance I might need. She had a lot of good suggestions, and I need to do some investigation.

3. Theft: I have a bit of a concern about keeping so much stuff I my car (because of security purposes). My goal was to get it down to what could be kept in the trunk and covered. I’m overflowing into the backseat right now, and I don’t like it. I’ll work on it though…

(The Trunk of my Car)

4. How to Pack: My last concern is regarding packing. I’m leaving tomorrow for my next trip and need to pack. Right now, it’s unconfirmed but it looks like this is going to be my plan:
- 4 Days Detroit for Steph & Derek’s wedding weekend
- 5 Days Cedar Rapids, IA for work
- 2 Days Chicago for fun
- 3 Days Cedar Rapids, IA for work

Packing for this under a normal condition would be difficult for me (especially because of my moral opposition to checking luggage). But my packing experience today was one to be remembered. The suitcase I needed was full of other stuff that wasn’t going with me and I didn’t know where anything was. So my strategy was to drive to the Storage Unit and pack in the parking lot there. That way, anything I couldn’t find in my car, I could run upstairs and take out of storage.

Of course my luck, it was torrential downpour as I was trying to do this. So there were clothes thrown all over my car: the drivers seat was for the “maybe taking” pile, the passengers seat was for the “taking” pile, and the backseat/trunk was the “not coming with me, but need to get it out of the way” pile. Although I ended up soaking wet, I think I have most things that I need for the trip all ready. I got a friendly reminder from my Mom not to forget my bridesmaids dress or shoes… but just in case, someone please check in with me tomorrow to be sure I have it!

Underappreciated Mode of Transportation

After packing up all my stuff, I decided to spend the first homeless weekend in Washington DC. I took the train down to spend the weekend with Becky, Uncle Ken, and Grandma and Grandpa. To get there I basically had three options: drive, fly, or train (there was likely a bus option, but I didn’t investigate). I decided on train mostly because I didn’t want to pay for a flight and I didn’t want the stress of driving (Memorial Day traffic and the likelihood that I’d get lost).

Overall it was a great experience. The train was punctual, I was able to do some work, sleep, and rewatch some episodes of Modern Family that I have on itunes. Had I planned a little bit better I would have packed myself a decent lunch because the quality of the train food was equivalent to gas station food, but about five times the price.

DC was a great time and is absolutely amazing at night when all the monuments are lit up. We managed to see a lot in a short time, but there is still so much I want to see in DC now that I actually appreciate history. Now that I know the train is such an easy option, I think I’ll try to go down there again soon.