And Then I Freaked Out.

Sorry for the delay in updates. I had some stuff that required my full attention. Namely, my freaking out.

Remember in the beginning when someone in the Adventure Park office joked that Rachel and I liked each other *for now*? And remember how I said I might look back on that differently someday? Well, today is that day. That person was not a harmless maker of jokes. That person was clearly a sorceress of some kind and put a hex on us. Here's what happened.

We move in. We grossly overestimate the amount of things we can fit in the RV relative to the amount of space we now occupy. We try to live among boxes and get settled in. And then, there's you know, the other stuff about living with another person that takes up space. We have our relationship stresses and it turns out, when you put heretofore managed relationship stress into an RV full of boxes in Houston heat, completely out of my element, with a mini shower that only has 7 minutes of hot water, and cats confused and pooping on the floor, it acts exactly like an actual pressure cooker.

So, day 2, I lost my shit.

I went to stay on my bff's couch for a few days. When telling a very old friend that I was having some trouble adjusting and panicked he just laughed and said, "now there's the Tyler I know." I guess no one was very surprised at my freak out. During my time away, I actually googled things like, "RV + panic attacks", "RV full-time living + stress", "Full-time RV living realistic?". Validate me, Internet!! Certainly, I'm not the first person to panic from moving into an RV, right? Right?!?! Being inside the RV for any more than about 6 minutes sent me into full blown panic attacks. Rachel did not love this. We were on the trigger-reaction merry-go-round for a minute. It was not fun. I can write this today without sobbing uncontrollably because of my amazing support system...who all have the very specific talent of listening to me process ad naseum.

That, and Rachel is my own personal RV-living superhero. She cleaned, and organized, and decorated, and bought teal patio furniture (it's my favorite color). She played my meditation cds, did some fancy aromatherapy in the air conditioning system, and made the bed (tidy beds soothe me - what?). And was otherwise a trooper who made the best of it and gave me space and time to spaz out.

So, now I'm trying sleeping there. It's been 2 nights in a row. I even unpacked my escape bag. This morning we got up and had coffee in the hot tub before getting ready for work. The hot tub was overflowing with bubbles, btw. It was like a giant bubble bath!

So, I'll keep you updated. In the meantime, if there is anyone else out there trying to figure out if living in an RV full-time is for them, I will say this: get more organized than you ever thought humanly possible, then get rid of more stuff. Love being outside if you can. Aromatherapy is legit. Expect an adjustment period and have a contingency freak-out plan just in case. Become retired - getting ready for work in an RV is a pain in the ass. Oh, and learn to BBQ.

Next time: RV fancifying. Or, strategies for not losing my shit.

Done Moving & Creative Retribution

We survived.

We moved all of our stuff in 90 degree heat and humidity. Mostly into a 10x10 storage unit. But on day two of Project Streamline Life, we were so exhausted we actually decided to get a second storage unit for stuff we'd like to be able to access. Plus, Rachel may have died if she had to play any more tetris with our stuff. Our goal is to go through all of our belongings and continue to get rid of things.

• We gave away three boxes big of kitchen equipment to Brigid's Hope.
• Donated (my favorite) magazines to The Methodist Hospital Volunteer Services (they give them to patients).
• More clothes to Goodwill.
• I tried to give away a couch and chair, but someone ended up actually buying them - sweet!

But we still have too much damn stuff.

And then, there was this other thing...

So, let me just preface what I'm about to share with this: we're good people. We volunteer. Kids and animals like us. We go to church. We say please and thank you. We keep our commitments. We pre-bus our tables at restaurants.

Now let me also provide you some more context about our abrupt move. When we moved into the house, it was owned by a friend of mine. After we'd been living there for about 6 months he sold it to a guy we'll call George. We met George before he purchased it and he seemed like a pretty nice guy. When he became our new landlord he assured of two things repeatedly: 1.) He would not raise our rent ("I'm not that kind of guy!"), and 2.) He really wanted us to stay on as tenants ("I'm not here to kick anyone out - I really hope you guys stay!"). So immediately upon taking possession of the house, he raised our rent. Not cool, but whatever. Turns out, he also liked to play loud music above our bedroom, smoke a lot of pot, watch a lot of super loud movies, and had the friendly neighborhood cats (that everyone fed and that I caught and had fixed & vaccinated) picked up and euthanized. Rachel in particular does not take kindly to blatant lying or cat killing. In fact, she was pretty upset with him about that one, such that he became openly paranoid (lay off the weed, man!) that we would do something to harm his dog, even though we actually liked his dog way more than we like him. So, when he later decided that he wanted us to move out so that he could renovate, furnish, and lease our apartment to corporate short-term tenants for ridiculous amounts of money we were annoyed, but not entirely surprised. (Btw, his plan is a terrible one, but I will spare you the details as to why - just needed to get that out there.)

So yesterday, our last day to live in George, the dope-smoking cat hater's, house, while I was running around unloading/donating stuff somewhere across the greater Houston area and Rachel was finishing the last of our packing, she found time for a number of creative yet harmless outlets for her frustration. To really appreciate these you should know that George is both short & not at all mechanically inclined. Rachel is far more creative than I am and, as a parting gesture she:

• Unscrewed all the light bulbs...just enough for them to stay in, but not work
• Detached all the ceiling fan pulls and put them in a drawer
• Removed all of the window blind wands and put them on top of the window frames
• Unhooked the chain in the back of the toilet
• Unplugged the refrigerator
• Shut of the water on the bathroom sink 
• Scattered perfectly good, harmless dog bones throughout the yard and porch
• And finally, left our gate openers and keys on top of the fridge

This makes me feel both proud and nervous about ever making Rachel mad ;) 

So, we're living in a pile of chaos and boxes right now, but at least the heavy lifting is done and we got a little laugh/karmic justice.