I have a friend who dresses up everyday. When I say “dresses up” I’m referring to more than just the quality of the clothes. In fact, lots of her clothes were bought at thrift shops. Some required repair and all require accessories.

I think sometimes that when she’s getting dressed in the morning she’s not thinking “what do I want to wear today?” but “who do I want to be today?

A flapper-ish dress means she takes the time to do her hair in a 1930′s style, (complete with a feather or two), find a long beaded necklace, and a pair of two-toned shoes. Another day, she might go with a gingham farm dress, pigtails and a sunbonnet.

I don’t want to imply these are outrageous costumes she’s wearing to work. I think of them as “outfits.” There is a theme, there is a plan and there is a great deal of thought that goes into each day. There’s also a very large closet involved. She takes pleasure in the everyday activity of picking out something to wear.

I admire her for it because she always looks great, but I haven’t the interest in shopping or patience to consider spending this amount of time on clothing. Or, at the moment the space. I’m sure she will shudder to see this picture. This box, (a drawer, really), and my gym bag are my clothes for the next month or so. (Well, plus a shoebox of underwear that’s already packed away in the van.) It’s probably more than I need, but since I’m working for the next month I’ve got all my nice office clothes along with the normal jeans and such.

The fact that I’m repacking, of course, means I am back in San Diego. I’ve been lax about posting lately, but the quick run through is that I made it back from Death Valley to the LA area, went to my college reunion, (more on that later, perhaps), and back to work for a week and a half. I came down to my parent’s in San Diego over the weekend, and now I’m packing and heading back up to LA later today. For about the next month I’ll be working at KJAZZ on the next pledge drive, then back on the road again.

Posting has been lax largely because of computer trouble. Technically nothing that actually made it impossible to post, but along with restarting work things that took too much time. Also I’m going to buy a new DSLR camera soon so I’ve been busy researching that.

Other things on the way as well, but I’ll get into those later. Hopefully will have all this computer mess sorted out soon.

Categories: Car Living
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Damn you zamboni-like parking lot sweeper! Why must you keep circling back to the places you already been?

I don’t see how running these things for a couple hours a night can possibly be a cost- effective way to clean up the trash.

Categories: Car Living
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Trick question. There’s someone living in both of them. Or at least there was at the time of this photo.

Before a friend of mine moved back to the east coast she had three weeks between giving up her apartment and finishing at her jobs heading out. I like to think that I was a partial inspiration in her decision to try out living in her car for that time.

This picture was taken the morning after we had a “sleepover” in a grocery store parking lot. She finished work at midnight, and we met up at the store. I went over to her place for a midnight snack, (chips, soda and gossip), and in the morning she came over and had breakfast at my place. My only regret is that it didn’t occur to me to dig out some nail polish for the more complete sleepover experience. Would have been just too funny.

Categories: Car Living
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I’m in Spokane at the moment for the tatting conference. Today was a very fun first day, and I know that when tomorrow night rolls around I’ll be very sad there’s only two days.

I’ll probably post a bit more about the conference later, but I make no promises. I may be too busy playing with my new thread.

For nearly the first time this trip I passed by a truck stop, (been doing most of my traveling on smaller highways), and I had a chance to take a look at some of the 12 volt cooking appliances. I have been feeling a definite lack of hot foods this trip. Or perhaps I should say ‘cheap’ hot foods since I’ve been visiting with a lot of old friends this trip and we usually end up going out to eat.

That’s fine with me, of course. I think that’s part of the fun of travel, but as time goes on I’ll definitely be wanting to do some more of my own cooking here in the van.

Which is why I will probably end up getting the RoadPro cooking pot. (Sorry, no links right now. I’m posting this with my phone and can’t do them).

They have a couple different appliances, including a skillet which also looks pretty sweet, but knowing what types of things I’d actually cook on a regular basis the pot would be better.

There’s a crockpot, which Tara, from Hobostripper.com, says is not very good and a little oven which is also tempting, even if only to say I have an oven in the van and can make fresh cookies when I want. As neat as it is though, I’m not sure I’d use it enough to justify the space.

There’s a small electric water heater which I like the idea of, but might not be necessary if I get the electric pot. Still, when I was traveling in the winter I constantly had tea heating in my, -now broken-, SmartMug. Maybe that’s something to consider for the winter.

Now that my curtains are finished, (at least they’re up and working and I’m unlikely to put anymore time into them even though they’re less than elegant), my next little project of the van is figuring out the cooking stuff. Anyone tried any of these?

Categories: Car Living, Travel
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I know you’re wondering about showers. I know you’re wondering because it’s usually the first question I get asked when I tell someone I live in my van. In LA, when I’m staying put it’s easy. Time consuming sometimes, but easy.

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Categories: Car Living
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