I was recently contacted by a producer of a radio show on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation asking if I knew of any Canadian vandwellers who might be interested in talking to them for a show they’re doing this week.

Always happy to help out public radio I told him I’d post something on my site.

If you’re a Canadian vandweller and are interested send me an email at Jessica at ayearinacar dot com and I’ll forward it on.  If you’re not a Canadian vandweller, but you know one, please forward on this post.

Thanks!

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Because I’ve been wanting to write a post about this anyway, I’m responding to Joe and Jack’s comments on my post “My Situation” with a whole new post.

I read all the time on other people’s blogs about how nobody gets it and people are rude to them because they live in a car, but honestly, I can’t think of one time in the last two years I’ve ever gotten this reaction.  I have started to wonder if perhaps vandwellers are too quick to jump upon any slight as being proof that we’re being trod-upon and snubbed by society.  We are generally so proud of our rebel/anti-conformity outlook that maybe it’s easier to justify a “screw you” attitude to society if we can cultivate the belief that society has a “screw you” attitude to us.

Like I said in the earlier post, there’s a small percentage of people who I haven’t managed to convince that I’m doing this because I want to and not because I have to, but I can’t think of a single time I’ve encountered rudeness or snobbery because I live in a car.  I’m sure that eventually I will, but it just doesn’t seem to be as prevalent as someone considering living in their car my get the impression of from surfing the web.  I would hate to think that it would discourage anyone from trying it because it’s just so damn awesome to live this way.

Maybe I’m too wrapped up in myself to notice I’m being snubbed. Maybe I just hang out with the right people. Either way, it’s time I ask this question of all the vandwellers out there.

Who has snubbed you for living in your car?  I’m not talking about people pitying you because they can’t comprehend you’re doing this because you want to.  I’m not talking about people being annoyed that you’re sneaking into a campground to shower.  I am also not talking about communities passing laws that make it more difficult for vandwellers.  I’m talking about personal rudeness or snobbery in a one-on-one situation in which car living or vandwelling is the ‘reason’ for it.

I want to know how often people are being snubbed on a regular basis specifically for living in their car/van.

I’ve been putting off this post because I’ve been trying to figure out how to write it so it doesn’t offend anyone, but here you are.  This is is something I’ve been thinking about for a while and would really like to get a discussion going on it.

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While I’m being a lazy bum about posting very often, you can check out Chris’s blog “7:21pm”.  Excellent, and he does a much better job about posting everyday than I do.

That being said, there’s more coming, I promise.  But we’ve only got 7 more days before the KJAZZ pledge drive starts so that’ll will be keeping me busy till the end of the month.  I’ll still be posting, but shorter and less frequently.

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I’m back in Long Beach now, but had a nice visit in San Diego. Got some work for KJAZZ done. Got some work on my own projects done. Watched too much tv (damn that House marathon!) Also did a bit of cleaning though I had hoped to have sorted and thrown out more stuff. Ahh well. Some of it is gone anyway, and the rest is slightly more organized.

The problem I always have is that I can’t bear to just throw things away. If I want to get rid of something I feel the need to either use it up or find a home for it. And books, of course must be read before I can even consider getting rid of them. I don’t buy many books anymore, but I’m still working my way through all that I got when I volunteered an NPR and picked up 4-5 books each week from the shelves where the reporters left the ones they got from publishers.

Anyway, progress made this last week. Being far away from my stuff certainly helps me realize how little I actually need/want around me. Moving from the van to the prius, even more so. Just got to figure out what I can get rid of completely. Every little bit I do here will make the boxes of stuff easier to deal with once I decide to settle down.

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I have a new article up at the Indie Travel Podcast. It’s a brief summary of my system of keeping track of money on the road.  If there seems to be interest I’ll go into it in more detail here.

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