Sorry it’s been a while. Last entry was just before lockdown as the world took to their homes as we tried to be safe and healthy. I myself am immunocompromised due to COPD and I live with a wonderful couple whom I didn’t wan to infect.

Yet, the world continued to move on. I didn’t get out on the Embrace The Chaos Tour because all of the events and conventions I had scheduled to make money while I traveled were all canceled.

However, I did continue to work on Corner Of The Sky, my Teardrop trailer, though work slowed down because there was no deadline. It seemed like it would be another year before I could hit the road. Yikes.

But the trailer is almost done. I’ve been fighting with the door and am currently on the fourth version of it. I have been told that this is not unusual and that hanging doors are a bitch, so I don’t feel quite so bad. But I’m almost there.

The interior is almost done as well, just needs a few touch-ups and some final touches here and there.

 

So … where do things with Embrace The Chaos stand now?

The whole point of the trip was to visit few other cities to see if I’m ready to leave Los Angeles and move somewhere else. But with everything shut down, that limited the possibilities.

I was considering traveling around California for a month but when I get back, I’ll be in the same situation I am now – nowhere to live and not enough money to find a place. I could couch-surf or driveway surf in the trailer.

But it’s hitting me more and more lately.

I want a home. I want somewhere that is mine. I love my roomies and their generosity through all of this has saved my life. But I’m tired of living on an air mattress (over a year of that) and of living out of boxes and never being able to find anything.

So instead of just traveling around California, I thought I’d go to Austin for a couple of weeks and maybe ramble around a bit on the way.

Still wouldn’t solve the home problem but maybe I could find somewhere when I got back to LA that I could sublet or something until end of March and then I could get out on the official Embrace The Chaos tour.

Then I did the thing I always do – I went to Craigslist. But I went to the one in Austin, looking to see if I could find a place for a month or so. That way, I wouldn’t have to live in the trailer for that length of time.

What I found was the apartment I’ve been searching for since I got back from China.

It’s a one bedroom, one bath in north Austin. It’s a garage apartment so very private. Fully furnished. Housekeeper. It has a small yard even. The neighborhood is all tree-lined and gorgeous. It allows pets. I can even park the trailer there.

It’s so perfect. I reached out to see if it would be available mid-July for a month. It was a bit higher than I wanted to pay – $850 a month. But the more I thought about it, the more I knew this was a great price for a place of my own.

So … I jumped.

I have secured the apartment from mid-July through mid-September right now and let them know I would like to stay through March. I figured it’s sort of a sabbatical for me – after a couple of years of being unsettled, this would give me eight months of a place of my own to just regroup, create and just get back my mojo. I’ll be leaving LA on July 6th to take a week or so to get to Austin.

If all goes well, I’ll head out on the tour next April from Austin and do everything I had wanted to do. If not, I’ll leap over the bridge when I get to it. I can still run to LA if I want to. I also have friends in New Orleans, so I can swing down there to say hi. I’ll have the trailer so I can hit conventions and shows from Austin, if things open back up.

It’ll be sad to leave Los Angeles but, honestly, there isn’t much here for me anymore. I have a handful of good friends, who I will miss, but I don’t feel connected here anymore. I don’t have a regular job, my classes are all online now because of COVID, and I don’t have a huge community to connect with. I’m alone a lot – not self-pity, just honesty. So I can be alone in Austin in my own place.

So the adventure continues, though it doesn’t look like I thought it would. We’ll see where I am in three or four months. Hoping still in the little haven in Austin, but I know my life tends to switch up with no notice.

Stay tuned and see what happens.