Tuesday, March 4, 2008

the first night!!!

I spent my first night in the van last night. it was a new feeling, have you ever felt something you've never felt before? or maybe it brings to mind a distant recognition? that's what it was like. the closest i can come to naming it is to say i felt like a kid in a fort i'd built, hunkered down for the night and my parents didn't know i was there, though i never actually did that as a kid. my cat, Freyja, is adapting well. she was a bit pissed last night when we were driving around, but once we parked she was purring and eating and acting like herself. i opened a bottle of wine i'd been saving for the occasion--a nice chianti, and settled in to read and write. i wrote a response letter to my ex-boyfriend who is doing some time. i guess all that sobriety and time has made him think of me and what we had as not so bad. not that he ever thought it was bad, it just got lost in the shuffle i guess. he's like a twin soul, born only 2 days apart, only a few miles apart, both of us with classic aryan features--blond hair, blue eyes, pale skin. and we bring out the desperate romantic in each other, always a poem rather than a picture, a letter surpasses a phone call, and a graveyard the favored meeting place, the park be damned!
i sealed the letter and picked up my book "Blue Highways" which i'd started reading last year and put down not due to disinterest, just to soak in it. i think it's a big part of my inspiration to be a van-dweller. it's the america i like to explore when i'm travelling. the slow route, the ghost towns, the forgotten paths.
i feel great today after the first night in the van. i went to bikram yoga, showered, slathered on the coconut oil and headed out for my day, refreshed. alive. ready for my new life.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love love love that feeling! I've been in my van over a year and I still feel like a kid with a cool fort.

Just living the best I can said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Just living the best I can said...

Hello again, Blue Highways is a good book, so is Travels with Charley, but it is from a time that is lost. A time when people were very different, don't let that stop you. People have changed, but you can write your own "Blue Highways". Let your creative mind drift to the place of your dreams, be it a breathless nebula or a moss draped forest. Then go to your dreams and take us with you.
Namaste

Anonymous said...

congrats on the first night! be good to yourself and enjoy!

Anonymous said...

Ahh... the feeling of freedom with your own space, Bought and paid for ready to explore in comfort.

Dark-Blue-Night said...

YaY!!! You made it through the first night !!!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations. Very proud of you and envious!!

Diana

joe fisher said...

Smiles

stranger in a strange van said...

thanks you guys! i'll have to check out travels with charley. i'm a sucker for a good adventure book.

zenny1313 said...

congratulation's on the first night, It takes courage to do things like that,change of life things, i'm not good with writing.
(courage-The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery

Pixy Stoneskipper said...

Amen to the 'kid with fort' feeling. I've definitely used the exact same description for the feeling I get in my van. I read Travels with Charley after deciding to move into a box truck, and it strengthened my reserve to go for it. Steinbeck's mobile house was way over-thought, as he admits constantly, but it makes for a great story. Steinbeck is a ridiculously good writer. That time isn't lost. You can wander around and meet random people any time. I doubt there was anything on his trip that was super-amazing in a way that is currently unattainable. He just had the ability to describe it all so well.