Why am I doing this?

Well, why not? What straight guy hasn't thought of this? People that I've shared this with have one of two responses. One is: "That's fuckin' awesome! I would totally do that if I.... (Insert kids or something here)" The other is: "Really? What the hell? Why would you want to do that?" My gut reaction to the later is that these people never camped.

I'm going to try and explain to the non-fuckin'-awesomers / non-campers.  I would like to say that it all has to do with the little metal plaque my Grandma Krzmarzick had in her kitchen that read: "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." I remember asking her; "Why? I don't like lemonade?" In her German saltiness she quickly came back with "You just do, you make lemonade. That's what you do." Thanks grandma, that made no sense at all, I'm four. If I had my hands on that plaque, I would hang it in my kitchen here, if I had the room.

Ok, so that's kind of why. The full explanation is lengthy so you should probably get up now and get yourself a fresh cup of coffee. There are several things that dove-tailed the situation so nicely. The first is that I REALLY missed camping. Another is that I bought this camper with my girlfriend so I could, well, get her to go camping. It worked! She got the camping bug! Right on! What didn't work was the relationship. WAIT! Don't get all sad and go running for the Kleenex™, it's all good. I'm fine, she's fine - we are cool about it. So that's the initial inspiration. The other is that I'm so sick of moving. The last I checked, my move-count was close to 30. Yeah, that's too much. I was getting bummed out at what's for rent out there and what started as a little internal joke, became reality. I would look at a place and then would think, "Damn, this place sucks, I would rather live in the camper." By the way, Portland has the least amount of places available for rent in the U.S., yes, even over New York. Google it. So I visited the camper and scoped out the first campsite: Jason Scott's yard. Ok, this is doable. Time to rent a storage unit.

At first I gave myself a year but that freaked me out. So the plan is to camp until May or June and then throw it up on Craigslist and sell it. In the meantime, I'm going to save as much dough as I can and put it towards buying a house. That's if I don't go bat-shit crazy. To help prevent "crazy," I'm doing fun stuff like journaling and writing this blog. I have a practice pad and my Syncopation book. My guitar and sketchbook is close by too. I'm also planning on changing locations as much as possible, by visiting friends and using their shower. I'll cook y'all dinner and serve cocktails for exchange. Who knows. It gives me the perfect excuse to catch up with friends AND it will allow me to check out different neighborhoods in preparation for the house purchase. See? dove-tail...

Click on this photo to how the bed is made