Usually folks say they’ve started a new chapter in their life, when Huge Changes happen… however I think my recent change is profound enough to warrant a new Book entirely! With the end of October, and first week of November being spent in the hospital, then a change in Singleness on the way HOME from said hospital, i guess it was time to make some ‘drastic’ adaptations to my lifestyle. So, I did.
A dear friend heard of my predicament and recent health issues and offered me the opportunity to travel South to Florida in January, to help with the Brevard Renaissance Fair, and get me the heck out of dodge for a few weeks, and reboot my brain a bit. After about two and a half weeks there, camping, playing on the weekends as Justin Cayse with THE MOST AWESOME faire folke, I realized I had been happier than I have for probably the past year. I quickly decided to add another two months into the “4-week vacation” (which was starting to seem like a certain Three Hour Tour. 😉 ), and offered to stay down in Florida through the beginning of April to help volunteer at the Florida Renaissance Festival, which is much bigger and longer-running than Brevard.
Over the course of those months, I met some amazing people, and decided to ditch my apartment back in NY, and trade away my old clunker of a car, and pull the little remaining money I had set aside for my Retirement, and buy a Van, to convert into a mobile Home on Wheels, and hit the Renaissance Faire circuit full-time-ish, with Lady Ophelia More as my mentor and friend (not that sort of friend, i plan on being Solidly Single for a good couple of months if not longer).
And so, the new Book begins. I have minimized most of my belongings to fit within 7 totes (plus obviously bigger things like the tent and kayak that don’t fit in Totes), and got out of my Apartment in Vernon, and am now houseless, but hardly Homeless.
Before the Big first chapter of this new adventure strikes, however, I should probably mention the crappy transition that was COVID-19. The end of March the pandemic hit, and we were all let go, closed early, and Faire Folk scattered to the winds. It was not a calm time, as a good number of people in the Faire world travel from festival to festival, and count on those Faires as their jobs. With Covid-19, faires closed, restaurants were closed, and there were suddenly many people just….. Out of Luck. No place to move their trailers and campers to, right away, no jobs there to pick up. I luckily had a bit of savings left from my retirement, and was able to do what most did, follow someone home and park my Tend in their side yard for another month or so.
I loved the Whitehouse property, with friends living just next tent-door, and a good group of people to keep us occupied with projects and social interaction and cooking, among our little Pop-up Commune. I miss it.
Eventually though, I came back to NY to start downsizing my apartment and get out of there, as it made no sense to keep paying rent on a place I literally had not lived in for 5 months by that point. (and the fridge crisper drawer agreed, Something needed cleaned out! ..ew)
Unfortunately, part of my re-squatting in that apartment brought back Old Habits and Old Thoughts, and some more of that icky Depression/Anxiety that caused me to initially break down back in October. Fought it off, mostly, but it was hard.
Now, I’m out. I have my van. I have a few things stil up at the old farm that I plan on going to get in the next few days, now that I settled in for a month or so at another friend’s place. And once that’s done, the Intro to this new book will be completed, and New Story of Van-Life will begin.
I’ll post more and better pictures in the next post, once I remember how to upload them and use WordPress properly again. As you can see, by scrolling through the archives…. it’s been a while.
Maebius Musings 