It has been a while since my last update. I owe my audience so much in the way of stories, it’s nearly overwhelming. Many things have happened over the last month and a half. Things I will struggle to summarize here on this page. I continue to find myself discouraged for not being able to tell this story openly, but I’ll do my best and give some highlights here. Thank you for checking back to see how my experiment is going!
Today marks a milestone. 400 days of home-free living. Not only that, but in one week I will have lived this way for an entire year, uninterrupted. Well… perhaps I should say “continuously” instead. On January 28, 2013, I moved out of my place permanently and moved back into my office after a 6-week trial period months earlier. So next week will mark the anniversary of the day I fully committed to making my office home. Tonight I celebrate with a Trader Joe’s wrap (chicken pesto, for those of you scoring at home) and a booked flight to Chicago next month to see a lovely lady to be pseudo-named later. I’m nearing my savings goal of $10, 000 for the experiment, after having eliminated auto and medical debt, purchased some much-needed items (I hadn’t bought jeans in three years, so I was kind of due…) and (budget) traveled more extensively than ever before. These are the positives.
There are negatives, too. I have experienced more than a couple sleepless nights and scheduling snafus. On more than one occasion some form of unsolicited adventure has come my way, forcing me into uncomfortable situations and cutting into my creative pursuits. While I’ve achieved beyond expectations on concrete tasks, my creative ventures have been slower as of late. The stress of my situation has negatively affected the quantity of my writing, for I find it hard to relax and focus on a piece long enough to bring it to fruition. With lots of tasks to do, my life here is a bit too complicated to allow for creative space in the few free moments I enjoy. My writing was much more productive in the winter and spring of last year. I’ll need to simplify my life before getting back to that place.
And that is the goal for 2014. Pare down my travels, better prioritize my creative projects and, ultimately, create for myself a more stable home outside of the office.
That’s right, The Office Hobo will be hanging up office bindle stick and move into a more private setting.
I celebrate my 400th Day knowing that day is fast approaching. But where will I go? It’s a question I’ve put a lot of thought into over the past couple of months. The question surfaced most forcefully when my friend, Tim, announced plans to move to Los Angeles in January. He did this once before, but had to back out after getting a lucrative offer to work on a boat for a few months in the Gulf of Mexico. But with Tim coming back on land and wishing to move west, he was asking me to be his roommate. Tim has been one of my closest supporters throughout the experiment–mostly because the relative absurdity of my experiences–so I found his offer a bit ironic. Yet for a while I entertained the offer.
It was the thought of having a proper bed, of redefining “sleeping in” that attracted me first. With my own room, I could achieve highest honors in the field of impromptu weekend napping, an activity at which I was formerly unrivaled. I could regain control of my own schedule and entertain friends and intimates without sneakery. There was a benefit to having another creative type around to bounce ideas off of and intermingle with social peers. I found it an interesting proposition.
As time wore on, though, I found the prospect of paying rent no less abhorrent than when I began the experiment. As a matter of fact, I had become even more resistant to the idea, having now spearheaded a relatively scientific study backing my intuition that apartment life has more downside than benefit. Faced with the choice of spending up to $15,000 per year on rent, I balked. Nay, I pitched wild.
Tim was understanding when I declined his offer to move in together. But his understanding wasn’t going to solve my question of where to sleep during the coming year. Knowing I have no interest in paying rent and no gumption to continue the evasion necessary for full-time office domesticity, my options are definitively slim.
What do you think the solution is?
To be continued next week…
-TOH
