Down time

I just warmed up a plate of my mom's peas, rice, and these amazing onion-soup potatoes she makes. Yep, I'm back home in GA now for a bit. I have a weeksworth of things to take care of here and then I'll be free to daydream about my next adventure while at the same time doing some work to help fund it. I've spent the last 2 weeks looking for work and doing miscellaneous freelance stuff, but before that I was traveling too much and not working at all; I'm now paying for that, haha. Finding that balance is easy to do but I've only just realized how important it is to find it.

Lately I've been reading a lot about my personality time "extreme INFP" and it's sooo interesting. Most of the descriptions/traits describe me perfectly but there are still some that I don't have... thankfully. INFPs are the "dreamers". Here's a list of words I found that describe me amazingly well:

creative, smart, idealist, loner, attracted to sad things, disorganized, avoidant, can be overwhelmed by unpleasant feelings, prone to quitting, prone to feelings of loneliness, ambivalent of the rules, solitary, daydreams about people to maintain a sense of closeness, acts without planning, emotionally moody, can feel defective, prone to lateness, likes esoteric things, frequently losing things, prone to sadness, disorderly, observer, easily distracted, does not like crowds, can act without thinking, private, can feel uncomfortable around others, hermit, more likely to support marijuana legalization, can sabotage self, likes the rain, sometimes can't control fearful thoughts, attracted to the counter culture, can be submissive, prone to feeling discouraged, frequently second guesses self, not punctual, not always prepared, prone to irresponsibility, can be pessimistic

It seems a lot of these things are negative and I have been accused of being a negative person before. When I'm alone I have time to think about things and I LOVE that time, but when I'm done I can be very extroverted and social. It's a good mix (to me) but it seems most people have a hard time understanding it. I guess the fact that I'm an INFP (less than 4% of the population) is the reason I felt compelled to write about this in the first place. I'm just trying to give you guys interesting blogs while I'm not traveling, lol.

Slimming Down - The start of a longterm goal

When I left GA I was proud to have all of my clothes in two big 22 gallon sterilite storage containers. Along with those two I have two 44 gallon ones, filled with climbing gear and misc. items in the other. I even have two more smaller 12-15 gallon ones for food and office/books/computer stuff. I was excited to have everything I wanted to pack, plus a few extras, all loaded into the Xterra with some room to spare. That's saying something for the Xterra for sure but it's also saying something about my initial packing list... it was huge.

Of course I donated some clothes before I packed, but I did manage to get every single article of clothing besides a few jackets, packed into the two 20 gallon containers. My newest idea involves living out of a backpack for long periods of time. I'm in the process of researching other's stories to find out what they realized they needed or didn't need after months of living like this. Ideally I want to travel down to the Florida Keys, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Cancun, Grand Cayman area to enjoy the beach for a while. I'm TIRED of the snow, haha.

Totally different lifestyle than I ever thought I would enjoy and I may not, but for now it seems really interesting. Staying the States I think I will keep my Xterra and probably even take it with me since it's providing a really good place to sleep and chill. Eventually I would like to do away with it for a while and see how that goes. No home, no car, just a backpack.

I often get asked what I do for money and/or did I save up a bunch to come travel. Everywhere I read the cycle is to work for some months or a year and then go travel with the bread you saved up. It's an awesome plan and it works for lots and LOTS of people all the time. I however an into web design, have been for almost four years now and I make ALL of my money right now from that alone. I have 3 clients that pay me either weekly or monthly and I don't have to clock in anywhere. It's the most portable job ever! I would advise the other method of saving up and then traveling though as it seems much more feasible with a lot of jobs, you don't have to have something portable necessarily to do that. If you want some more inspiration about traveling and maybe some fresh ideas on life in general, check out this website: StumbleUpon.com <-- just click on the "Stumble!" button up top to see something new and exciting!

A tight fit for $20

No, I'm not in Tiujana! Here's what happened:

I decided to go to Fresno for 2 nights and look at backpacks and just get a dose of civilization. About 8 minutes from the house I pass by this self-storage place and see a truck & pull-behind camper wedged in the entrance gate. I decided to turn around and see if the person needed help since it looked like they were alone at first. I get out and ask the guy if he needed help, and he did... very much so. He was at least 60 and could hardly walk. Having already broken out a window on his camper by hitting the gate pole, he was upset and frustrated. So I guided him in as far as we could go but it wasn't going to fit. For the next hour we jacked up the rear of the trailer and pushed it over so it slid off the jacks, moving it further and further away from the pole it was about to hit. Sadly it just wasn't going to fit so once more he decided to try backing out and coming in at a different angle.. I had to guide.

Backing out of the gate took 12 minutes at least, he was creeping and kept wanting to know if everything was cool, even though I assured him it was fine. When he was lined up straight to pull back into the gate, the camper was about 1.5-2 inches from the pole he had hit the first time. It took some precise turning of the wheel and an ever-so-slow pace but we got it in completely. He also asked if I could help him set it up on the storage property, maybe I was such good help he figured he would keep me around for a bit? He told me he had bought the camper when he and his girlfriend decided to travel down to GA where she was orginally from. He mentioned twice that she has passed away "a couple of years ago", I felt bad for him having to deal with the camper and memories. Finally done, it had been two hours since I stopped to see what was up and now I was finally leaving on my way to Fresno. But I didn't leave empty handed! Bill gave me $20 and kept bragging about the help, which I made sure he knew was no problem.

The main reason I turned around to help Bill was not because it looked like he was in a bind, but more that I've been deprived of any new friendships in the last week + some days. I figured I'd help guide the guy in, he'd shake my hand, introduce himself, and I'd be on my way. I got a lot more than that AND got more of a story from him than anyone in a while.