Ep. 1 : A Month-Long Move
Trading in my City Life for Island Life
As I said in my first blog (click here to read it if you haven’t yet!) with each episode I’ll give you a more in-depth and behind the scenes look of things not captured on camera. As a newbie to the vlogging community, it would totally slip my mind to video things and later kick myself for it.
You see a good deal of my Montrose apartment looking like a wreck, but I neglected to video it before I started frantically packing it up and giving things away! This was my first time ever living alone and I loved it! I loved getting to decorate it as my own. I could use all of the bright beach colors, llamas, and Disney prints I wanted without feeling like it was encroaching on someone else’s style. Somewhere along the way I deleted all but the following pictures of my itty-bitty piece of paradise located just 7 minutes from my high-rise job in downtown Houston. Also, Christmas is my favorite so OF COURSE I have a brightly colored Disney tree with a hot pink tree topper.
I also made this move right after Houston issued its “Stay At Home” order, so I was doing a majority of this alone and only going from my apartment, to the marina with very little human contact other than my parents. This really does making moving difficult, y’all. Especially since I needed to sell and give away all of my furniture. I planned to only keep a 5’x5’ storage unit, so only clothes and keepsakes were all that fit in there. After my self-given 6 months of sabbatical, I will find a job down here in the islands and get my own place again. When it’s a bit more permanent, I’ll ship those other belongings down.
A very hard part of this whole divorce process was also losing my golden retriever Jack. He was not mine to begin with so I did not get him in the split-but he was my heart. To my knowledge he is still alive and well and I will always picture him that way. Then during this process I also lost my Charlie-Cat. He had been my cat since I was a senior in high school and he was the friendly, cuddliest kitty around. I had a friend who was going to take Charlie for me, since he was a bit too old to make a transition to sailboat life, and even the thought of rehoming him broke my heart. He would have hated the month-long journey being tossed about on the sea too. So, I took him to the vet for a final checkup and fresh shots before she took him. The vet had heartbreaking news for me (as if I needed any more heartbreak in this whole chapter of life). She said that at 15+ years old Charlie was too old and frail and wouldn’t make it much longer. She recommended putting him down as to not have to pump him with meds and go through the trauma of a new home. I ABSOLUTELY HATED THIS. It was sudden. It was not planned and it straight up sucked. In the middle of upheaving my entire life, I also had to lose my Charlie, whom I had had for over half of my life. Both animals were so wonderful and I loved them, and even writing this am all kinds of broken up about it. If you’ve never loved a pet, you won’t understand. If you have, you’re probably crying along with me…
Anyway, sunshine and time heals most wounds so I had to carry on without those two.
At the moment I have a mis-matched cover on my bed since I lost my quilt to some sea water, mildew, and then finally diesel on the crossing of the Gulf of Mexico. A boat room tour will have to come later when my new target quilt makes it down here after several mailing snafus. It’s small, quaint, brightly colored, and has plenty of Disney in it to look just as it should. It’s more like the dorm room I never had-since I commuted to The University of Houston when I was a student.
Next time on the Vlog/Blog combo, I’ll be taking through our process of getting the boat read for “passage”. Basically getting it stocked and prepared to cross a body of water without seeing land for days on end. We had a few cool improvements added on to Verano and really had an interesting time provisioning for a multi week passage when the stores were limiting things like toilet paper and canned food. Things that sailors need desperately to make a crossing.
Here’s this week’s video below if you didn’t come straight this way from YouTube. They picked a killer picture for the thumbnail…
Cheers,
Ashton