Seppukumaru

Hey again! This is me getting my journal caught up to my life as it's been an amazingly long time since my last real update here (December 2010)!

December 2010 thru early April 2011 I was spending time with my family & packing all my stuff up in preparation to move. No school & no job, how I miss it! Mid April 2011 I moved to Montana in the Toyota (I left the VW behind until I have a chance to move it to it's new home). I slept in the car along the way because I had to be thrifty, & because I really enjoy sleeping in painful positions. But having boxes stacked to the ceiling certainly hides you from view!

The plan was to move to Missoula, MT & go to truck driving school, but spring snow & ice on the second half of my drive had me wondering if I really wanted to move to the mountains in spring. One of the Toyota's belts went flying off 50 or so miles from Billings, MT & since I was going to be stuck in Billings for a few days that settled it for me- I decided to go to another branch of the same truck driving school I was considering, in Billings rather than Missoula. Before I found a place to stay, I was sleeping in my car- until the police woke me up one snowy night & threatened me with a ticket if I did it again, so after that I lost my nerve & went back to the local KOA Campground.

I couldn't afford any of the month-to-month apartments that were available, & I was only staying for two months so a lease was out of the question- so I rented a room in a stranger's house. The house turned out to be really nice, in a great location, with friendly owners who had two dogs & two cats (yay!). One of those cats was my BFF while I stayed there. I probably would've stolen it if there was any room at all in my car.

Truck driving school was really fun, honestly. We got to drive three Kenworths & one elderly Freightliner known as "the Freightshaker". The instructors were really goofy & they had all these entertaining old videotapes for us to watch. On my days off I enjoyed my new home & got to thinking that I actually really like Billings. But once school was over I moved to Livingston, MT to be close to Yellowstone (plus it's really pretty here, & much smaller than Billings). I got by without an apartment until February of this year. Once again I started out living in my car and once again I was threatened with a ticket for using the National Forest as a 'residence'. They basically said I couldn't camp in the forest unless I could provide proof of residence elsewhere. Trust me when I say it sucks to be told you can't sleep in your car when you have no money for hotels! After a few paychecks I started staying in hotels during my time at home. When I couldn't stand having all my stuff in boxes anymore I got a comfortable apartment where I can look at the mountains out the windows. I really love it there!

For now, I only get 4 days at home a month & don't have internet there. I subscribed to the Pilot/Flying J truckstop internet, so when I stay at P/FJ truckstops that have wifi available I can use the internet. Because this is a "more than full time" job, I rarely have the combination of working internet & free time. So I'll do what I can here & on my website when I can but sadly I can't be the "me" you knew when I was getting my degree (back when I was commenting on everything & was usually caught up- I had loads of free time then). But I do have artwork to upload when the internet's fast enough. In other words, it could be awhile, but fanart from me still exists, believe it or not!

I still hope to find a way out of trucking and into doing art full time, and by that I mean I WILL find a way. Anyway- if you're still with me, thanks for listening!