Reunited roommates

I'm so glad to have everyone home. Yesterday, after spending a month visiting family, my roommate Maddy returned home to Nova Scotia. During her absence the house has felt a bit out of whack, awaiting the reemergence of her bombastic shouts. 

We started out as 5 strangers thrown together by fate to rent a house, and have become a family. A great place to find all sorts of wonderful people visiting, supporting and encouraging each other through life, and chatting about a variety of topics.  

You know it is a good day when laughter and music increases in the house 10 fold. 

My living arrangement sounds terrible to some people but works for me.  I love the noise, shared ideas, and all the new and exciting distractions that come with this many roommates. And yet there is still time to find a quiet moment alone with your thoughts.  Somehow our schedules just work out to give us enough time apart that we don't get sick of each other. 

We all have a common goal of making every dollar count so we join forces when buying food and house supplies. The house doesn't need much restocking because we will buy most things in bulk to last. Often we set aside money at the beginning of a month and then see how long we can go without collecting again. Longest run so far was 8 months, February-September.  By pooling money everything is equal.  We have a similar approach to food. We discuss some possible meal ideas and pool money every week-2weeks to pick up supplies. We not only save by sharing expenses, we also ensure we have no waste of spoiled food.  When buying fresh fruits and vegetables we can buy a variety and quantity that would go bad if left to one person. Humans tend to get tired of the same thing (or thrive on routine so who knows) so by getting a wide range we ensure that everyone is getting an assortment of nutrients and manageable proportions. A lot of us have tight work schedules, so when we have a bunch of left overs we make up ready to grab lunches for the morning rush (whenever our "morning" happens to be).

My life in boxes

So I have taken to spending all of my spare time in just putting things in boxes and self reflectively thinking.  Inevitably I came to the question:
Why am I packing to put things in storage rather than just sell or give everything away?

The best answer I could come up with was:
Because I have a sense that I will someday own a home that will require pots and pans

This vague idea of what my life will look like in say three or five years is in a constant state of flux.  I'm torn in too many directions career wise and travel.  Advice from a gold prospector/inventor is ringing in my ears.  FOCUS

1) The world of stability- buying a home, becoming an apprentice electrician and slowly making my way to being a journey-woman.  So say 5 years down the line I will be working, volunteering in the community, saving for retirement, and making enough to have a few fun trips here and there in the world.  I think the double income no kids lifestyle would work best for me.

2) Moving - Take my Sign Language Translation course and spend a few years intensively training for that.  I could then either keep living out there in the community I would know and build there, or I would head back to the city I live in now to reconnect with my friends and family... basically just be gone for a few years doing something I will love and ultimately have to make the same decisions about what to do and where...

3) Try for a life in the arts - singing and painting - what I want to do is sing with a group of musicians and finally make my CD that has been in the works for these past few years.  I've got to have a few more solid songs and a recording studio.  As far as art goes I want to work on larger projects and take my sketches and work from my note books and put them on canvas or frame them.  I want to get to a point where I have to start selling some or I'll not have any room left.  Both of these have me longing to take some time to really hone my craft to make the most out of my enjoyment and take my current skill to the next level.

4) and then there is chaos.  The life that I would love to have but requires lots of money to do.  Basically run around the globe picking up stories as I go.  For now this goal will be satisfied by writing down my random experiences in my blog.

Which ever I should chose to go with it will be an adventure. 




Are you finding yourself at a crossroads?
What options are you looking at?
What sort of life interests you?