Day 4: 2/22/22 11:11pm
Woah! Crazy number, crazy day! Tuesday! Twos-day! AND it’s 11:11!
We woke up this morning at St. Simon’s beach and Zak had to poop really bad so he walked to Massengale Park, where there were public restrooms, a beautiful beach, and a doggy clean off station. (In case you are wondering, we do have a little PortaPotti in our van, but we haven’t gotten it set up yet.) I ended up meeting him at the park and we spent until about 3pm there. In the afternoon it started to get very crowded so we headed back to where we parked last night. While I’m all about talking to people, sometimes it’s nice just to have space to yourself. Ideally, we’d be able to open up the back doors and enjoy the view and the breeze without random people peeking in. Everyone that peeked in had good intentions, but we can feel very territorial when it is just the van that holds all of our worldly possessions. (Except for the sewing machine, of course… sent that home to Mom and Michael!)
Going back to last night’s spot was a little more secluded, mostly because there weren’t nearly as many parking spots. We were able to crack the doors and then I made a good sandwich, but then found myself falling into mindlessly scrolling through my phone while Zak worked (yikes!!) so I went on a run, did some lunges and squats, and stretched. While Zak works his full-time job, I often feel an internal pressure to be useful/ productive in some way.
Since graduating and applying to medical school, I’ve been in quite the in-between rut. I am hesitant to apply to full-time jobs because if I do get in to med school, then I will have to quit. In addition, I know Zak is often pressed for time because of his job, so having all of this free time allows me to take care of things for the van. So far, it has seemed to make more sense to tutor online. That way, I can make my own schedule, etc. The thing that bothers me the most is that I am making almost no money… In an ideal world, I would freelance something that didn’t require me to be on video calls 24/7, that way, I could add more jobs, but still work on my own time.
In truth, I know that a ton of my friends would give up full-time work in Corporate America for what we are doing… I suppose the grass is always greener, huh? I will say that not having a full-time job has offered me a huge amount of freedom to work on additional projects (like the van build and this blog). I suppose this is something that I will figure out or maybe will get better once I hear about medical school decisions.
Anyway, back to the day… After I went on a run, Zak went on a run too, and then we took our first showers in the van! We haven’t put in the timer switch for our hot water heater yet though, so they were cold, but man, they still felt great! I think each of us took about a 2.5 gallon shower. It felt SO good to shower since we hadn’t showered in 3 days. Plus it was cool to know that we took probably the least wasteful shower that we have ever taken in our lives. Our conservative shower was also helped so much because we have a little pause button on our shower head! Although, when I tried to scrub my back/shoulders with my scrubby brush, I realized that I had gotten a little burnt while we walked Aug on the beach today… ouch!!
Later Mom called to say hi and to see how everything was going. One thing that made me a little sad about the van build is that my parents were so far away when it happened. They live in Schenectady, NY, and the whole build took place in Milledgeville, GA. Of course, it was such a blessing to be able to get so close with Keith, Kathy, and Nanny, but it would have been awesome to have my family be involved in the process too. Luckily, we did get to drive up the van during Thanksgiving!
After Mom called, Zak, Auggie, and I walked over to the local brewery, Barrier Island Brewing. We got two hard Kombuchas, which, by the way, are totally delicious! and we also shared their awesome “Super Salad”. It had quinoa, spring mix, blueberries, goat cheese, and champagne vinaigrette. Totally delicious, and not so filling that we felt sick afterwards. We love sharing little snacks like that.
When we walked back, we ran into some lady that loved rescue pits and she just about talked our ears off! When we got back to the van, I made dinner while Zak struggled to put up our new baskets to hold our various chargers and wires. While we ate, we watched an episode of Bull (Tony DiNozzo from NCIS). I love having free time back with my guy!! During our dinner/ movie time, some people pulled up, which made us mildly nervous. But turned out that they were just high school kids trying to smoke weed in the parking lot. lol.
I am absolutely exhausted and need to sleep. Goodnight!
