This is my first post on this new site. My wonderfully encouraging cousin (hi, Lindsey!) has supported me in trying to sit down and write again. And so now I am.
I don’t know what direction this will go, much like my life. But I’m going to ride the wave and see where it goes (ironic, because I can’t surf).
I am currently on a New England ‘tour’ after having come out here for a family reunion of sorts at the beginning of July. I had decided that it wasn’t worth it to just come for a weekend, so instead I am staying for a month. (No half-measures here!) I have just over a week left, and it has been grand. Not to do a full catch-up, but I started in Buffalo (I know, NOT New England, but it was right there and I had a friend I hadn’t seen in almost a decade, so we’re counting it), then cruised to Maine for a bit, did NH for a week, and arrived in VT last night.
To be able to subsist with this gallivanting lifestyle, I signed up for trustedhousesitters.com which has been a game-changer! Of course, you do have to have a certain mindset to be able to stay in strangers’ homes and care for their animals while they are away, but once you break through that barrier, there’s no looking back!
Well, for me. Of course I appreciate that everyone lives life differently.
I started some sits back home in March to get the lay of the land. My first one was a bit rocky, but I learned what I wanted from future sits, and I had already paid a year’s subscription so I wasn’t going to back out after one lousy stay. And since then they’ve been really good! I tend to lean towards more country stays, which introduces me to little pockets within states that I wouldn’t know of otherwise.
The photo is of Zoey, the dog from my last sit in NH. She could run me into the ground with her energy, and can find a thrown ball in a vast field of overgrown grass. She also jumps like a deer when going over rock walls and downed trees. She is why I pet-sit.
The one downside for me, because of my mentality (which I’m working on slowly changing), is that I explore less if there are pets. I get nervous/anxious that something is going to happen while I’m gone, and I don’t want to disrupt their routine that has been conveyed to me, so I end up chilling at the house for the majority of my stay. Which isn’t a bad thing, necessarily – it still gets me into new places and seeing new ways of life (and lets me critique the workmanship of homes and how I would change them). But I also know that of course the owners have a life outside the home and the pets will be just fine if I explore coffee shops or trails or a good restaurant.
So that is my goal with this sit. Leave the house more days than I stay in. It is a good sit to start that on since there is no dog, only a very self-sufficient cat (who I have yet to meet) and yardbirds that only need to be put in at night and let out in the morning.
Wish me luck! Thanks for staying with me while I figure out what’s next. 🙂 xxBrenda
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