Oct 7

Oct 7 Living Out of a Bus Ed. 7 - Unemployed, Living with the Employed

Truths:

I am currently unemployed.

Jake is still employed, part time.

We live in a 150 sqft school bus.

We = Jake, Jen, and Cleo - a 60 lb diva dog.

It’s a small space with a lot happening. In this post, I dive into some honest realities of being unemployed and living with someone that still has work responsibilities (if you aren’t caught up, I left my job to take our bus sabbatical while Jake decided to stay on part time - see post here for more elaboration). I get a fair amount of questions that are something along the “what do you do all day while Jake is working?” line as to which I try to not take offense to, but being raised a hard-working, go-getter person, it’s hard to not feel a slight stab of a knife (I’ll get over it, keep the questions coming). This is just a reality of going my own way, doing my own thing, and taking my own time. Not everyone gets it, but yet all are jealous that you have it.

Disclaimer: we don’t have any kids, so I’m not homeschooling a body or having an infant sucking on my nipples 10 out of the 24 hours of a day although I do feel for those mamas. We are kid-less, living in a bus, traveling across the western states, with a dog and distant memories of some chickens & some not-very-nice grass in Northeast Minneapolis. We have 1 succulent in the bus that’s near its end of life & had a money tree, but dropped it off at Jake’s brothers place, if we really want to stretch the living & breathing things I take care of :p

Anyways, I chose to not take work on the road with me, at least not the work I was doing when we left for our trip. My work was in chaos, and only growing more crazy by the day - acquisitions, production downs, emergency reg timelines, etc. If there was anything I could do from the road, calling a manufacturer in Vietnam at 8pm on a Tuesday was not one of them; 6am meetings with my colleagues in Switzerland was also not one of them; arguing with my bad boss about sample size for product testing was extremely low on the list. So I walked away to take this time for us, for our adventure, for finding something that didn’t feel so draggy to me. It was a reason to let go & attempt to get closer to the things I’m passionate about. So for about 2.5 months now, I have been jobless, in a traditional sense, and Jake has maintained a part time status of his position. It’s been interesting; let me tell you about it.

What do you do all day?

I get asked this a lot. I have always been quite good at entertaining myself and I’m always looking for ways to grow, new health routines, research on the new superfood, etc, so I wasn’t too worried about finding ways to consume my time. Before we left, I stocked up on some good books, made sure my journal had 4 months worth of pages, transitioned to a new blogging platform, attempted getting into a mediation practice, and made sure my running shoes were fresh.

Now that I am on the road, I can tell you that no two days are the same & that I actually really look forward to the days Jake works, as long as there aren’t too many of them in a row. As much as finding service or wifi has been an inconvenience, it’s also really nice to have a reason to just chill for a day or two and not worrying about where we are going tomorrow or the next hour (something I’m not very good at doing). We typically have long weekends to really get after adventure (Thurs - Sunday), so by the time Monday comes around, having our own time to do our own thing is a treat!

What we have also learned traveling is that you can only hike so much before you need a break or a new activity.

So how I typically spend my day…

In order to create a routine, I have some things I typically do, some on all days and some just on Jake’s work days, to keep me in a rhythm and loose structure.

6:30AM - wake up, get the coffee brewing (French Press, wassup), ~10 min yoga / morning stretching to wake up the bod, take the dog out for a walk

7-10AM - mornings have always been my most creative times & while on the road, I have tried to keep blogging as part of my routine as long as things are flowing. Whenever I force words out, it just never turns out well & I’m less proud of my work. But I typically have something on my tongue by Monday morning. I think when I say I blog people don’t quite understand the context and also don’t understand how time consuming blogging can be. Writing, editing, uploading pictures, organizing content, researching ways to grow it, etc. - it takes a good deal of time!

~Mid morning - this is the time for a good ol’ workout sesh. As much as I love hiking and trail running through national parks, I love me a good weight session as well. And the good thing about Jake’s work days is that we are in service or wifi, so I get to treat myself with a Peleton (or other) guided session - bootcamp and running are my go-to on these days. Ain’t no feeling better than kicking your own booty! (see my post on staying fit on the road for some detailed tips!) This is definitely my sane outlet and usually I cannot get enough (Jake can get enough of movement, so these days also help balance my endless energy with his recharge/relax time)

Lunch - easy explanation. I often use these days to stock the fridge with easy grab ’n’ go’s as well. Protein balls, hard boiled eggs, cutting these cheese (you know which kind), etc. Cleaning the bus falls in this hour as well. Throw me a good podcast on & I’m a cleaning / cooking machine! Some recent podcast faves: The Michelle Obama podcast, The Rachel Hollis podcast, Where Do we Begin, and misc platforms that go over growth tips - body, business, nutrition, etc. (Ed Mylett, Tim Ferriss, Aubrey Marcus)

Afternoon - this is the part where I typically start getting ancy. Some days I go on a bike, if the area permits or find a hiking trail nearby. Some days I update our budget & pay the bills & do some research on the places we plan to go next. Others I upload pictures and do some content organizing. My favorite thing to do in the late afternoons is to call friends and family! Being on the west with home in MN works well as my afternoon is their “after work” time.

Other things I fit in, with less structure - reading (Untamed by Glenon Doyle being my latest fave), journaling, create Insta content (just hit 1k followers - BOOYA!), and basic internet stuff (emails, research on where to go next, best hikes near me, good stocks to invest in, etc). It’s amazing how much time these things consume!

How does that cross with Jake’s day?

This definitely took some figuring out, but we are in a pretty good place now (after 2.5 months…). The most challenging part, other than needing service, is how many meetings Jake has in a day. For me, the opposite of relaxing is sitting in the bus while Jake is jabbering on a call. Call me selfish, but I don’t care about Theresa’s low output nor do I want to hear about all of her excuses why. SO, on a typical day, I set-up an area outside & Jake hunkers down inside (it makes sense with our personalities - I’m a sun-fueled baby). In our 2.5 months on the road, we have maybe had a single rainy afternoon and the weather has been pretty mild which I am extremely thankful for. We have a set-up that works so I can go in and out of the bus and his desk area isn’t in the way of opening the fridge & cooking, although figuring that out took an argument or two.

The reason for our success has been establishing baseline rules we both follow to co-exist in a 150 sqft space! Work-day rules:

The bus is home base for us both - if you need to go somewhere for an extended period of time, we both need to go or you need to bike (we tried leaving me and the dog at a campsite once while Jake went into town to work - I ran out of water about 2 hours in & was stranded until sundown - let’s just say we will never do that again)
Wear your headphones whenever possible - noise cancelling FTW!
Leave a walkway for Jen to get in and out of the bus
If you don’t want to risk my bare ass being in the video, don’t have your video on.
Lunch - Jen will make it on a regular day.
Mid-day check ins required to get an idea when the work day will end & what we have time for in the evening
Mondays and Wednesdays are always work days; the 3rd day is a float day which should be decided on by Monday.
Next week planning - look at the next week by Sunday to get on the same page about where you will be when & how that fits in

Are you getting ancy yet?

I think about this a lot as I sometimes feel like I should be doing more with my time. I’m ancy by nature, so I will never fully answer “no” to this question. I was ancy even when I was employed because I felt like I could be better utilized with my talents (a common feeling throughout all jobs I have had).

In the beginning more so than now, I battled against not having a schedule or people that depended on me throughout the day. It was a just a HUGE change (see post here for more) - I imagine it being similar to having your kids move out for college. :P I think about the impact I could be making for a business, but then I remember that I earned this reward of getting to work for myself right now & fine tuning my own machine. I am slowly starting to reach out to contacts that I respect and looking at the market - I definitely want to give myself time in order to find something that is a step up from my last job and more in line with my personal mission.

So what’s on the horizon?

This is the big question & one I was hoping to really have a clear answer to after this sabbatical, but the truth is, I don’t think I will. I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on the things I enjoy, the things I’m good at, the things that energize me and have some characteristics that I will be searching for in the next chapter. I like small business - being close to top management & the company strategy. I like a culture that embraces uniqueness & is open to new ideas and investing in risk. I realize how much more I enjoy my work when I work for someone and for a team that trusts me and believes in me. I like the big picture. I like writing futures & executing on the plans I was involved in creating. I like using my creative brain and bringing new things to the table. I like training newbies and building them into something great…just a glimpse!

I have now moved some of my time to re-writing my resume which is a bear in itself & comes with a lot of resistance, if I’m being completely honest. The thought of job searching, which I have done some of, is really daunting and not that exciting for me at this particular moment. I mean, when is job searching ever exciting? Let’s be real. But at the same time, I think this reflection has allowed me to get more in touch with my values and non-negotiables. Although my end goal is to be my own boss, maybe that will be next and maybe that is still 5 or 10 years down the road. I also find work much more rewarding when there is a team rooting for you and invested in the same mission, something I have more recently discovered. <3

Who really knows what tomorrow brings anyways? <3

All I know is that I will continue working to be one step better than I was yesterday, and trying my very best to soak up this adventure of a lifetime while it’s here. Not to say that it’s a one and done thing…because, I mean, we now have a bus that’s an off-grid capable home on wheels! Stagnancy isn’t exactly Ruby’s thing. :)