Places My Stuff Has Been

I've lost count of how many places I've slept in the past two months and this is a very, very small sample of all the places my stuff has been. I'm thinking I should name my suitcases so I can say "Here's Julio in Lauren's apartment." I just can't think of good names for them.


So, only Mama Pajama is really visible in this picture, but I needed to record being at the 4-H Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland for the first time in five years--making me feel very much like a scholar. This was where I stayed January 14th and 15th.

This was all of my stuff a while later hanging out in Erika's room in Duckett at Smith in Northampton, Massachusetts on February 10th. Between the first picture and this picture I stayed in Tyson's Corner, Virginia then downtown DC then with Harris near West Falls Church, Virginia. I then hopped a plane and stayed in Enfield, Connecticut for a while, followed by some time in Tyler House and Chapin House at Smith, back down to Connecticut, then to Erika's room.

Next, I moved over to stay in Tyler between Katie and Kristina's rooms so my stuff lived in the second floor hallway. I then went with Kristina to Burlington, Vermont, then back down to Smith to spend one more night at Tyler.

Then I took my bad-self over to stay with Caitlin in Jamaica Plain.

From JP, I went down to Philly to visit with the Spellers and Rachel Brown, then up to Plattsburgh to stay with Cassie. Though this is not really a photo of my luggage, you can still see her in the background.


From Plattsburgh, I went down to New Paltz to stay with Lauren and leave my stuff in a messy pile in the corner of her yoga room. And now I am at my mom's house on Long Island until Monday when I head back up to Plattsburgh! Ooof! That was a lot of moving about. But now I have to figure out how to pack all of my stuff that I want to live with into two suitcases to bring on the train.

Couch Surfing, Part I

Since the beginning of January, I have slept in ten different places. These range from friends' beds, to parents' houses, to conference centers, to hotels, to cushions on floors. For the past week, I have been a couch-surfer. I am looking for jobs in Western Massachusetts and it seems much easier to do this from the area than from Long Island. This way, if I actually get an interview, I can easily get to it. Though it has only been a week, there are some rules I am learning:

1) Bring your own towel. It would have been much easier if I had and I feel like I wouldn't be crossing an awkward line.
2) You can sleep two nights in one place Monday-Wednesday, but three nights Thursday-Sunday.
3) If the person who is hosting you has a significant other, you may feel like you're invading even when they don't.
4) Air mattresses can easily be moved from room to room.
5) Make a list of who offers to host you and prioritize by sleeping arrangements--linoleum floors at the bottom.
6) Try to see your friends before you stay with them so that they get a chance to say how great it would be to have you on their floor.
7) Spend a lot of time in public spaces during the day--this makes you feel less of a burden.
8) Make friends with your friends' friends.
9) Be charming and positive.
10) Sleep whenever your host wants to. If they go to bed at 10, you go to bed at 10.

And now for the oops moment of the week:
Apparently, air mattresses are not meant to be left inflated for a few days. One of my closest friend's had been hosting me, but to give her some space, I ended up taking the air mattress from her room down the hall into her friend's room. Sometime during the night, I discovered that the air mattress was slowly deflating. I woke up later to discover that I was sleeping with air all around me, but none underneath me. I was effectively sleeping directly on the floor. I did not get up, I did not complain--I just tried to roll over and think of Korea. So rule number 11 is: deflate your air mattress every day and re-inflate it every night.