It Was A Very Good Year
Edie noticed that my year has been inspired by Frank. Why yes, it has, what with “Not in a Shy Way” and “Regrets: I’ve Had a Few” and now “It Was A Very Good Year.”
I need a song for next year. Any suggestions?
About Last Year
I love Arizona. Oh. My. God. I love it here. I can’t get enough of the lizards. I stop and exclaim at every one, even though I’m pretty sure this drives the people who I hike with crazy. Also I love desert flowers, cacti, cracked mud in dried riverbeds, insects (even when they scare the bejeezuz out of me), animals, birds, toads, spiders (see above parenthetical statement) and… well, everything. Water now fascinates me, because it is such a rare sight. I can’t get enough of the desert and the mountains and the washes and the canyons.
Living Outside
The weather is BIG in my world. With paper-thin walls and a camper that has plenty of gaps where the various fold-up walls meet, weather is big. So when the 60 mph wind gusts come and I’m getting seasick from the rocking and I’m afraid my camper is going to blow over and then I won’t have a house… um, my world revolves around the weather.
Totally not like living in a house or an apartment. There’s very little barrier between me and nature.
I have no bathroom in the camper, so I walk to the clubhouse in the middle of the night and I treasure my time looking at the moon and the stars. I always have fresh air. I like being subject to the weather. I feel like I’m part of the earth, part of the natural world.
In fact, upgrading? I don’t know. Being enclosed in a sturdier camper with luxuries and a bathroom and thick walls and no fresh air? Um, well… I don’t know. When my bed is sopping wet from a leak, okay, I can’t wait. I would like to have my piano with me. But 90% of the time, I dread leaving my little camper. It’s a step away from nature. The thought makes me restless and nervous.
Surprises
Travel isn’t high on my list. I’m shocked. In fact, I appear to just want to write. I, um, have a tendency to get annoyed when anything interrupts my writing. I will procrastinate the whole world in order to write. I force myself on an adventure every couple weeks, and I push myself out of the house to volunteer one day a week hiking the desert.
Part of it is also that I haven’t yet sucked up everything this area has to offer. There’s just so much to explore!
I was also surprised to find myself teaching a water aerobics class twice a week. I love it and miss it (I only do it during the snowbird season), but I never had the thought, “I’d like to teach a water aerobics class someday!” It just happened and it was fun.
Not Surprised
I still hate things. I am perfectly happy to have a bed to sleep in. Even when it leaks. When humidity gives me an asthma attack, yes, I’m ready to do anything to make it stop. But in normal, every day life, I am happy. The less things, the better. When it comes to working, I am not motivated by money or the accumulation of things.
Unless it’s a computer to write on. Or a Kindle. Or books and movies (as long as they’re in digital form). 
I remember when I walked in a friend’s pantry and realized she had more things in her pantry than I owned altogether. Okay, maybe as much. Still, there are two seats that have storage that I haven’t opened in ages. I’m definitely feeling the itch to get rid of more of my stuff. Don’t need it. Why keep it? It feels like a burden.
So that’s my life, this past year. I wonder what the next year will bring. I think it might be another big change, but such is life, I guess. It’s an adventure, that’s for sure!
So how was your year?
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Natasha Fondren is an eBook developer, writer, and classical pianist. After a fifteen-year piano teaching career, she moved to Arizona and built a book design business. She enjoys the lizards and desert heat in Arizona with her Border Collie, Padfoot, and her cat, Dixie Doodle.
It sounds like an awesome year! I love your description of living with such a thin barrier between you and nature. It sounds very cool. It really is like you’ve become more in touch with the world and its weathery quirks. Being cozy in bed while the wind whips around outside sounds so…did I say cozy?…well, cozy.
LOL, Robin! The wind doesn’t whip around me: it rocks my bed until I’m seasick, LOL! But yeah, after you get used to it, it’s kinda soothing, like being rocked in a cradle or something. Maybe. Something like that.
Sounds like a great year. Mine has not been very exciting but considering what has passed for excitement at times in my life that’s fine. Our work here has continued to roll in and we might soon be in a position where we dare to spend more time on creative writing. That’s the plan and so far it is proceeding pretty well.
That would be great, Eric! That’s awesome that you guys can do that. Work rolling in is good!
Oh, by the way, I recall tiptoeing through the crickets and wet grass on the way to the outhouse during summers when I was in grade school and my parents had a summer cottage. (Well, where they lived while running a picnic grove) It was fine then. Today…I dunno…
LOL, Eric! Yeah, I don’t mind. It’s mostly pavement, but lately the door and wall are a sheet of boxelder bugs, and that’s awful.
I’m glad you’re having such a grand adventure. It sounds like the perfect life for you, as if you’ve found your niche — at least for now.
Thanks for sharing with us. I’m enjoying seeing it through your eyes.
Definitely, Edie. I feel like Arizona is my home.
on the writing front it was a good year. On the family front there were too many losses. but one thing I think it is hard to do is exhaust the story ideas and potential in a particular area.
You did have a rough year, Charles.
I’m not good at writing during such times.
My year (so far) has had it’s ups & downs. My art career has done pretty well (& I got a good raise at the library,) but my balance disorder’s been more unbearable than ever before.
That’s awesome, Lana! And congrats on the raise! That’s wonderful, especially during times like these. I’m sorry about your balance disorder. I didn’t know!
Love this post. It sounds like you are really in sink with the earth. I love the awareness of how little stuff you desire. Sounds like a great year. You hinted at big change for next year. That’s intriguing!
Paul, yeah, I’m really not sure. We’ll see, I guess! I’ll let you guys know!
Song suggestion for next year: Home on the Range.
You’re a better person than I, my friend. I don’t rough it. If a place doesn’t have electric, running water and a king size bed, count me out (this coming from a girl who grew up on a farm…go figure). In fact, I don’t care much for hotels, even five star. My bed. My bathroom. I’m happy. I might suffer from some sort of mental illness, who knows.
But it suits you well, life out on the range. You’re definitely more at peace than when living within the structure of walls.
There’s a good one, Kath! LOL! Oddly, we stayed in hotels on our trip down here, and we were relieved to have our bed with us. That’s the one great thing about RVing: no hotels!
But lately I’ve been yearning for a cheap stay at a five-star hotel, like in Las Vegas where you get gorgeous amenities for $30 a night.
Loved these last two posts, Natasha. You inspire me. Seriously.
Kate, you inspire me!
Could you fashion a tarp or something over your sleeping area so you don’t get rained on? Or hot wax the seams of the fabric, or something? I don’t want you getting all wet, dearest.
(nag, nag, mom, mom, la-la-la-la-I-can’t-hear-her-from-arizona)
b
Remember this is a hard-sided camper, not a canvas pop-up tent… so wax won’t work.
I keep thinking of the tarp, but I’m already the oldest rig here. Everyone else has fancy, expensive rigs. So I don’t want to become the ghetto, LOL.
Sorry, I thought the sleeping parts were those cloth things… never mind the wax. How about some solder? And hey, every campground needs a ghetto! You COULD put your trailer up on blocks, too!
Natasha, it sounds like you’re so happy. I love that. And I also don’t want you getting wet. Nothing as nasty as waking up cold and rained on. (Camping holidays at university with a leaky tent is my experience with this – not fun.) I hope you find a way to plug the leak.
Wow, Natasha. You are absolutely such an inspiration! I love that you’re so happy and that you’re following your bliss. Brava to you!
<3
Sorry I’m so late to this!
I love this post. You’ve summed it up very well. Good luck with the changes in the next year.
Sounds like a wonderful year! I have fantasies of living in an RV and writing, and it’s great to hear from someone who’s made the leap!
Sounds like the ideal writing life!