Day 4: Making Moves for The Shagging Room

This is part of?My Van Year?where I document my experience living in a van (a really nice van) every day during 2022?while working remotely.

The van builder told me last Tuesday that the van would be ready in two weeks. I was told the same thing today. It seems everything is ready. We are just waiting on some 4-inch foam to be delivered and a seamstress to cover the foam in some sweet fabric. This foam will be used for the seating area and the bed.

The wall and ceiling fabric is called?Hepburn Tundra?by Keyston Bros. The fabric that will cover the seat and bed cushions is called?Hepburn Moonrock. I love how it looks so far and am curious to see how it holds up. It will either get stained to shit between me and the dog or remain the coolest thing ever. I don’t see it achieving both, but let’s see.

Progress as of one week ago. We just need the cushions now. Everything else major is done.

I did want all fabric though. Everyone does wood walls in their van and too much wood is too hard. I like soft in my living space. I guess you could call me a softy.

All this reminds me of one of the treehouses I built with friends as a kid. Not a glamorous treehouse, but a shack-type thing pieced together on a fallen, rotting tree in the woods.

The shagging room

In this one treehouse that ultimately burnt down (different story), we had a separate room called the shagging room. It took its name from the strips of shag rug we found out by a neighbor’s trash one day, and probably from the Austin Power’s movie that came out around the time,?The Spy Who Shagged Me. (We were about 11 years old so weren’t doing any shagging.)

We took these strips and lined the wall and ceiling of the room. Later we discovered that the room smelled like cat pee. That’s probably why the strips were out by the trash! We didn’t care. We rolled around in that room and had a blast.

So this build is a step up from the shagging room and, even if it gets a bit dirty, I can still have fun. At least it will never smell like cat pee. I can also consider replacing the fabric with something else. That would be a fun project and an opportunity to connect more deeply with the van.

Delays shan’t beget inaction

The delay with the fabric surfaces the fact that things often get delayed and then keep getting more delayed. At some point, you have to make a move, whether you are building your van or contracting the build. So even though the builders said that the van would be ready in two weeks (again) I decided to rent a car and book an Airbnb by the shop in Ohio for early next week. One week from now, not two weeks.

They were completely cool with this and excited to see me. They even offered to take me out and give me an opportunity to provide feedback on final tweaks to the van. Just before we ended the call, one of the builders said in the background, “I don’t think it will take two weeks.” Two weeks is just an idea. Now is always here.

I can do something now, if it feels true. It has been almost half a year since I purchased the van and I’ve been four months away from it, my new home. I have never felt more homeless. So the time is now. Making the decision earlier today to leave here and support the initial two-week finish date felt true.

When confusion strikes

At some points during the day I was utterly confused about what I’m doing, what else I need to buy, where I will stay after taking off, whether I need a sleeping topper for the seating area, whether I can still find my job enjoyable, whether I am in over my head, whether the fabric was a terrible choice, whether my one spiritual teacher is deluded, what life is all about.

But when filling the car at the pump today I looked into a tree-topped hill and remembered that everything is silent and quite lovely. Life is for living, duh. The mind motors will run and that is fine. Let them run and don’t take them seriously when they do. They will quiet faster that way. This confusion is old programs, old fears, and some karma working itself out. How beautiful. It will pass.

I’m trying to enjoy the moments leading up to this new adventure. It’s hard but so important. Thank you God for this workview today.