Last of the preparations...

I am prepared to go.  I think; I hope.  I spent the last few weeks finally going through everything I own.  I started with the garage.  Every box was opened, most were then sorted and I got rid of books and stuff I'll never use.  I took many things to the thrift store and have much less stuff.  And I know that after the six months of a more minimal existence I will have with this trip, I'll probably be getting rid of more stuff.  I'm just not yet ready to part with some of it.  After the garage I worked on my bedroom.  It is so nice and organized now.  It even works as a guest room for my mom (still the narrow bed, so only sleeps one) and she doesn't even have to apologize for the space.

I finally have everything into the truck.  I am probably going to get rid of some of the stuff along the way.  I've already started throwing away the socks that are more hole than sock.  I feel I still have more clothing than I need so I will probably be getting rid of it as I realize I don't like it and/or don't think I will ever wear it again.

All that is left to do to prepare is making curtains, and putting in more tie points, as things are moving around as I drive and I need to I figure out what is needed to make stuff stay put.

I think it has finally sunk in that I am planning to leave the state of California for the next 6 months (I have to come back this summer for weddings).  I am saying goodbye to friends, but I know I'll see them again.  Today I did my last drive by of the pacific ocean for the next six months as from here I going inland.  That one is odd.  Off to see if I can figure out better was to tie stuff down.

Not much plan but I have something like a plan if that counts

Day 1: January 1, Texas border.  This may sound a little far until you realize I plan to take the southern route (the definitely below freezing temperatures of Albuquerque scare me).  This means that the Texas welcome center just this side of El Paso is my goal and with just barely over 10 hours of drive time from my start point I don't think it will be hard.

Day 2: Make it to the other side of Texas.  This is a little harder (close to 12 hours of drive time depending on route), I do plan to veer up through the Dallas/Ft worth area and after that I haven't decided, go northish through Arkansas and Tennessee or continue east to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.  Oh no the indecision has me clutched tight in its thralls.  A part of me plans to consider weather but going to far south means rain instead of no precipitation but freezing (and below) weather.  Which then brings me to the if I don't know which route I'm taking how can I have a goal for where I'm making it to, much less plan the next day.

Day 3: AAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhh so much indecision and I don't know how I'll be doing on that New Years resolution of remembering to eat, and if on day Texas I forgot to eat then day 3 will really suck cause that means my energy is fading and I'll need more caffeine/naps along the way, and I am more likely to forget to actually eat and not subside on coffee but I can do amazing things on coffee, 12 hours barely stopping no problem.

Day 4: Will there even be a day 4, I mean if I stay caffeinated and push through, I could do 13 or 14 hour days and thus get to my little sisters by the end of day 3, I mean it is only a 40 drive time by Google maps, and who knows what kind of traffic I'll get, I don't expect much. I look forward to seeing my sister and staying there for a little while, and my bed in the truck is very comfortable so I know I should sleep good once I have curtains, and if I'm not sleeping well then really the reason will be noise and I can get up and drive another hour and find a quieter spot, although if the noise is a constant it doesn't bother me, it is a change in sound that will wake me up, a difference that my mind wasn't expecting.  As a camp counselor this was amazing, because no I didn't wake up at every bathroom trip but I did wake up if someone needed me or if there was naughty camper hijinks in the works; they hated it.  This means road noise, not an issue.  Air planes flying over, after the first no problem.  As long as my brain doesn't notice I'm fine, as soon as my brain goes into panic mode then no more sleep for me. I guess after the long days this semester teaching, I feel a long day driving can't be nearly as exhausting but then ask me again in a week and I might have found that I am wrong.

So that is the current plan, it probably won't happen like that which is why I hate making plans.  The only thing I know for sure is that I need to get to little sister's before the math conference which isn't until much later.

Look Dance Costumes.

This weekend, to take a break from all the packing and getting ready to go, I helped make dance costumes in stretch fabric.  Stretch fabric has its good points (so much easier to fit) and bad points (so much harder to fit).  But there are now three pretty dresses!

Green stretch velvet with glittery sequined gold sleeves. Exactly what the costume designer/director/producer/choreographer/senior project doer (the one on the right) wanted.  And they can move and dance.  And the show will be awesome, Costumes had to get done really early since I said I would help pattern (last year) and the show isn't until spring, but I get to run away soon.

Long productive day

After getting up way to early, trying to wash all the dirt out of the back of my truck (I failed, but got most of it), driving toward the evil day star for two hours, sitting and grading for a couple hours, wandering away to get some lunch, and then pretending to grade but really taking a nap for another hour, my truck got a camper.  I then got to drive home and toward the evil day star again this time the distance took 2 and a half hours.  Look isn't it pretty:

Very tired, must sleep, but had to share, hopefully tomorrow I can find time to see if things I have will fit the way I want and then more pictures.

Gadgets and things.

Now I personally don't really care if I can actually talk to people while on the road, but some of the people in my life want me to be able to still call if I have some sort of emergency and I would like to still be able to post and look things up on the internet.  And as I am tired of paying for my smart phone each month, I have canceled it, and that makes me happy.  But then how can I call people? Well I can set up google voice on my computer which I have done, and so now can make phone calls when I have wifi, and even receive them when I am expecting them (the computer needs to not be asleep and have wifi).  This wasn't enough for my mom, so I have a prepaid internet box now, that I can use to have wifi anywhere that there is cell service.  Now I can make phone calls anytime from my computer and again if I know to expect one can receive them also.  I also now have a 12V to my computer charger and the wifi box is just a regular usb style charger.  Which means that now I can charge all my electronics while driving and have signal in many places without having monthly payments, and I guess that this is what I am trying to get rid of, I don't want all the regular monthly payments anymore.

It is nice to be without the Leash of a cell phone, but at this point people expect you to be leashed and get slightly put off when you (a) don't answer immediately or (b) say things like please just leave a message and I'll call you back when I can.  But I no longer care.  We lived for many years before the cell phone, and people lived just fine before the phone in general, it just means less of the instantaneous gratification that society expects nowadays.

I am looking forward to this adventure.  And now that I have all the electronics as charging from the car while driving I should be good to go.  Tomorrow truck butt cover, then the moon.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

I know I haven't posted in a bit.  I have been very busy with trying to finish up teaching this semester and not getting to frustrated with my students.  Only two weeks left.  I will be getting my new truck butt cover this weekend and then I will post as I do things to interior of it.  I have been making lots of pouches and mentally trying to work out what I plan to do to the interior.

I hate being stressed out.  I look forward to being done with the semester.

Truck bed cover

I did it, I put a down payment on a custom built camper shell.  It will give me lots of space, and Then I just have to build the interior. This is really happening.

Do you know how hard it is to buy something, sight unseen that needs to be built to my truck size and I only have a vague idea of what it will end up looking like because the pictures are on all sorts of different trucks and were not measuring exactly what I was thinking that they were measuring.  But I ended up deciding on one like this http://belairshells.com/camping_shells Bed rail to top will come in at 44 inches on the exterior so that when I use the internal lip to hold my bunk, the interior height should be at 40 inches, thus allowing me to sit up straight on my bed.  I'm getting the side windows higher up than normal so that someone looking in won't see me, and so that on the other side my table won't block the window.

The interior build will be interesting also, but that is one of the things I have really had to consider while trying to decide on the exterior.  I need storage space.  I believe that if I'm traveling at winter I should try to have at least a few days worth of food and water (hopefully a week) and I need space for clothing and cooking and dishes.  And if I'm going to be trying to barter sewing for miscellaneous other things then I need to bring my sewing room. Ok so I can not bring my entire sewing room as that would fill this entire space, but I do need to bring more than just a basic sewing kit.

With this layout, I'll have about 20 cubic feet under bed storage, probably another 20 cubic feet under the table storage, somewhere between 5-10 cubic feet in the cabover area.  I will need something to hold the stuff in the cabover space and I'll probably use that for clothing, the underbed space for sewing room and the under table space for kitchen/emergency rations.

I may or may not get it installed at thanksgiving.  I'm hopeful but they say three weeks to build which puts it at just after thanksgiving.  In which case I wouldn't get down there to put it on until finals week.  I was hoping to use that week between thanksgiving and finals to take measurements and mentally and physically plot out the interior.  So then while needing a break from the stress that is finals I would be able to use it to do somethings with the interior space.

Making a "dresser"

Because I'm working with such a small space, all space must be usable space.  Drawers take up a lot of space and weigh a lot.  I don't really want to be living out of a duffle bag (Mostly because I can never find anything in it)  So I decided I'll make pouches, as long as I can find a way to make it so that they don't slide out of the little cab over space it will act like a dresser.  The only problem is how will I know what is in which pouch?  Label them of course.  So I'm appliqueing pouches to use for a dresser in the tiny space I plan to call home for awhile.

How to:

2. Interfaced fabric

1. Find scrap (or cheap) fabric.  This means go through your entire fabric stash and decide most of it is to heavy for this project, need to keep it light.  Find cotton sheeting fabric, think yes this is the right weight, oh god where did this fabric come from it is ugly, don't want to use it. Find some nice scraps in of all places the large scrap bin of the stash.  Think now why didn't I start there.
2. Iron double sided interfacing to one chunk. (I choose plaid)  Of course this means finding the iron the ironing board, waiting for the iron to heat up hoping the cat doesn't try to "help" and knock the ironing board over.  Iron the wrinkles out of the fabric. Spend some more time trying to find the double sided interfacing, and then finally ironing it on. Unplug iron as this next step will take hours and if the cat does try to knock over the iron, nothing gets burned.



3-4. Writing Backwards and Cutting out

3. Learn to write block letters backwards, so you can pencil them in on the paper side of the plaid interfaced fabric, as this will be coming off and you don't have to worry about a stray line.
4. Cut out your block letters.  Those inside holes are always fun, remember just fold the thing and be careful that you cut all the threads before pulling it off so you don't have messy corners.  This is extra fun when the cat sees a lap and decides now is petting time and starts to do the loud purring demand attention by putting her head in your hand that happens to also be holding a pair of scissors thing that my cat does.
5. Turn over letters and make sure they are the right direction and look ok.  Check that you have all the letters you think you need and that it looks that you spelled everything correctly.



7. Position on pouch fabric

6. Find large scraps for actual pouches cut out a piece that is twice the size of the finished pouch plus a bit for seam allowance.  I'm actually a tear person when it come to cotton sheeting fabric.  Snip a little and the rip.  Such satisfying sounds.  Remember these are pouches and the size is only somewhat important in that if it is a bit to big it won't take up that much more space, because it is smoshable.  Go ahead and turn that iron back on and iron the pouch piece, after coming out of the scrap bin it must be very wrinkly. 
7. Peel off paper back of letters, position them on the pouch fabric and iron those things down. Remember to pick the iron up off the fabric to move from one letter to the next because they can easily get crumpled up if you don't, especially those s's. Be sure to leave seam allowance when positioning.
8. Sew those edges down.  Double sided interfacing is nice and all but we want this to look good, and I find that my corners start pealing if I don't sew them down.  Besides then if the bag needs washed we can wash it with so much less worry that the letters will come off in the dryer and stick to something else.  Invisible sew a bunch because you are using the thread that was already in the machine and you didn't check your bobbin before starting out. 
9. Sew into pouch:
1. Fold in half, with applique work on inside.  Sew long seam from fold line to opening leaving a couple inches not sewn at opening.
2. Sew the bits near the top open so that when you thread the casting you make in the next step the drawstring will not catch on the fabric. 
3. Sew casting for drawstring.  I always sew this with the drawstring already in it so I don't have to thread it through later on. 
4. Turn right side out.
10. Fill with things and appreciate your handy work

A couple of done pouches.

In other news, the dollar a yard store is now closed and it looked really closed, like gone out of business closed.  Where will I get my cheap dollar a yard cotton plaids and fabulous stripes now?  What will I make bloomers out of??? My limitless supply of cheap fabric is now limited.  This makes me sad.

Weight

Food.  I know I have food issues.  I can actually forget to eat to the point of light headed and faint from the lack of caloric intake.  On the other hand I actually do enjoy the flavors and nuances and just the actual act of eating.  So I have done the thing where I only eat one meal a day and that meal is my entire caloric needs for the day.  But now with my picky eating I can not do that as much anymore.  And that is because of French fries.  No more fries for me, best diet move I could ever make.  I can not even resort to just getting sweat potato fries because those are not always safe as most of them are colored with paprika.  Most breaded and fried food has paprika in the breading.  And when I get to much trace amounts of paprika I am not happy.  So basically no more fried food for me (and I like the fried food).  This means that I am having a lot more issues with some of the side effects of not eating enough: extra moody and just faint.  Also I am much more aware of upset tummy and indigestion when I make mistakes and eat nightshades.  I'm also noticing the stress of situations affecting my tummy and that is unfortunately new.  As a bonus to not eating enough I've lost five pounds since school started, I unfortunately know that it is not the right way to have lost the weight, and I hope that I can get myself back on track and actually lose it the right way.  I hope to also continue trying to eat healthier and get out walking while out and about.

Stress adds to my problem, in that I start not eating, I am to busy to take time for food, or nothing sounds appetizing, or really I just don't care and the fancy flavors are not helping release endorphins in my brain thus making me more lazzefaire about it.  I'm not eating, not sleeping and not taking care of myself.  This is not a good thing.  I need my job to not be affecting my health.  I need the fresh air and more walking and just the less stress.

Quest: Organize all the stuffs also known as cleaning

So one thing I will need to do before I go on my epic adventure is go through all my stuff.  Get rid of stuff I don't want anymore, and organize what I will want after my epic journey.  Yesterday evening I started and have continued today cleaning out and going through all my stuff in the garage.  No where near done, but can I just say oh so therapeutic.  I have half filled the recycle bin with just old paper and notes and readers that no one would want to read.  I have two boxes of old text books to go up to school because maybe someone there will want them.  These are mostly the ones I have kept because as an instructor it is sometimes nice to have equivalent books to pull problems from and I realized that I have never done that, so goodbye basic math through calculus books.  I have added more things to the give away pile and have started organizing my string/yarn collection.  I have some for weaving on the big loom, and some for the little loom and some for crochet.  The big loom will not be going with me but my mom expressed some interest in doing something on it while I'm gone, so I want to be sure all the stuff for it is in one place, so she can use it.  Little loom may come with me and may not I have not yet decided.  Crochet stuff is definitely coming, I will need crafting projects and books to read and other things to do when I don't have internet.  I plan to take at least a couple of my unfinished hand work projects with me, because if I can not find the time to do them on this journey, maybe I need to find them a good home with someone else.

I have pulled some fabric for some of the projects I want to do before this journey and I am ready to get started on them.  I need to organize the stash more but for the most part I think it will stay here.  I do plan to at least do a drive through of California this summer so I know I can change my mind and pick things up that I want or drop things off that I don't need.  Or when I finish an unfinished project, I won't feel the need to go out and buy another project, I'll just wait and pick up the next one when next I go through.

But I think my nose is done with the garage part of this project for today, I can not stop sneezing.  Laundry, re-ball yarn and start on the organizational tool of pouches, I think is my job for the rest of the day.

After math.

After quitting my job, which yes sucks for the school but I do not feel bad about it, I actually feel so much better.  I know there are many other adjunct faculty at the school still looking for a full time job and I really hope that one of them gets a job for spring semester, just so that maybe I won't feel the fall out quite so much.  The school really needed to be actively looking for new adjunct since before I returned two years ago, just the facts that I was hired the day after the semester began and I am the most recently hired adjunct would tell most people that.

The giant rock on my shoulders has been lifted away.  I still have to deal with the problems of this semester and make it through to finals, but that is all.  I know that I won't have to deal with these same things again next semester.  I no longer dread the grading because I know there is an end in sight. With this lack of fear, I can be much more effective in my time and thus get stuff done.  To the point that I actually have all my grading done for this weekend, I was mentally capable of staying and getting it done on Friday after office hours.  I still need to write a test for Tuesday but the rest of my week is already prepared.  I know that I can write the test in a few hours Monday afternoon so can actually spend this evening and Sunday on some of my other projects. Like laundry and going through stuff to organize and get rid of it.  I can start the hard plotting of what do I want to take with me on my road trip of doom and what will I want when I return.  I have some things that if I ever set up on my own I will want, and some things that I can just get rid of, lucky for me my mom will probably let me store some stuff as long as I organize it better.  And I agree with the fact that it needs to be organized better. So giant pile of boxes, here I come, we will start with the easy stuff, books and fabric and then work from there.

Goals

As I've been reading more and more, one of the things I've realized is that sometimes we need a goal beyond just wandering.  And although I like the idea of just wandering, someone told me I need a goal or an accomplishment to work toward.  My mother also mentioned that she wants me to have a goal, I don't think this is what she had in mind.  But, since I'm a wandering costumer, I decided that I need to make garb for a complete stranger in each of the 50 states.  I can do that.  Then you know how ideas are, they sometimes get a life of their own. As the idea roams around in the brain and comes out to play by talking to people about the idea, it slowly will morph and change and grow into an even bigger and better idea.

This means that my idea of making garb in each of the 50 states has morphed and now includes keeping scraps from each of the projects, cut the scraps into the shape of their respective state, and appliqueing  it into a quilt.  For states that have extra different scraps keep them to use for water or other background objects, or maybe just piece the state together.  And I would have to do parts of Canada.  But look at all the dots on my new map of North America (ie places I can drive to):


I'm still missing a few states but I suspect that I will be able to pick up some of them by asking around when I get closer.  Only worry would be Alaska and then finding the money to fly to Hawaii.

And then there are the places I can not drive to, but hope to one day make it to:

So really what is my goal?  To try to figure out and understand myself better.  To decide what I want to do in my future.  I currently don't know but I need to figure out what I'm going to do when I run out of gas money.  I have many different ideas running through my mind, but I believe that this isn't a problem I'm going to have for at least six months.  I will have to look at it again after I finally get my last paycheck from teaching at the end January, and determine when I have to actually be back in California for other reasons.  Anyhow now that I actually quit my job, I have to get my butt in gear and start on that list of things I need to do to actually make my scheme happen.  Now to go back to figuring out camper shell.

I quit my job today (WARNING: rant)

I work in academia, which is a very hard job.  Today I quit.  Now in academia this means that I informed my department head that I will not be returning next semester.  Since he is never available, this means via email.  His response "Thanks for the short notice," and then continued from there.  Next semester doesn't start until the end of January, three months from now.  In what world is this short notice? Only in academia.  On the other side of the coin my hire dates have been a week before the semester starts to my most recent the day after the semester had started, even when continuing from one semester to the next I usually have not even received my contract for the semester until after I started teaching it, I only know I'm teaching because my name appears on the schedule.  I am adjunct faculty, I know it sucks to have to find more of us willing to work for a fraction of what the full timers get and without benefits but lucky for you it doesn't take a committee to hire one of us.

It's not that I'm giving up on students, I'm giving up on the people pretending to be students.  When my students overall average homework grade is failing and homework is graded on completion and did you turn it in on time, I can not be surprised that they fail the tests.  On a 10 point quiz where I told the students to check their answers with their neighbors before turning in the quiz, I had a student score 5 points, I can NOT think that the problem is with my teaching. The problem is with these people pretending to be students.

And I'm done.

There I hope I got that out of my system at least for a little while.

Thank you

Thank you everyone for your support. I think I can really do this. I hope so.  If you have any suggestions of things I should do along my way or places I shouldn't miss please let me know.  If you are would like me to visit you, please be sure to read my Barter: Will Sew for Shower post, and contact me.  I can add you to my map of places to visit, I just need your name and a general location.

Current plan is to start out of southern California on the first of January, quickly get to Washington DC area to visit my sister and our nations capital; DC feels like the appropriate start point to my wanderings.  From DC I'm not yet sure although as it will be winter I probably want to head south, or stick to the coast.

Barter: Will Sew for Shower.

My offer:  I will come to your house with sewing machine and make you (or someone else in the near area) garb out of some fabric from your stash or even help you find some fabric to purchase if you haven't a stash.  Or if you just need some help with parts of something you already have going. Or moral support to make that garment you have been trying to make yourself start.  I am flexible on this, but I want to do something so I am not feeling like I am just mooching off the generosity of this extended family we call the SCA.

In exchange:  Use of your shower (not something I can really fit in my truck), and information about your area.  I wouldn't mind a few meals, are you willing to feed me?  Look at my dietary restrictions, are you still willing to feed me? If not, I'm ok with that, just let me know.  If you have them, use of washer/dryer.  I don't necessarily even need a place to sleep as I will have that in my truck.  Really I'm just looking for some way stations along my way, because I want to go to museums, national parks, landmarks, and see this place we all call home.  I will need a space to work, while I make something. This can be as minimal as a small sturdy table and chair, or as elaborate as a giant sewing room.

I have a major wanderlust going on and I want to wander around and not be tied down to anything.  Do you have a idea/project that you need help getting off the ground?  I can help.  I know that one of the biggest problems I have is finding someone that can help me fit me, and I want to help others that have this problem.

At this point I could easily be enticed to go anywhere, and that is what I'm going to do.  While out there may I visit you? 

The plan, actually more of a scheme

1. Decide what features I need/want/willing to pay for and buy a shell.
2. Quit my job, ok so really it is more just inform them that I won't be teaching next semester, I plan to do this approximately November 1, gives me some time to think about scheme and decide if I really think I can do it while still being enough before class registration that students are not already planning their schedules.
3. Design and build interior to camper shell.
4. Finish the semester, grade finals.  I give finals the second week of December and grades are usually due the first of January, but maybe if I'm lucky I can get done really early this semester.
5. Pack, go through stuff, get rid of stuff, decide what I want to leave in storage and what I want to take with me.
6. If all of the above goes smoothly, I should be ready to head out on the first of January.
7. Drive fairly straight through to be in Washington DC area for the Joint Mathematics Meetings Jan 15
8. Visit with little sister, see some sights.
9. Live the dream.  Make sign "Will sew for shower" and do it.  
10. Write blog post about exactly what I will be wanting when I visit people and have some fun.

I won't necessarily do it in this order, as activities like number 5 should start now and continue until I leave.

Dietary Restrictions

One of my concerns with staying with other people is that I am actually a very picky eater nowadays.  I didn't use to be nearly as picky as I am now but with my strange food intolerance I have had to become much more picky.

Nightshade:  If it is in the nightshade family then it gives me indigestion and other issues, amount and severity depend on how good I have been being on avoiding it and exactly what I'm eating.  Nightshades include: tomatoes, potatoes, all of the peppers (not peppercorn), and eggplant.  The hardest part is that there is paprika in everything.  It is nature's red coloring, I can not avoid it.  I do try, because I can tell when I have had too much.  One nice side effect of avoiding the nightshades for me is that most of my skin allergy issues have cleared up, thus convincing me that yes indeed I am intolerant.  Peppers cause me the most issue, with tomatoes a close second.  As for food substitutions potatoes are easy because sweet potatoes are not part of the same family.  The ironic part of this intolerance is for the medieval re-enactor these are outside period and I finally put two and two together to get four from the after effects of a medieval feast that had one too many jalapeno dishes.

Fish products: For awhile I thought I was allergic to tuna, I have since realized that it probably is not tuna but actually one of the chemicals used in canned fish products.  Canned tuna and canned shrimp have both given me an allergic reaction.  The being raised vegetarian means I have not been exposed to much and I am indifferent to it as a meat source so I usually just choose the chicken.

Peanuts/Peanut butter: Although I'm not allergic, I have never liked these but after being raised vegetarian and my father basically saying all we were allowed to take for bag lunch was pb&j, I am over it.

My Vehicle Scheme

Polar New

So a few years back when replacing my old car, and my SCA habit was well underway and I wanted an easy way to get to war, I bought a little Ford Ranger, Wasn't he just so nice and shiny when he was new.

Polar is a good little truck, he helped me move and has gotten me and an entire encampment worth of stuff to war.  He's not as nice and shiny now, has a couple dings from parking on a college campus. He is still good.  Although, clearly if I want to drive across the country in my truck in winter I'm going to have to do something so that whatever stuff I take with me is protected from the wet and snow.

Polar Now

I could buy a camper top. It would basically turn my truck into an RV, but they are heavy and bulky and will kill my gas milage even if I can find one small enough for my truck and not designed with the idea of sharing it with another human.  The lightest ones require you to pop them up once you are parked and are still very bulky.  When looking at the used ones of this style all of them have holes in the fabric part that covers the space after pop up, worrysome.  New costs 12-15K, so that is out.

Next idea, build my own camper top.  Make it look like a little castle and then I can live in a castle and drive it around.  I don't have the knowledge or time to do this unfortunately, so what's next?

Buy a shell and build my own camper into it.  Much more affordable.  Just a regular shell is much more affordable and I then need to get some wood and design an interior to it.  This is harder than it sounds.  I want some sort of platform I can put a bed on, and thus store stuff under it.  And around it.  Then there is the window problem, I will need to figure out some sort of curtains, to keep light out and help keep warmth inside.  Off to buy a pickup butt cover as I like to call them.

Garb I have made

Groom's Brother and Groom

So one thing I think I should do is post some pictures of garb I have made.  If I plan to visit lots of places and sew for people in them, then they need an idea of what I can make and what I have made in the past.  This is somewhat hard for me as I don't actually like pictures of myself and most of the time I'm hiding behind someone or I get not great pictures because it is what other people take while I'm not paying attention.

Me and the Bride

First off and most recently I have been doing pirate garb.  My best friend was having a pirate wedding this last summer and I of course was helping out.  Here you have a picture of two of us in our pirate garb. The red coat is me, I made the coat, all the rest of the clothes and even my hat.  And for the lovely bride, I did not make it but I helped pattern and was moral support along the way (not her hat, that was an amazing find).  Also my profile picture is a much better picture of me in my pirate coat.
And then there was his coat, there were two versions to this coat to help him get a better idea of the finished project, before we cut into his fabulous fabric.  In the picture we have his brother in the first version (stripes) and him in the second version.

Fencing Doublets

I have done some fencing doublets, and helped pattern many more from period styles to more modern styles for women (those boobs just get in the way).  On the right here is a couple of boys nicely modeling their new doublets, and behind them as an added bonus is my day shade that I designed and built.  I didn't actually sew the canvas on this one, but I have done other day shades and even helped with a tent.

Early Italian Renisance

Fencing shirts, chemises, skirts, pants, sashes, hoods and t-tunics oh my.  I do not have many pictures of just those items but I have made so many and as for the underthings, most of the pictures on this page probably have underthings I made, but again very hard to find pictures of people in just their underclothes.  I have made these things in many different sizes from normal sized to large women and even the large men.  Also have experience with alterations and making clothing that is easy to alter so that if you fluctuate a lot you can easily adjust it later on.

What I like wearing is early Italian Renaissance, so also included is a pictures of me in this, with my period short sleeves.  Unfortunately I have not made a lot of sleeves for my Italian garb as in southern California it is usually too warm for them and I overheat.  Also I really do enjoy all the looks I get when someone that knows something about Italian garb (usually a friend) loudly exclaims "hey, you're naked."

Houpelande and Waffenrock

Court Houpelande

Hand made German

I also went through a cotehardie and houpelande phase, really I just wanted to make and wear a henin (a princess hat.)  I really like the looks from the non-SCAdians when I run around in a henin. I have also made waffenrocks like the pink fighter next to me, although I only assisted on this one (or was it the previous version? you know how fighters can destroy their fighter garb).  The houpelande in both pictures on the left is the same garment, but not taken anywhere near the same time.  It is one of my favorite pieces of garb for days when I feel like wearing a train and floor length sleeves and something with fur trim (good quality fake).

There is that day I went german.  After making a bunch of fighter waffenrocks

Bear sized Waffenrock

including the bear sized one shown. I made myself the matching period. The one on the left sewn entirely by hand mostly because I wanted to be able to say, yes I've done that, after that though sewing machine all the way. I also made the giant shade hat.  I am always looking for new and different ways to avoid the direct glare of our day star (the sun).  I have issues with skin allergies and sunscreen, but those are not as bad as they use to be because finding out about food allergies helps.  I just realized I have made a lot of hats, I actually like making hats, I have even crochet a few in my life.

I have also done a whole lot of viking but can not actually find any decent pictures.  Must pull out garb and do a photo shoot soon or you may just have to wait until I make garb for others.

Visualizing

So I was thinking after the amazing response that I need to organize my potential offers so I made a map of approximate locations. Look at how spread out you all are:

I'm excited about all the potential places I could go.  Plus I really needed to take a break from grading.

More Scheming

Now the thoughts of what am I going to do for showers and how can I keep my costs down to make it an extra long road trip, since I will be spending my savings to do this.  In enters random thought, I've been following barter town over on facebook, maybe I could barter "Will sew for shower" and thus I posted to barter town the following post:

Ok Barter town I have a strange question, my personal wander lust wants to wander gypsy style. The Scheming me thinks hey I belong to the SCA and am a decent seamstress maybe I can put this to use. So really I ask if I were to propose the following barter would people take me up on it?

I would like a place to stay for some predetermined time (I'm thinking couple days to a week) and in exchange I will make you garb. Some clarification: I would need a space to set up my sewing machine (no I don't do it the medieval way), and really I want to meet people and see the country. You provide fabric and ideas of what you want and I will pattern and make you something awesome (if I know how).

I'm currently located in Caid, but want to see the rest of the country.

So would I potentially get any takers?

The response was amazing. Thank you, barter town.  Just overnight I got offers from all over the place (including Italy, maybe one day.)  Now I just have to figure out where I want to go and do it.

Early Scheming

As a remedial college math teacher (my day job) I try to teach a whole lot of people some math.  This is hard in that for the most part they don't actually want to learn or understand math, and a good portion of them have been taught to hate math or that they can not do math.  It is a very hard job.  Some days I find it very rewarding, like when a student from a few semester back runs into me on campus and tells me that they wish I was their math teacher now (I even got this from a student who failed my class) or when I'm out and about and someone stops me in the street to thank me again for all my tutoring help.  But then there are the days where I have to process the paperwork for the student using their cell phone during a test and get an email from someone on their friends account telling me what a horrible teacher I am.  And yes I know that I need to not let that bother me, but it still sucks.  I know I would enjoy teaching if all I have are students that actually want to learn and maybe one day I will find that, but it is not at my current job.

So I would like to quit my job, there is more to it then just what is mentioned above and I will probably at some future date rant about that, but not now.

The spark:  One day I was reading facebook and one of my friends posted this article http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/magazine/why-are-there-still-so-few-women-in-science.html?_r=0.  If you have the time, it is a very interesting read.  On the same day another friend completely unrelated actually quoted some information found in this article. When I did read it, I found that there were too many points in there that were true for me.  One of the big realizations I had was that even having been a graduate student in mathematics for 4 years I had never actually been to a math conference.  I told my uber smart little sister (who actually finished her phd in mathematics) and she invited me to visit her this January when the joint mathematics conference is being held really close to her.  This isn't just any old math conference, this is the largest math conference.  I'm not the intended audience as I do not have or am currently working on a phd so I can get in for a lot less money.  I can do this, I can go.  Then my brain said "what if I don't come back?"

Next thought: What would happen if I turned my little truck into something I can camp in and drive? I like to think that as a SCAdian I know how to camp and handle not having everything or a shower everyday.  I have a tiny bit of savings, I could drive across country.

The scheme:  Buy a camper shell for my pickup truck, add some things and make it so I could live in it.  The first of January head out. I would start here in southern California and drive to Washington DC, I have about two weeks before the conference and it would be winter so I would want to plan extra time to get there, and then take the longest road trip home I could possibly take.  I do need to be back in southern California for a couple weddings in summer of 2014, but no dates as of now.  I could spend six months traveling.