put it all in, make use

On the road with The Blindboy Podcast, a poem, and Focus Blue

May 03, 2024

Greetings, earthlings.

I disappeared!

Thanks for extending me some grace over the past month.

There’s a longer story, but basically: in an attempt to save money, I rented out my house in Vermont for April and May.

In an attempt to have the most fun, I’ve been traveling and working remotely.

It’s mostly been amazing, but there have been bumps.

To no one’s surprise but my own, traveling and working simultaneously is hard. It’s been a struggle to focus, and this newsletter was a causality.

Everything about my environment screams !!!ADVENTURE!!! but the reality is that I have lots of juicy illustration and consulting work right now–more on all that in the next couple months.

Am I living the freelancer’s dream? I think I might be.

Do I miss my home, my people, my routines, and do I feel frustrated by the level of creativity required to make living in Vermont work financially? Fuck yes.

Am I actually going to save money doing this? We’ll evaluate in June.

I spent most of April on the move, but now I’m settled into Tucson, Arizona stringing together dog-sitting gigs.

I miss my kitchen, but tacos here are so cheap and so good. I miss witnessing spring unfold in Vermont, but I type this poolside, watching a Gila woodpecker perched atop a blooming Saguaro. I’m so, so lonely, but I feel so alive and open to the world when I’m solo traveling.

Life is weird and beautiful.

Here are three things that filled my cup over the past few weeks:

1. The Blindboy Podcast

This is the best podcast recommendation I’ve received in years, and it came to me the day before I drove across the country. This guy can tell a fucking story. These episodes were so good I listened to them twice:

2. A poem someone shared in their Instagram story: Sunday Night by Raymond Carver

Make use of the things around you.
This light rain
outside the window, for one.
This cigarette between my fingers,
these feet on the couch.
The faint sound of rock-and-roll,
the red Ferrari in my head.
The woman bumping
drunkenly around in the kitchen…
put it all in,
make use.

3. A song I can’t stop listening to: Focus Blue, Ruby of Thanks

Before I left town I bought my friend Andy’s tape, In Another World.

Sidenote: I’ve been trying to be better about paying for music instead of effortlessly consuming free art on Spotify, though I still do that, too. I’m generally very frugal but giving my money to musicians feels so good. If you don’t already practice this regularly, I recommend trying it out! I apologize to all the musicians in my life for not figuring this out sooner.

I put it on his tape while I was packing up my house and running around like a maniac–but putting on music isn’t the same as listening to music.

I put the album on again a few weeks ago when I was still in Colorado. This time I was alone, pummeling down a long flat road at the bottom of the San Luis Valley, mountain ranges with snow-capped 14,000 footers on either side of me. The sky was blue, the air was hot, the music surrounded me, and this time I was listening.

A description of Ruby of Thanks from Primordial Void: “breezy ‘n’ mystical indie folk in the spirit of Little Wings, Cut Worms, or just about anything on the seminal Woodsist label.”

This song is on repeat:

I’ve been trying to sketch more while I’m traveling and I’ve been mostly failing. Here are two doodles I made of my friend Jamie’s camper while we were road-tripping to Arkansas to catch the eclipse: