You may have noticed I wasn’t writing for awhile. That’s because I’ve been preoccupied with other things. Getting established in Portland has not left much time for rewilding. About 4 weeks ago, around the same time Urban Scout bought his motor home, I moved into our friend Shaun’s basement. He’s also a rewilder and also from Pennsylvania. Add in our roommate Brooke and Pennsylvanians make up the majority in the household (3 out of 5). As I like to say, although they may be separated by thousands of miles, PA and Oregon are next to eachother in the alphabet.
The basement was damp, dusty, and full of junk when I moved in. But with some elbow grease, a little paint, and Craigslist I’ve transformed it into a Portland pad any hipster would be proud of. It’s still a little clammy, but I have a space heater and the best part is the rent is super cheap. Here are the after photos. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any before.
I’ve also been working hard to improve my health, which I’ve alluded to in previous posts such as Beyond Body Ecology. The full story involves a complicated interplay of mental/physical symptoms and is too lengthy to discuss at this time, but at some point (ideally when I finally get better!) I hope to put it all together to try and help others with similar issues. I’m not exactly doing anything now that I haven’t tried before, but things are a bit different this time because in the past I have not completed the treatments I have sought due to financial reasons, and/or just getting discouraged and giving up. Even though I still dislike cities, I’m grateful for the low-cost resources Portland has to offer, and that I am working with people who are interested in forming real relationships and not letting me give up so easily. I am also grateful to Urban Scout for giving me a little tough lovin’ and twisting my arm to get me to do something about my problems. Some of the things I am doing include:
-Trading reiki (I have level II certification) for shiatsu massage treatments from my friend Jana every Wednesday.
-Working with Dr. Mike, a naturopath friend of Willem and Urban Scout. He is providing me with low-cost treatment including various vitamins and herbs and referred me to a free chiropractic clinic:
– West Burnside Chiropractic Clinic. I am currently going every other week. In addition to adjusting my back, they have given me strengthening exercises to do, which I am regrettably bad at completing.
-Working with intuitive herbalist Scott Kloos. I started out taking a class from him every Monday night and felt I might benefit from his help. His style of treatment involves allying with a particular plant and taking small doses in a meditative fashion to receive important information it has to offer. In truth I am a bigger fan of this method than the naturopathic style which still smacks largely of civilized medicine with its expensive pills and tests. The best thing is he accepts work trade.
Then of course I have Scout to snuggle with, Lisa to bitch to, Willem to interpret my dreams, Shaun to talk wild foods with, Tony to get me outside on the weekends, and not one but two psychics have told me my troubles will soon be over. I still feel like shit, but it’s filled with corn kernels of hope. I have a good feeling about things this time around and not only because I have been sick for the magic number of seven years, an appropriate time for the cycle to be coming to a close.
With the room complete, my health sorta under control, and my money finally down to zero, it’s time to get a job and think about what else I want to concentrate on for the winter. I’ve applied at New Seasons, the grocery store where I spend most of my income, and have been searching for other part-time jobs on Craigslist. I think the short-term gigs are where it’s at. I hate working sooo much, but I can stand anything for a couple of days or weeks. Some of my options include knitting leg warmers, data entry, flyer distribution, making a t-shirt quilt, mole trapping ($100/mole!), modeling, catering help…
Here are some other things I’ve been thinking about:
-writing grants to fund Urban Scout/Penny Scout projects
-hunting/gathering/dumpstering/shoplifting/bartering a lot more than I do now. Like most civilized people, I’m generally too lazy and depressed to cook, let alone gather and process strange new foods and experiment when results are far from guaranteed, so I eat many expensive ready-made meals, but when put up against the prospect of going to work these things become A LOT more appealing.
-getting a table and becoming a professional reiki practitioner. I already have a slogan, “Reiki Without the Flaky”!
-raising rabbits for meat here at the house.
When listed out like that it doesn’t look like very many things, but each has a number of components. I tend to have a vast number of ideas and great difficulty deciding where to concentrate my energy. Sometimes making it through the day is agonizing. I also experience a great deal of apathy, fatigue, and anxiety which makes it impossible to do, well, just about everything. That’s why improving my health comes before work no matter how much debt I rack up.
Some other random stuff I’ve been up to:
-Urban Scout and I hiked to the top of Table Rock. It still makes me very sad to go into the woods here because I miss my home, but I am also excited about the prospects of living as a tribe in the Cascadian wilderness.
-I went on a mushroom hunt with TrackersNW and came back with a paper grocery sack full of chanterelles. Then I went on a walk in Forest Park and found several pounds of honey mushrooms.
-I ran into an old roommate from my school days in Vermont upon leaving a coffee shop! I had no idea she lived here. Even better, she’s in acupuncture school and totally psyched to hear me whine about all my problems.
– I dressed up in full Penny Scout regalia for Urban Scout’s Road Warrior, and Ignite Portland presentations.
-I did work trade in order to attend two classes, Acorn Pudding and Native Foodways, with John Kallas of Wild Food Adventures.
-There’s a new cat in my life, Lord Baltimore aka Little B.
Well, Rock Scout once told me that diary style blogs were stupid and how-to posts were where it’s at, but based on my statistics I find my readers enjoy human drama more than informational posts. No matter, I will continue to provide both. ‘Til next time…
-Penny Scout
Hey Penny! Hang in there! I have some medical conditions of my own that I have been dealing with over the past ten years (Hypothyroidism) and when I lived in Portland I had amazing health insurance (my ex works at Powell’s books, maybe try to get a job there!). I went to the naturopath a lot and was getting treatment that ended up making my condition a whole lot worse than it had ever been, and since I moved back to Ohio and don’t have health insurance anymore, I have gone back to self treatment, which had worked pretty well for me in the past. My ex is great because he keeps on me to keep up with my vitamins and self-treatment, because I am very very lazy when it comes to routines of taking pills and such… It’s definitely a great thing, though, to have people that care enough about you to want you to get healthy and will keep reminding you to stick to your treatments! Good luck and keep us posted!
-Emily
If you’re thinking of ways to make some more money, you already write, so are you being paid for it? I was looking online and found a source that pays me to write…so think about that. I have a first assignment to put down 10 ‘how to’ articles, which I know that both you and I could just bang out this weekend, and I’ll get $15 for each one…a bit low for now, but it’s only how to, not a dissertation…and I’ll be eligible for more assignments. I know, ‘how to’ stuff doesn’t get down to the whole human experience, but the ‘how to’ gets people there that haven’t ever tried, and now they know HOW. So, with all your job searching, think about this. I’d certainly like to know how to find trustworthy mushrooms!
Hi, Penny
The basement apartment seems very grounding, especially after the upheaval of moving here to Portland. You’ve done a great job in making it look very nice. I’d like to suggest a dehumidifier for the clamminess. The moisture might encourage mold, which will not help your health at all. I lived in a basement apartment once, and the dehumidifier pulled out about a quart of moisture every day.
I enjoy reading diary and how-to entries. Thank you for continuing to find time to write.
AND YOUR CAT!! Omigod, he’s almost identical to my most beloved cat, who died 6 weeks ago. Tell me, does Little B. have mismatched eye color?? My cat used to bring cabbage leaves, rose petals, and once even a pouch of tobacco as gifts. Pictures of him are on my 9/26/07 blog entry.
Good luck to you.
Erin-Thanks for the tip!
Sweet Earth Lover- Yup, Little B does in fact have one green eye and one blue eye!
Penny read my other comments, I want to help, indulge an old man