I got here last Sunday – and even though its been a week, almost everything I have is still in my car.

I have my computer, my bag (what most people call a purse), and a small suitcase. Everything else is still in th Green Beast (what I lovingly call my car).

As a side note – the green beast did an awesome job on the 625 mile journey. She gets a big gold star because she is 15 years old and has over 200,000 miles on her.

This is for a few reasons everything is still in my car:

1 – my big suitcase is about 1 million pounds and I have no desire to bring it up stairs.

2 – the Green Beast started out organized. Now I have no idea what is going on. The back of it looks like a segment from Hoarders: Vehicles.

The Green Beast is the car version of this. Blerg.

I have 34934908 blankets and pillows inside. I’m a bit obsessed with blankets and pillows. They are a jumbled up mess. Underneath the bedding is everything else I own. Apparently it’s not that important – since I haven’t seen any of it for a week and don’t really miss it.

I like this experiment. I’m ok wearing the same thing almost every day. I don’t really need all 34934908 blankets. I’m becoming a minimalist – the Stivers way.

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I just had a 6 day quest to get a Virginia drivers license and overall it was annoying, but not because of the people. The people were awesome.

One reason I have a writer-crush on Penelope Trunk is that I completely relate to her inability to deal with things like the DMV and other real life annoyances. Only I don’t have kids or Aspergers as my excuse. I simply find other things a lot more important and don’t have much left for this stuff.

Because of this, and because I move around so much, my driver’s license was from Arkansas until last week. I haven’t lived in Arkansas since 2005. . .

About 3 weeks ago, I lost my license and Arkansas doesn’t have a handy-dandy ‘replace lost license’ via website option.  A replacement could be mailed, but wouldn’t have a picture and would take a month.   I wasn’t incredibly concerned about this at first, but needing to renew my passport made it a bit more urgent.

After my mom failed to get the local Arkansas DMV branch to give my license to her – it was a long shot, but because I’ve walked into a DMV that was not near my ‘home’ in Arkansas and got a new license with no identification, I thought it was worth a try - I decided to get a Virginia license. This caused an entirely new set of headaches – like resolving a ticket in Pennsylvania, driving to Pennsylvania, proving residence in a state that I’m moving out of in a week, etc.

Throughout the entire ordeal – talking to DMV people in three different states (Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and Virginia) and visiting the DMV in two (Virginia and Pennsylvania) – everyone was so incredibly nice. It was like being in the Bizzaro DMV world, not the hell on earth I imagined. I’m not going as far as saying that I would like to go through the 6 days again – but it was much more pleasant than being on the phone with Comcast for any length of time at all.

What was the difference and how does it apply to your business?

1. Real people, just talking

I’m all for scripts – sales scripts, customer service scripts, movie scripts. There is a reason they exist. But scripts can be over-relied upon.

Scripts are great for providing fast service, and as a knowledge base, but robotic sounding voices aren’t warm and friendly. Its weird and un-human. Its bad enough to be stuck in an automated phone system cul-de-sac, but when you FINALLY get out, talking to someone with no decision-making ability or who sounds like C-3PO isn’t a fun time.

2. Relate to your customers and find common ground

This is the opposite of treating customers like are retarded, annoying, miscreants, which is what I was scared of finding at the DMVs. I’m guessing being rude part of your company’s training videos. Even the store GASP has come around. Relate to customers as real people.

3. Give employees some decision-making ability.

I had an awesome experience with Amazon last week. My Kindle was frozen, and wouldn’t unfreeze. I’m in love with my Kindle, so this made me sad. After a week of reading from the Kindle App on my phone, and ignoring ‘call Amazon’ on my to do list, I chatted with an online customer service rep.  This was at about it 7 pm on a Thursday. I had a new kindle delivered to me by about noon the next day, no questions asked. AMAZING.

The dude I talked to was obviously typing from a script, English wasn’t his first language, and he probably wasn’t in the United States. But he had the power to make what I wanted happen REALLY FAST.  You can apply this to your business by allowing employees to  make decisions up to a certain dollar amount and give them parameters to please customers. Even if pleasing the customer means ‘bending the rules’ a bit. Rules ARE meant to be broken. Every customer likes to feel they are a special case and concessions are made for him (if needed). Make service personal.

Once, I did not do this. I was working as a server at a restaurant that had paper straws instead of plastic. Better for the environment, which is awesome, but terrible for your mouth. After using a paper straw for a bit, you can’t taste your drink because you of the wet cardboard taste that won’t go away. Gross.

I’m sure every customer wanted regular straws, but one was brave enough to ask for one.  She me to go get it from a restaurant next door. I was nice about it, but refused – because I was swamped and had about 5384903842 customers than needed real things – like silverware, drinks, and food. I would like to think I would handle this different next time. Or just carry a stash of my own contraband plastic straws.

Apparently there are laws and regulations surrounding who gets to drive in the US , and the DMV employees were taking those quite seriously, so there wasn’t a lot of rule bending at the DMVs, but each employee went out of their way to take care of me.

4. Adopt the philosophy that everyone works in marketing and sales.

This one is my favorite.  Realize that everyone in your company works for the marketing and departments. Most especially customer service. It is not something that should be outsourced to people who don’t care. It is not an entry-level position for robot wannabes. It is, however; a great place for new sales people to prove their worth and learn about the company.

5. What is most important? Genuinely care about your customer.

Everything becomes more real and genuine when you really care. It gives customers warm, fuzzy feelings. If that is asking too much, care about your business. Without customers you don’t have a business. So at the VERY least, be selfish and care about yourself. Realize you take care of your customers or you don’t eat.

How does this relate to you if you aren’t the CEO of Comcast or GASP? If you are a freelancer, or run a small company consisting just of yourself, this is even more important. You don’t have a company name to hide behind. You are just yourself. And if the DMV can provide great customer service – you can too.

As a side note – my new drivers license should arrive in the mail any day. It’s really the little things.

As a second side note – you might be wondering why it took 6 days – it was because of unresolved tickets, not having proof of residency, difficulty getting my driving transcript from Arkansas, etc. Pure awesomeness.

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Say goodbye to extra paper!!!!

I knew there would be some logistical complications when becoming nomadic. Mail wasn’t my biggest concern – I haven’t thought enough of it to forward my mail from the other 349834038 places I have lived. But it was something to consider.

When I was moving out of my apartment, I was stuck between what to do with my mail.

Mail isn’t that important to me. Because of the awesomeness of the interwebs, I don’t get bills in the mail. Everything I receive is personal, packages of things I bought, or the occasional item like debit cards or my driver’s license (after losing it).

I was stuck between forwarding everything to my parents or using a virtual post office, like Virtual Post or Earth Class Mail. I didn’t really consider a P.O box – the post office won’t accept packages from UPS or Fed EX, and I can’t have things like debit cards or passports mailed there.

Technically, my parents are my permanent address, it’s just easier.  Until I recently lost my Arkansas license, and ended up getting a Virginia license, my license featured their address. That is also where my car is registered. My mom ends up doing a lot of things for me like trying to talk the Arkansas DMV into giving her my driver’s license and renewing my car registration. I don’t want her to have to do more. And they live in a town called Weiner. Even Jay Leno has made fun of the name (because of a headline “Flu Shots in Weiner”).

I went with Virtual Post. I can control my ‘real’ mail very similar to email. Score!

I have an address in California. It is very simple to manage. When I get mail, it is scanned in to the Virtual Post system. I get an email announcing “You have 1 new mail in mailbox #5147!”. The email shows a picture of the scanned envelope.

From there I simply log in and decide what I want to do with my mail. I choose between having it stored, opened and scanned, forwarded, recycled, or shredded. Virtual Post will mail, Fedex, or UPS something to me all over the world. It couldn’t be easier.

Friends keep asking if I’m worried about people going through my mail. And I’m not. Again, I don’t get anything that important. Any potential downside is trounced by not having to deal with paper. AND being able to forward all my 49834038 addresses to 1 place. I am so excited about this, I wish I would have done it before I stopped having a real home.

As I get further into living like a vagabond, I know I will come up against other, more complicated logistical issues – what are you interested in hearing about?

In the meantime, if you are interested in learning more about the logistics of nomadic living check out Life Nomadic and The Tiniest Mansion by Tynan. They are both short, simple, and thorough.

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At the beginning of the post, I mentioned going out of my way to avoid a woman on a handicapped scooter because I didn’t want the “green beast” to make her nervous. It makes a lot of weird noises and is a. . .beast.

PSA: Not my legs. Or my shoes

That was not the last time I saw her.

After driving to the gas station, pushing my car, walking to Target, and purchasing the gas can – I ran into her again. When I was walking back to the gas station, I saw her with her scooter, just entering the shopping center parking lot.

I was envious of her and thankful for my life at the same time.

I was envious because she was so in the moment; taking her time to get where she was going. There wasn’t the sense of ‘wanting to be there faster’ that I feel ALL the time.

And I was thankful for my life, because the worst thing that happened to me today was running out of gas, and I am physically able to push my car. My legs work. That is not a given – I am not ‘owed’ working legs. They are a blessing.

I wish I would have talked to her. I wanted to – but I didn’t want to interrupt her world.

What are you thankful for today?

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1. Kindness of strangers

 Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

- Blanche DuBois, A Streetcar Named Desire

I play ‘almost running out of gas’ roulette all the time. And I always win. Until today.

It is now:
Me: 10,000
Gas: 1

I needed gas last night. I REALLY needed it today. I was heading to the DMV (this day continued a saga of trying to get a driver’s license in Virginia) left the house to go get gas, but I forgot to put in my contacts.  I was going to the DMV, and was going to get an eye exam, I turned around and got my contacts.

I embarked on my journey again. This time I was behind a woman on a handicapped scooter – I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, because there wasn’t room to pass and she was on the street, not the sidewalk, so I went a few blocks out of my way.

Finally, I’m making a u-turn into the gas station – on a pretty highly trafficked road in Alexandria, VA (Hwy 1 or Jefferson Davis Hwy for anyone that knows the area). Then my truck (it’s really an old Ford Explorer, nicknamed by one of my friends ‘the green beast’, but I like to use ‘truck’) quits – right as I am blocking 2 lanes of oncoming traffic. Awesome.

I throw it in neutral, and jump out to push. Pushing your car while steering – not easy. I was running back and forth from the back bumper to the steering wheel (oddly it did not occur to me to push FROM the driving side door). As I’m pushing people are staring at me from their cars. They aren’t yelling or laughing – but they also aren’t making a move to help me. I wasn’t upset about pushing my truck myself – but I am logical enough to realize that when pushing a vehicle – 2 is always better than one.

I got it turned around rest of the way – pointing in the right direction before a guy came to help me and told me to steer. Unfortunately, I was doing better pushing that he was (I played offensive line in the women’s version of the NFL – more on that later – point being we move large things). Pretty quickly another man came to help.

We push my truck  up to the pump – they run back to their cars as I chase after them trying to say thank you.

Next debacle: the explorer was on the wrong side of the pump, AND I was at a diesel pump. I didn’t really want anyone else to have to help me push, nor did I want to maneuver it around a gas station with all the pumps and cars pushing by myself. That seemed like it would become a  Frogger nightmare – I could already see me slamming into someone’s car.

It was a teeny tiny gas station that didn’t have a gas can, so I walked across the street to Target and got one. I got back to the gas station and was trying to assemble it as a woman came up and asked if I could move my car because she needed to get to the diesel pump. I laughed told her that I would LOVE to move my car, but it was a bit stuck. I continued to say I be more than happy to push my car back, but it would be really helpful if she would steer. So she helped me push it back and ended up helping me get my truck to a pump I could use.

As she was helping me, 2 other men ran up to help. I filled up my car and was on my way.

This got me thinking about the kindness of strangers. I experienced this a lot when I was hiking the AT this year (more on that later too). There are trail angels, amazing people who provide trail magic, or random acts of kindness for hikers. In each town that the trail goes through, residents give hikers rides, meals, and showers. Some are hikers themselves, some are just amazing people looking for an outlet to help others.

Today, I am very thankful for the kindness of strangers and am looking forward to paying it forward. It’s easy to forget how great people are. It would have been easy to get frustrated about this – and let it ruin my day. I did not make it to the DMV that day. The experience was pretty positive. And I’m pretty lucky to not have run out of gas before.

I would love to hear about the last time you helped someone who you didn’t know or the last time someone helped you.

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Planning freaks me out. Planning meals for a week makes my head spin. It’s a bit shameful for a former accountant to admit.  I don’t even want to think about trying to get the most out of a round the world ticket. I can plan professional things – product launches, audits in my former life. But when it comes to my personal life, I like to see what happens.

Last week I got to meet one of my heroes. I learned she existed about 3 weeks ago – and immediately fell in love with her life.

I was at Barnes and Noble writing – well, that was the plan, but instead I was browsing through travel memoirs.  I found Tales of a Female Nomad, and flipped through it. Even the introduction fascinated me - in 1986 at the age of 48, Rita Golden Gelman took off traveling and hasn’t had a permanent address since. I went to her website and saw she was in Annapolis until the end of January. WINNING!

I emailed her immediately and said I would love to meet her. She emailed me back within a few hours – resulting in me meeting her for lunch with her and 2 other women that were meeting her for the first time.

It was the kind of lunch where you want to remember everything that happened, everything that was said. I don’t. It was 4 hours.  I enjoyed all of Rita’s stories, and loved hearing about the other 2 women. Staci and Lesley are both travelers – Lesley is becoming a nomad herself VERY SHORTLY. Kindred spirits.

Rita, me, and my crazy, frizzified hair in Annapolis.

Things I love about Rita . . .

Her travel + connecting philosophy

She travels to connect with other people and become a part of their communities and cultures. She bonds over their food, their cultural activities, their lives. She doesn’t take pictures unless the natives also have cameras. She does nothing to elevate herself above who she is connecting with (such as giving American gifts). It is the ultimate in getting rid of the ‘us vs them’ mentality and melding with another culture.

She was scared too

What touched me the most about her books was how scared she was when she started this journey – she stretched herself in every way imaginable. At the beginning, she was 48 and had never eaten at a restaurant by herself. That is something I love to do.

But most importantly. . .not having a plan is ok

The biggest thing I learned from Rita is that its ok to not have a plan. She has been traveling for 26 years and doesn’t plan that far in advance most of the time. She moves on when she feels it is time to move on. After meeting her, I accepted that. Since then I have had peace about it.  All I need to know is the next step. . . everything else happens after that.

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It doesn’t have to be complicated either. Just let go and let yourself float!

Thanks to my amazing friend Dani for this – I learn more from her Facebook posts in a day about spirituality than I did in a childhood of sunday schools (though I did learn other valuable things in Sunday School).

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1. Awakening (a short film)

Image from Tim Burton's Alice and Wonderland

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1. Mystery
2. Awakening (a short film)

This short film is about 10 minutes. Not long for a film, but in internet video minutes, it’s a bit like Cleopatra.  It a good 10 minutes.

The film is about spirituality, but when I watched it what spoke to me was all about life purpose.

At time marker 1:20, filmmaker Roger Ingraham introduces himself and the moment he dedicated his life to the search of God. To me, it was a reminder that life purpose is and personal decision.  Today my purpose is the search of life. Life is everything that happens around us, and in us – and I will be more aware of it.

Next week I can change my purpose. Recently I was reading Female Nomad and Friends, an anthology featuring women who have traveled the world, and one of the writers, Jacquie said something in her bio that I loved:

“. . . if you have trouble finding a purpose in life, try finding a purpose for each new day — or each new hour”

Why not?

What do you think?

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 Mysterious . . . 

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.

-Albert Einstein

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