box of Jack

For those that don’t know, I’ve been housesitting for the past week and a half with Lachlan in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. I’ve sort of viewed it as an ill-fitting example of what life might be like after I move to Seattle and start living alone.

So, how has it been so far?

Chores Are Hard

My cooking skills need a lot of work. But I’m willing to improve there so it’s no big deal. It’s just weird taking for granted simple things at home and realising that these simple things are pretty complicated if you’ve never done them before.

Laundry - didn’t bother doing since I’m only here for two weeks.

Dishwashing, I’m ok-ish. Need to set up some sort of system and not waste so much water trying to do the dishes but at least things come out clean?

Housecleaning… I probably couldn’t do this. I’ll need to learn how to clean things like bathrooms.

Cats Are A Burden

The whole point of us housesitting is that there is an old cat to look after. She is old and sleepy and doesn’t eat all her food in one go. She’s actually the easiest cat ever to take care of because she is completely ok with strangers, do her business in the garden and buries it, eats pretty much the same things everyday and will not move unless its necessary.

Despite all these things, cats are still a burden. The eating, the worrying, the attention whoring. It’s a big commitment that goes far beyond the “omg cats have nice fur”. And frankly, it’s too much. I do not have such a void in my life that I need a cat and I wouldn’t feel right taking on the responsibility of caring for something unless I could be committed to it.

There’s also a part of me that looks at this cat and thinks, “Here is an animal we have plucked from the wild and completely neutered (metaphorically and literally) so we can have something to keep us warm while we watch the television.” I feel… mildly guilty.

Budgeting vs. Eating

It’s also really annoying to budget for food. I’ve seen mum shop and she juggles scores of numbers inside her mind trying to keep an accurate inventory of what is in the house, what is in season, the constitutes ‘cheap’ for a given item and how reasonable it is to buy something in bulk.

These things I could learn over time but it looks like it will be necessary to make some mistakes before I could be able to budget accurately for one week’s worth of food.

Jack is Stressed Out

So how am I liking this mini-vacation? It’s stressful. I mean, it’s fun and it’s a welcome break but it’s really testing my patience.

For one thing, I miss my privacy and freedom. Yes it sounds sort of weird but moving to a smaller house, being in closer quarters, having to corroborate on chores and food is sort of suffocating. It’s approaching a vague sort of claustrophobia; I feel like I can’t relax anywhere, I can’t sleep a solid 8 hours, I can’t be comfortable.

Part of this also has to do with the fact that 1) I don’t own this house and 2) the furniture here sucks.

I guess this also brings to light the realities of having a housemate. There would need to be a lot of open communication and compromise involved. Either that or they would have a 80-hour week and I would never have to look at them. That would be good too.

I Am So Ready

Don’t tell my mother this, but I am not ready to live alone.

That’s ok though. In most cases I can save myself from any mistakes with money, a phone call to someone or a phone call to someone with money. I’ll learn things the hard way.