In August of 2024, I relocated to Portland, OR

from Albuquerque, New Mexico in an attempt to 'rebuild' my life --

My previous life as a business owner, non-profit founder and retired professional athlete

had pretty much exploded in May of 2023 during an interesting series of events that left me reeling on every single level. 

I finally learned that nobody is safe and that nothing about the system we all live within

is legitimate, consistent or even dependable -- being attacked in my own bike shop during business hours and forced to defend myself, only to then be falsely charged with battery by shamelessly corrupt law enforcement officers will kinda do that to a gal. 

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So I leaned into the chaos, played attorney for a bit, sued a bunch of people as a pro se litigant (including the City of Albuquerque, the Albuquerque Police Department and the individual APD officers who violated my rights in addition to a sketchy landlord-house-seller who too-easily defrauded my autistic ass), then accepted a bunch of taxpayer money from them and bounced out before anyone could shoot me in the back.

I'll just leave it at that, because google is still free and my Substack is linked in the menu bar above!

 

so I moved to Multnomah Village in the hills of SW PDX, where I filled a delightful little duplex full of beautiful things and lots of plants, tools, toys and fun light to jumpstart my fresh journey, and I organized the shit out of it -- but all did not go as planned thanks to a(nother) real wild landlord, as so often happens...

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And less than a year after moving to Portland, following my significant investments in the house and property on Canby + a lot of time spent looking inward as well as a lot of exploration around my new location, I decided I wanted something entirely different:

 

I decided that I wanted to downsize + simplify my life (DRASTICALLY) to live out of a travel trailer --which meant selling off nearly everything I owned...

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so I did EXACTLY THAT, in an ongoing series of

massive yard/estate/garage sales that lasted most of July 2025.

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It was amazing.

I met so many new friends and neighbors, deepened relationships I had built during my short tenure in Portland and really learned a lot about 'letting go' as I said goodbye to 90% of everything I owned in pursuit of something different and brave. 

 

But even that didn't work out for us despite my planning, patience and constant efforts to release all the things I owned + kept that had come to own and keep me -- I struggled with surprises in my credit and consumer files thanks to the events of 2023 + an abusive previous relationship, which meant spending most of August and much of September 2025 jumping between hotels, AirBnbs and camping spots, as well vacillating between 'definite' financing, denied insurance coverage, then 'questionable' financing; eventually, the whole plan was scrapped entirely after two big problems arose: 1) an early-August truck break-in + truck repair surprise ate $4500, and most of our 30% down payment on the travel trailer, and 2) when Koba was injured during a hit-and-run on August 26, leaving us with more than $5500.00 in vet bills (to date) and the pet insurance company (still!) dragging its feet on reimbursement.

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Which brings us to The NEXT Big Change Of Plans (again!),

BECAUSE IF NOTHING ELSE, THESE MOTHERFUCKERS CAN BOUNCE BACK:

we just diverted back to our original moving idea from June, and found a lovely little house on the central coast in Yachats, Oregon; we moved in on September 20 after camping + exploring the Cape Perpetua area for a couple weeks, are we're excited to make this our new home.

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so now we start, again.

it's not starting over, nor are we starting from scratch:

it's just starting again, with additional knowledge and fresh experience and newly-tested + refined skillset.

​​I'm working on my book, Koba's working on his nap skills and we're trying not to regret the lovely things we sold off, because that's what life is: a revolving effort towards an ability to detach. 

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So follow along as we further live and refine and grow -- I have a feeling it's about to get really, really good... or at least give us more scars with cool stories and rad art!​​

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