I was invited by a fellow hiker to his home for a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We all brought a dish. I brought my orzo, cherry tomato, and asparagus dish. It was nice to have somewhere to go.

I have lived at four Airbnb’s since moving to Denver in July. That’s four times of having to pack up all of my possessions, and move them. My poor back is not happy about all of this heavy lifting and moving. The first one was in a suburb of Denver called Broomfield. Initially my plan was to stay there for at least a year, but it didn’t work out. It was a family with one child, two dogs, a cat, and guinea pigs. The owner and I spoke on the phone before I arrived and he mentioned that they would be on vacation for 2 weeks in August and would be looking for someone to watch their animals. I volunteered to do it for free and the host assured me they would have a backup person so I wouldn’t be chained to the house. Things started out well, but they weren’t very clean. There was dog hair everywhere, and usually dirty dishes in the sink. Although my space upstairs had a small refrigerator and microwave, there was no sink and I had to use their kitchen for cooking. I wanted to help and make the space nice for them and myself. I swept, mopped, and waxed all of their wood floors on the main level. I spent a few hours helping the wife with a photo book project. I helped their daughter organize her room. I used their blower and blew leaves off of the deck and in the front. At first, they seemed to appreciate my help, but it became obvious it made them feel inadequate/dirty, so I stopped helping. A month into my stay (two weeks before their trip), I let them know I signed up for a hike and would need the backup person. Their whole attitude changed and were very mean to me. They didn’t have a backup person. I informed them I wouldn’t be able to watch their animals, so they hired a man to come stay in the home and paid him almost $1,000. I knew it was time for me to move on, so I found another place, but it wasn’t going to be available for a while. So I booked a place to live with a woman for a couple of weeks. She was lovely and clean.

My new place was a five bedroom, three level home in Golden. The view of the mountains from the great room was amazing! The owner would be gone for most of my stay in Southeast Asia, but informed me I would have a roommate, someone he knew from work. The first night she was there, they were on the back deck, just below my bedroom and woke me up after midnight laughing and talking. My windows were open. The next morning I gave them some grief about it, in a joking way. Once he left for Asia, she and I began to get to know each other. Unfortunately, she was also not a clean person in the kitchen. I assumed we would take turns with the chores, i.e. getting his mail daily, taking the garbage to the curb once a week, sweeping the kitchen floor once a week, wiping the kitchen counters after cooking, etc. It became evident fairly quickly that she was not going to help. She kept forgetting to lock the front door when she would leave, so I would give her a gentle reminder. But then she started to do it even more (can you say passive aggressive 😬). I put a note on the front door to help her remember.

A couple of weeks ago the owner informed me we would be getting a third roommate. I prepared a Google doc with all of the chores listed and with dates for us to take turns. Before she moved in, I talked to my roommate about it and she said that cleaning doesn’t bring her joy 😅. I told her it was a necessity. The night our new roommate moved in, they opened a bottle of wine and I had a glass with them. We chatted for a bit and around 10:00 p.m. I told them I was going to bed. I was awoken after midnight with noise that sounded like a party. I put a pillow over my head and hoped it would stop soon. It didn’t, so 15 minutes later I went downstairs and the TV was blaring, and she was laughing so loud, I had to raise my voice to ask her to turn it down. There were three opened bottles of wine on the coffee table. I already knew she had a drinking problem, but then I realized she was an alcoholic. She fumbled with the remote and wasn’t able to turn it down, so I did it. I asked her if she was okay and she just looked at me. I dropped the remote onto the coffee table and stalked back upstairs. The next morning I had a text from her, not to apologize, but to say that her feelings were hurt, and why didn’t I just ask her to turn it down. I wanted to be the bigger person so I apologized and explained I didn’t think I had to tell her ahead of time not to blare the TV after midnight when people are trying to sleep. On my way home from a hike that day I purchased a plant as a peace offering. She was on the phone when I gave it to her and she said we would talk. We didn’t run into each other for a couple of days, and I didn’t receive a text thanking me for the gift or explaining that she was busy and would definitely get back with me. We were both in the kitchen by the third day and she apologized. I said thank you and let’s just agree not to have the TV on loud past 10:00 p.m. I thought things were okay, but they obviously weren’t. She was toxic and I knew I had to get out of there. When I texted the owner, explained the issues, and gave my two-week notice, he took her side since he knew her. I was able to find a new place in Lone Tree within a day.

My new place is $750 less per month, and the home is even nicer than the last one. My bedroom is lovely, it’s large and has an ensuite bathroom. It doesn’t have the beautiful view, but it does back up to a wonderful hiking area. The couple that own it are nice, but in the listing, it said you would have space in the refrigerator and cupboard for your food. Come to find out, you have to go out into the cold garage where there is an extra refrigerator and a shelf for your non-perishables. At least they’re very clean. Fingers crossed that this one works out. I’m only booked through the end of January because then I’m going to Spain for 2 months. 😎

Now you know some of the pitfalls of being a nomad.