NMC033 Before Tucson Trip

Rosa Linda

Recorded: September 15, 2016
Location: Riviera Beach, Florida – s/v Dawn Treader
Subject: Packing for a trip using the KonMari method. Also, why boat toilets are the worst ever.

Hello friends!

This week’s episode takes us back to September 2016 when we were packing to leave the boat for a wedding in Tucson. Personally, I enjoyed listening to this audio flashback because sleepy, 11-year-old Ahava wandered in and did an impromptu interview with me. I love hearing her younger voice and remembering all the adventures we had back then.

Gratefully, we are still having plenty of new adventures on the s/v Dawn Treader in the present day, April 2021. For example, I just paused writing this to watch the sunrise over the iguana-infested, Allen’s Cay, Exuma, Bahamas where we float with 4 other kid boats on crystal clear, aqua-blue water. You can see pictures and video of this lovely anchorage and more our adventures, past and present on our “crew” page at: NewMexicast.com/crew

Have a great week everyone!

Lots of love,

Rosa Linda

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Episode Transcript:

Rosa Linda Román (00:28): Hello, and welcome to New Mexi-Castaways. The enchanting audio companion to New Mexicast the TV show featuring interesting stories about fascinating people in places in New Mexico and beyond at least that's what the TV show is. This is a place where I get to share my thoughts and the process of not just making the TV show, but also my family's experiences as we have moved on to a 45 foot sailing catamaran, the Dawn Treader. I am Rosa Linda Román and I'm the creator of New Mexicast and this audio podcast. So if you are joining me here thank you. I'm glad to have you here. And I'm glad to have this forum to share my thoughts and experiences and hopefully some little bits of wisdom along the way that I have learned from all of these life experiences. I am a mother of three children currently ages five, Samuel, our five-year-old son and then two girls Ahava is 11 and Ziva is 9 . Rosa Linda Román (01:37): I live on this boat with my husband, Nathan and our German shepherd Nala. And she's a puppy. And then of course the kids. So that's who we are. And what I'm doing right now is I am packing I'm in the guest room on the boat which we didn't actually have a guest room until just about a month ago now when our liveaboard nanny decided to head home back to New Mexico. She moved here with us and now she has headed home. And so now I have this guest room unexpectedly, which is wonderful for folding laundry and packing while all the kids are sleeping. My husband just woke up, so you'll start to hear the noises of people starting to stir here on the boat. So yeah, that's the, that's what's going on here on the Dawn Treader. Rosa Linda Román (02:37): It's funny. I was, I actually had to turn off like the air conditioning and the fans because I thought, well, that's going to make too much noise. And I realized a boat is a noisy place. I think that, you know, people picture being on a boat as being just total solitude and silence but especially being at a marina as we are, there are noises everywhere and the boat itself makes lots of noises, especially if you're like my sweetheart who pretty much can't live without air conditioning in Florida this time of year. Let's see so well, and for me, I'm actually fine without it, most of the time but I want to make sure he stays comfortable so that everybody is happy. I personally, you know, I, I didn't really grow up with a lot of air conditioning. It was just too expensive. Rosa Linda Román (03:36): So I was used to Florida. I actually grew up first I, I started my life in Chicago area where my whole extended family lives. My dad worked for Eastern airlines and so he was transferred to Miami when I was in sixth grade, which is wild for me to think about that's Ahavas age right now. So when I was Ahavas age we moved down to Florida and we started in West Palm Beach with my grandparents for, I don't know, maybe three months. I can't really remember. And then we ended up down in Miami area and that's where I went to junior high and high school in Miami. I was in, I lived in Hialeah which is a predominantly Cuban area and I loved it. I loved it, loved it, loved it. I loved moving from Illinois, the cold, the winters. Rosa Linda Román (04:30): And we had some interesting experiences there. I won't get too much into that, but let's just put it this way, we were, at the time, we were the only Hispanic family in that area. So we faced a lot of things that were not so pleasant. And so when I moved in my sixth grade year, I was very happy to leave Illinois. And plus my I'm really a tropical girl. My, my father is from Puerto Rico and I think I got his his genetics on that front because I love being warm. So anyway, just really this morning, it's all just rambling, right? That's what this audio podcast is about. And I thought I would just kind of record as I'm sitting here, I'm folding up some clothes and preparing to head to Tucson for a wedding. We're actually going to our former nanny, Lidio Decochea, it's her wedding and she's marrying her beloved, Tatum. So we're excited to go see them. It's funny because it sounds like we go through nannies a lot. Right? But we really don't. We've only had three ever three that lived with us and they've all moved on for their own reasons. Maybe, maybe because we're a loud big, crazy, obnoxious family, but well, maybe not too obnoxious, but anyway. So, I'm prepping to move. I mean, not move, I'm prepping to head to Tucson and I was thinking I would share with you guys because I know in the past I have shared the fact that we um... Oh listen, listen, can you hear that? Not that. That's me falling. Listen, can you hear that? Rosa Linda Román (06:25): No, I don't know if you can hear it, but there's noise and that's how, you know, people are awake on the boat. Things start to gurgle and make noises and just it's, it's not a quiet place. And a big part of that is because the, what do you call it septic system. So like when people start using the restroom you know, it, because it's not quiet, it makes this grinding crazy noise, because that's exactly what's going on. It has to chop everything up, which I'm sure you really wanted to know that didn't you? Anyway, so what was I saying? Rosa Linda Román (07:05): It is early in the morning. We have a flight in about three hours and oh, I know what I was saying. So I'm sitting here folding clothes and I wanted to kind of mention, because I know in the past I've shared with you guys about the KonMari method that we use to get ourselves prepped to move onto the boat. And I'm sitting here looking at this beautiful bed covered with beautifully folded, KonMari folded clothes. Now, if you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll probably have to go back through the archives to learn about what exactly KonMari is, but basically it's an organization system to help you downsize. And I used that system to move onto the boat so that I had things organized and I could get rid of stuff, because the idea is you get rid of anything that doesn't spark joy. So but part of the system is you've well, you put the clothes away in a certain way. You fold them KonMari style. It's based on a book a method by a woman named Marie Kondo. So KonMari represents her the combination of her two names. Anyway soI'm sitting here looking at a very KonMari organized bed of folded laundry, or I'm folding it. And I'm, I'm smiling because it really does make things easier. Yesterday I said to my daughter, who is nine, I said, Hey, can you help your little brother start the packing process? And she came up a few minutes later from down here where all the clothes were and she said, okay, I'm done. And I thought, there's no way she's done. She probably just shoved a bunch of clothes, a suitcase. And then nope, I looked at the suitcase and it was perfectly organized and folded and beautiful. And that is because of this KonMari system. Not only do we have less stuff, so it's easy to find the things, but everything is put away in this beautifully folded way that's easy to transfer into a suitcase when you're ready. So it was just kind of shocking, based on the past, it would have, you know, the packing would have been a many hour process. Andinstead it's, it took her five minutes to help her little brother. And that was one less thing I had to do. So I'm, I have to just tell you that if you haven't yet tried this KonMari thing, you need to really consider it because it's life changing. Now, that doesn't mean that we that everything's just automatically perfect. Right? So the KonMari system worked in New Mexico to help us get downsized and whatnot. And I'll kind of update you in a minute about how it's been working here on the boat. But I need to go up and make sure my husband doesn't need anything since he just woke up and he's making me coffee, which is really the reason I keep him around. I'll be right back. Rosa Linda Román (10:31): Okay. The coffee is not quite ready, but it is time to wake up the kids. So I thought I would let you guys come along as I opened the door, and this is how I wake up my kids most mornings. "Good Morning to you. We're all in our places. With sun shining faces, and this is the way to start off the day." Kisses are the best way to wake up. Where's my sweetheart. That was Ziva. I just gave Ziva some kisses and then Samuel sleepy. Yeah, sleepy head. And now I have to crawl over Ziva and Samuel's bed to get to Ahava's little hideaway. She has her own room. It was a basically a locker, a forward like storage cabinet that we converted into an extra bedroom. And so it's just this little hidey hole and I have to climb up here and give her kisses . Good morning. Good morning sweetheart. Ready to go to Tucson? Awesome. Okay. Rosa Linda Román (11:54): All right. Kisses have been doled out and I am going to go back to the room to keep packing. Sothis morning, our babysitter who we found through a service called Sitter City, is gonna come and take us down because the flight is out of Fort Lauderdale. Even though we're in West Palm Beach, the best flights out of here are generally out of Fort Lauderdale. So she will drive us down so that we don't have to park there for the five days we're going to be gone, which is very nice, saves us the money. And she'll pick us up on the backend. So I wanted to talk about the KonMari system as far as how it's been working here on the boat. So the, to back up a minute. So the way that KonMari works is you basically you go through your belongings and you determine what what you love, what sparks joy, and those are the things that you keep. Rosa Linda Román (13:06): And then you, once you whittle down what you have, it's a lot easier to organize things and and fold things and put them away neatly. So that, and the idea is to eliminate clutter altogether, like, it's you do this, really. Some people call it a KonMari festival and you go through this festival of sorting until you whittle it down and you end up with only things that sparked joy. And once you go through it, then it's only maintenance after that. Like you never again have to supposedly do this process over again, where you have to go through and you pull out every single thing you own. And you determine if it's something you want to keep or not. And if it sparks joy, you basically are supposed to do that once. And then never again just an ongoing, like, anytime you touch anything that belongs to you, you will know you just look at it and you'll know right away after having KonMari'd you'll know like, Oh, that doesn't spark joy, that does and you only keep the things that do. Well, the process of moving here onto the boat has been very enlightening because you always end up with more stuff than you want or need. We packed up our Ford expedition and came here with only what fit in that vehicle, along with five people because Ms. Linda came with us across country as well. Soit seems like that should be,uyou know, I shouldn't have it, having only what fit in my car, I should have, you know, it should have been easy to whittle it down and say, okay, we don't have, we don't have too much, but you, once you move onto the boat, you realize you need some things you don't have and you,uyou don't need a lot of the things you brought. So we have, since we moved here,ubeen collecting items that we could get rid of. And so,uwe actually just, maybe five days ago, went to Goodwill and donated another, probably five garbage bags, full of clothing and items that we just don't need. Rosa Linda Román (15:38): Good morning. Ahava's awake. I'm recording a podcast. Yeah. So yeah, no, no video. So no bedhead is going to be seen, but,ushe's kind of coming over here cause I have a pile of clothes that I'm folding,uright now. Yeah. Use the ones that aren't folded yet. Absolutely. Less for me to fold. I was just telling them about how the process of KonMari has transferred onto the boat and what, you know, the fact that once we got here, we needed to,ulike downsize again, and we've already donated like five bags of stuff. So,uyeah, we did. Ahava (16:21): Oh, more than that. Rosa Linda Román (16:22): Yeah. I just was being conservative, Ahava (16:24): We donated like two suitcases and a garbage bag. And then I don't, we donated a ton of stuff at New Mexico. Rosa Linda Román (16:42): Well, yeah. But I had already expressed about what we got rid of in New Mexico. Ahava (16:46): I thought you meant total and I'm like no. Rosa Linda Román (16:48): No much more than I was talking about here. We got the whole back trunk of our van was full of donation stuff twice, twice. That's right. Twice. So what do you think of that whole thing? Do you think KonMari is something people should do. Ahava (17:04): Yeah. Yeah, but like with my room, well, not my room, my wardrobe, it's basically just a cabinet. There's three or four shelves. There's three shelves. There's Yeah. There's three, There's three shelves and, Rosa Linda Román (17:24): And they're small. I'm not talking about like, like a big cabinet or maybe a foot wide foot wide. Ahava (17:32): Yeah. Something like that. So I can fit on the top when I can fit two bins. Next one, I can fit three and the bottom one is deeper so I can stack them and fit six. And my clothes are organized by color. I only have one thing hanging from my whole wardrobe and that's this giant poofy dress that I, nobody can fold. Rosa Linda Román (17:59): That we're actually bringing to this wedding. Ahava (18:02): Yeah. But yeah. So the top two drawers are like hats and just papers pretty much or cabinets. I mean, I'm tired, you're tired. And then the next one down would be skirts shorts and like underwear and socks. And then the bottom one is shirts and one of the things and leo's and dresses. Rosa Linda Román (18:38): Because you are the competitive gymnast. Yes. Yes. So all of those clothes fit on three tiny shelves? Ahava (18:46): Yeah. That's pretty awesome. I folded, I organized and folded my whole entire wardrobe, but it's crazy. Like this is how I think of it. If something doesn't fit, I have to decide whether that sparks joy more than what the things in there are and you, or if some of the things in there spark more joy than that. Rosa Linda Román (19:13): And so you always self sort like you're, you're always maintaining, maintaining it as you go. Ahava (19:21): Yeah. Like if I get a new shirt then, or no, like even when I started putting away my clothes from when we moved, I had to, like, I get got rid of, like you said, that most of the trunk full was my clothes. And it was crazy because in New Mexico, before we started KonMari it was like we had enough clothes or no, it was like, we had not enough clothes because we didn't know what we had. And then once we did KonMari it was like, Oh my gosh, we have so little clothes. And then once we came here, it's like, we have a ton of clothes. So it was great. Rosa Linda Román (20:04): So really the process of KonMari-ing has made you have less, but feel like you have more. You, you feel more abundant because you have the things that you love. Yeah. Ahava (20:16): Yeah. Because it's like quality, not quantity. I love it. And you left too many books at home. Rosa Linda Román (20:26): And I left too many, but we should've brought some more books. That's true. We, Ahava (20:30): I wanted to keep all the books that was not, I Rosa Linda Román (20:32): Know, I know we did get rid of like 800 books Ahava (20:35): Konmari clothes was my best part, but then Ziva was best at books. Rosa Linda Román (20:40): Ziva was good at books. Okay. So thank you for chatting with us. I'm going to take a pause here and wrap it up because we need to start really packing and getting out the door. But I just wanted to give you guys a little sense of what our morning is like here on the Dawn Treader. I'll continue this episode. Later. We'll see when I get a break. Okay. Now I got to go get coffee more importantly. Thanks for chatting with us Ahava Ahava (21:08): You're welcome. Rosa Linda Román (21:16): All right. I thought I would since I'm still packing and everybody's up and moving, I thought I would mention the, there's always something with a boat and this morning, as we're trying to get out the door the something is, listen, can you hear this? Let me see. That is the sound ofeither, well, that's probably water. My husband's probably using the water, butso this morning, the, probably the worst part about living on a boat are the marine toilets dealing with septic issues because when you're in a house, it just goes into the septic tank. And you never think about it again, right? Well on a boat, you have to think about it all the time, because A, if something goes wrong, it smells up your whole house. And if, and then B, even when something doesn't go wrong, you have to have, it's like living in an RV. You have to have the tank pumped out regularly. You have to make sure everything's maintained properly. Or you have problems. Well, we don't know why, but this morning after a member of our family used the bathroom, the toilet will not flush. Rosa Linda Román (22:31): Which is great when you're about to head on a trip and trying to get out the door knowing that it's not working. So that, that noise is probably my husband trying to get it to work. But yeah, so now the question is when we're off the boat, do we have a plumber come in and assess the situation? Gratefully, we have our babysitter here that we can ask her to let somebody in if we need to. But you know, it's what they say about boats is it's like having a you know, throwing your money into a hole in the water. That's basically what a boat is. The running joke, but not so funny, is that up, there's another boat dollar and a boat dollar is a thousand dollars cause everything seems to cost like at least a thousand dollars to even just get a little thing done. Rosa Linda Román (23:26): Which is why some people say that their two favorite days of boat ownership are the day they buy it and the day they sell it. But I feel bad for my husband really cause he's the one that has to always, you know, he comes back, he travels for work. He basically works like nonstop, all these different jobs, which I won't get into, but he's always working. And then he comes home, which is supposed to be his chance to relax. And there's always something that needs repair. So and this is a relatively new boat. It's a 2012. And that's just part of the process. There's always something that has to happen. It's, I think I've said this before on a, on a previous podcast, but basically it's just like a home. There's always something that has to be fixed on a home. Rosa Linda Román (24:15): You know, there's all those projects we all have on every, you know, whether we live in a house or a boat, but the difference is on a boat, it has to be handled right away. Like there's no wiggle room. You can't just say, well, we'll get to that later. Every system is a critical system, pretty much otherwise they wouldn't be on the boat. So if something goes wrong you have to fix it. And in a marine environment, there's always, you know, the, um wear and tear on things and, you know, the, the saltwater and the movement and things, it affects the, the longevity of systems. So while they are well-designed and I'll do a future broadcast about the things that work really well, but,uhere comes Nathan, I'm sure. What's the assessment? Nathan (25:02): Hey. How are you? Rosa Linda Román (25:05): Good? I'm recording. I'm telling people about our about how how fun marine toilets are. Nathan (25:12): Oh yeah. That's great. Especially when they pump up so you can't even drain them. Rosa Linda Román (25:16): What he, what he said is they pump up so you can't even drain them. And that's a big part of the problem. Not all toilets on boats are that way, but this boat is that way. And we've got all kinds of problems because of it. Alright I am going to stop because now we got to get cranking. So talk to you guys soon.

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