Free Arrow Right SVG, PNG Icon, Symbol. Download Image.

It’s still a bit much processing that my van is gone. A little over 3 weeks ago I watched my van drive off, to never be seen again. I had listed my van again in San Diego, but decided to try listing in Chicago while I was getting ready to leave. What I wasn’t expecting was to ACTUALLY sell there. But within 2 days I had someone reach out on Facebook Marketplace, with what felt like an obvious scammer fake account. I figured 🤷‍♀️ “Why not see if they show up, i’ll just be sitting there in the parking lot working anyways”. Turns out he DID show up, and was immediately committed and wanted to buy it on the spot. I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked. I had dropped the price to sell faster – something I kinda regret a little bit – and it’s not a bad looking van, and mechanically sound.

The guy – Bryan – seemed super cool. I was happy that the next owner would be someone very excited about taking her out on adventures. We did a 7 hour walk-through 4 days later (I needed time to purge everything, and still barely did it), going into detail about EVERY inch of the van. His poor girlfriend had to sit there the whole time… but at least the passenger seat is comfy. Dealing with him was so great, I let my guard down.

Lesson Learned: Count The Money In-Person !!!

Sadly I had put the money into safe immediately, and didn’t check it out again until the day I was flying out to Norway. I kept losing count in-person, he seemed trustworthy, and it was wrapped in bank straps. When I went to the bank to deposit (I had originally just planned to keep it as cash in the safe), it was short $1,000, and one of the bills was flagged as counterfeit. I suspect it really isn’t, just some issue with perhaps something spilled on it… we’ll see when the Secret Service reviews 😱 . I contacted him, and while he agreed that it would be odd that his bank shorted him $1K, he also didn’t hesitate to offer to venmo a payment. Small red flag, but I figured 🤷‍♀️ “Maybe he really is just doing the right thing, and I’m lucky”. I sent a payment request via my bank app, and now two texts following up about it have gone ignored. I suspect I will not be receiving the final $1K, on an already more-than-$10K discounted van, AND I left a bunch of things in the van to make getting started easier, at least another $400-500.

I may be a sucker, but I’m hoping that Karma will take care of me. Time to move on with life.

And so I went out to dinner to celebrate

If you’ve never been to Mago Grill, it is hands-down the BEST Mole and Mojito’s… period. The one in Hoffman Estates is usually more hoping, but the Bollingbrook location also has a book store across from it 🙂

And then there was the Purge/Repack/Exodus

It was a mad dash to sort through all the things I would and wouldn’t take with me, what would go into storage, and what should be sold, given-away, or sold. It is an amazing amount of things you can cram into a van, and even worth into a storage unit.

Up until I walked out of the rental car to go into the airport, I was pulling stuff out. 😱

In between, I made Food

OK… I ATE a lot more than I made. I had to binge on all the “wonderful” american meals that I wouldn’t have access to for months. Chipotle… Portillos… Chick-fil-a… hell, even McDonalds (I do so love their McGriddles).

But most importantly, I got to spend time with my youngest, and we even did a cooking class. Funny thing I noticed afterwards is that I’m wearing the EXACT same clothes as the last time we did a class there 3 yrs ago… and she was even wearing similar. Can you tell who the picky eater is?