a while back, i shared that i like to write in my junker '07 mazda with an entirely unreliable engine and battery. well, that very well may have been some sort of cruel jinx-- only a couple weeks after i posted about my car-writing habit, my poor and beautiful garbage heap decided to break down every time it left the driveway, forcing my family to rescue me from my own repeated poor choices. after a while, begging my father to come jump my car (only for him to get in the driver's seat, turn the key, and bam, the engine starts!), i realized that maybe the best choice was to take a different car. but, a new ride comes with a price: an entirely different atmosphere that strikes a very different flow.
don't get me wrong, i can find a way to write pretty much anywhere-- the difficulty comes when you're in the middle of a grand project that you're very excited about and suddenly your entire process turns on its head. while i still prefer not to write in my own home, i didn't see much of an option until the youtube wormhole led me to the very confusing yet somehow incredibly satisfying "i renovated and am now living out of a van" videos that inspired me to create my office... in the trunk of our 2013 mazda 5, jacques.
now, jacques is not much less of a junkheap than mario, the '07 mazda from craigslist; he too features a constantly glowing check-engine light, has brakes that take several seconds to actually kick in, and, most recently, has begun spontaneously flooding in the front seat without any rain. why do our cars like to conspire against us? the world may never know. but, nonetheless, upon watching these van renovation videos, i realized that jacques has a perfect-sized trunk to curl up and write in. and, much to my surprise, it looks pretty good!
and, again much to my surprise, it actually functions as a very pleasant office-on-wheels! i've been able to get a shocking amount of work done in this little nook in several different locations while stealing the local wifi connection. in all, it's an unconventional, yet very comfortable, alternative to writing either at home or in a coffee shop, and i have a feeling i'll be continuing to write in here for a long time after covid... so long as *this* car doesn't die on me too. (knock wood...)
~m.j