Uber in the morning, Uber in the evening...

As you read in my previous post, I am taking some time off from the road and am going to be working on becoming the best Maia that I can be.

These past couple of weeks have included a large part of my journey and that was because it was an ACTUAL journey.  I moved all of my belonging out of storage in New York City, where they have lived for the better part of the past five years, and I moved them way down south to Orlando where I have decided to set up camp in the form of a permanent home.  This is the first time I have rented an apartment that is meant for solely myself.  I've only ever lived with my family or with roommates.  At the age of (almost) 35, I knew that it was time for me to figure out what living alone truly meant.  I have to say, it's going to take some getting used to.

When you have roommates, you always have someone to say goodnight to and to say "Good Morning!" to as you shuffle to the kitchen to make your first cup of coffee.  Especially without a job to escape to during the daylight hours, I am finding that I am spending a lot of time in my own head.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, but for me it can sometimes lead me down a dark path and I will end up depressed.  I am doing my best to avoid that dark place as often as I can, so I've found some way to avoid that as much as possible.

One of the major things that I've decided to do is to become an Uber driver.  While I did save a bit of money during my last tour, I don't want to blow through all of it during my time of funemployment.  So this is a way for me to get out of the house, talk to some people (if they want to that is!) and make a little bit of money while I'm at it.

I had spent the last couple of months on the tour talking to as many of my uber drivers as I could to try and get an idea of what to expect.  It was incredibly nerve wracking, but I have gone driving a couple of times since I've been down here.  Everyone has been incredibly friendly and I feel pretty safe doing it.  I will say though, that the money is not exactly rolling in.  Orlando is incredibly spread out and there isn't really a central area.  When you get a "ping" for a passenger, you could drive ten minutes to them, drive them for about ten and then you're in the middle of nowhere and have to drive back to civilization.  I'm going to experiment with different days of the week and time of day and see when and where might be the best time to drive.  Luckily I'm not doing this to make money to pay all of my bills, more of a little bit of a buffer, or I would say it's totally not worth it.  Orlando is not a town where you could do this for a full time job methinks.  There are cities where that is possible, but not Orlando.

I am definitely going to have some stories to tell, of that I am sure.  I think I will post the more amusing ones on this blog, so keep an eye out for my Ubering Adventures.

Stay tuned for my next blog entry where I really get into what I hope will be a huge focus of my time off - running, training, losing weight and getting healthy again!