Great post! I am in a similar situation. I travel for work, but just started recently (at 41), so I am going from a long history of being a nester to being a nomad. I also am doing it alone (although I have both of my cats with me). I actually really like living in motels, and I like traveling (but I drive, not fly). I like the novelty of learning a new city, but it is a bit aggravation to get up in the middle of the night to pee and not remember where the light switch is.

I am experiencing some weird emotions, and I'm trying to figure out whether there is something that needs addressed, or if it's simply the normal response to having a new lifestyle.

Oops, I mispoke. I looked it up. A lot of miso soup recipes call for dashi, which doesn't have to, but may contain dried bonito, which is a type of fish, or dried sardines. But there is shitake dashi, kombu dashi, and others.

I love miso soup! I forget who turned me on to it, but I make it a lot (without the fish sauce or whatever it is). Sometimes, I just put a tablespoon of miso in a cup of hot water and drink it like tea. It's so comforting.

Hmm, looks like all the comments so far are from daily washers. Let me be the first dissenter. I do not shower everyday. I get in water 4-5 times a week to rinse off, but I don't use soap every time. I wash my hair every two weeks. I alternate using shampoo one time and baking soda one time. Scalp (and body) oil works on a negative feedback loop. If you wash less, you will produce less. It does take some time, though. You have to be patient. If you shampoo everyday, cut back to every other day. Do that for a month or so. Then go one more day in between, and do that for a month or so. If you have shorter hair that tends to stick up all over from sleeping in bed, you can get in the shower and wet your hair on days you don't shampoo. Wetting your hair and styling it goes a long way towards looking kempt. You don't need freshly washed hair necessarily.

I wear my clothes a few times before washing them. The only things I wear once are underpants. I even wear my socks a few times, b/c they are handknit socks, and I only wear them with shoes. When I get home, I take off my shoes and socks. My feet don't sweat or stink, so I can get by wearing my socks more than once.

I don't use deodorant. If I notice a smell, I will dab some baking soda under my arms, and the smell is gone in 10-15 minutes (and it lasts for days).

Americans are really weird about hygiene. It's as if we don't want to admit that we are animals who poop and pee and have snot and mucus and have millions of bacteria and microscopic bugs living on and in our bodies. It's all good.

I'm glad I read this post. I used to have a PDA, and I upgraded a few times until suddenly the PDA's were gone. :-( I really dislike the idea of smartphones. I've gone through a lot of cell phones over the years, and I can't see replacing a PDA as often as I replace my phones. Plus, I don't like those tiny keyboards.

And it just so happens that my ipod is showing signs of age, and I was thinking of replacing it soon. Perfect timing.

I'm curious how one enters text on the iTouch?

I think it's important to really know ourselves. I haven't had a kitchen table for over 5 years b/c I realized that I only ever had one so that I'd appear "normal." However, I never ate at the table. I would eat on the couch while reading a book or watching a movie, and the table became a horizontal surface for collecting mail, junk, etc. So, I got rid of the table. That enabled me to live in a smaller apartment.

My family thinks I’m such a hippie weirdo for sleeping on a futon on the floor, and I’ll bet it crossed their mind at least ONCE that they think I am too cheap to spring for a bed.

Oh, my mom does that all the time. Everytime I talk to her, she mentions that I can buy a small apartment-sized washer and dryer. I use a 5 gallon bucket and a plunger specially made for doing laundry (and I dry on a drying rack). I live about three blocks away from a laundromat, and I only go there to wash towels and blankets. I prefer my bucket. In my previous apartment, which was in a building, the laundry room was two doors over. I only used it for towels and blankets. I prefer my bucket. My mother seems to think I'm either too poor or too stupid to buy an apartment-sized washer.

It has been more than five years that I've been doing laundry by hand, and I prefer it.

Oh, I don't have a futon, b/c I find them uncomfortable, but I sleep on an inflatable mattress, which is the most comfortable thing I've slept on my entire life. If someone gave me a thousand dollars to buy a proper bed with boxsprings and everything, I still wouldn't. I love my air mattress.