Christmas In July: Our Vacation Was Funded Entirely By Steem Dollars

Thanks to @intelliguy and @roksivante who have asked where I was recently. To be honest, I finally crashed and burned from overexertion, stress, insomnia and hallucinations. The hacker put me over the edge. I needed a break. But now, I'm back finally. I finally got like 2 nights of full sleep.

I haven't had a vacation in well, I can't even remember the last one I took. It might have been 7 years ago. I can't really remember. I haven't allowed myself to take a vacation because I haven't had any extra money that I felt I could spend on something frivolous like a vacation. I'm a workaholic, too. I rarely take any days off to relax or do enjoyable things. I cannot remember the last time I went on a date or hung out with friends. I literally try to make every day productive in some way, either by learning, writing or making art. Deep down, I'm afraid of going broke again. And I can't go broke because I am a mother, a single mother, and another life form depends upon me for her survival.

This year, even before I found Steemit, I had resolved to take a vacation. I knew I needed it. I had completely forgotten how to take a day or days off from working. We decided to go to the East Coast, visit my brother, some friends and go to the place where wild horses live freely, in a place called Assateague Island.

When I found Steemit, I was already a paid writer, and was churning out 2-3 articles per day for various clients. I also had just finished writing my first book, Un-Crap Your Life and so I was used the rigorous writing discipline. But I was not being paid well as a writer, so I could see an amazing opportunity with Steemit. I resolved to write 2 articles per day on Steemit because I knew that in time, the site would become crowded with other great writers. I realized I was in a unique position because very few writers had entered Steemit. I was desperate to hold onto my freelance/independent station in life, and I saw Steemit as a way for me to do that.

After I had made some decent money on Steemit, I cashed out about $2500 worth and put it on a Simple bank Visa card. I used that card to fund our entire vacation. It felt really weird when I made the first purchase at a Wendy's drive-thru. I kept thinking to myself, "I wrote an article that has now turned into this hamburger." It was a really bizarre and surreal feeling. Here's my very first cryptocurrency hamburger purchase:

Speaking of surreal, we visited Steemit Headquarters as it fell right on the path we were on. Here's my daughter in front of the building where all the programming magic of Steemit happens:

While there, I video interviewed @theoretical and @dantheman. I'm still waiting on @ned to approve the video. Here's the amazing mathematical whiz, @theoretical who creates the algorithms for voting/payout calculations. He is a genius. No doubt. Vulcan, maybe, genius, definitely.

After visiting Steemit HQ, we were on our way to Assateague Island to see the wild horses. What I didn't know, though, is that not only would we see beautiful, untamed wild horses, but also a bald eagle, egrets, and yes, dolphins:

I wasn't expecting to see dolphins! Dolphins and sea creatures in general have a new meaning to my life! I also experienced being bitten by a greenhead horsefly, and ouch! it hurt. I learned too that Mako sharks are pretty common sights in the water around Assateague island. These additional creatures appeared to represent some new elements in the Steemit world. The wild ponies I feel represent the empathic and authentic people, the greenhead flies are the trolls, and the Mako sharks are the hackers:

We took a private boat tour of Assateague Island and guess who was our Captain? Captain Dan! It was weird, of course, considering that @dantheman's philosophy of non-violence has guided us all into a new world of connection, economic freedom and cooperation.
Here's Captain Dan and my daughter during the tour:

Here's some wild ponies:

I learned that the wild ponies are descended from a shipwreck that happened in the 1600's. The island on which the ponies now live is protected and humans are not allowed to live on it. This has the effect of creating an environment that is 100% wild. It's like going back into earlier times before humans existed. Assateague Island is perhaps the most fantastical place in the USA. After experiencing the raw beauty up close, I'm determined to make a home near there in the future. I'm planning on returning there next summer. I have never felt that a place was meant more for me. The ocean also is there, with waves, and on some occasions, you can see the wild ponies swimming and lounging on the beach. Can you imagine? Dreams don't get any better than this. Here's some beach photos from there:

After the dreamy experience of Assateague, the hacker descended upon my reality, disrupting the fantasy world and plunging me into darkness. I experienced hallucinations for many days, at night and in the morning. This is what my world looked like at that time:

One night I woke up and looked at this black box, It had been electrified, and in my fear-ridden, halluincatory state, I thought somehow the hacker had broken into our room and placed this box there on the wall to spy on us.

And one other time, I "saw" a series of bright green flashes that lit up our entire room:

My mind is really delicate. It gets seized with thoughts, energies and has a tendency to oversaturate itself in imagery. It soaks up whatever is going on. The lack of sleep combined with the dream-like state of Steemit, combined with the hacker seizing my funds all resulted in these hallucinations. They have calmed down now that I've had a few nights of sleep and relaxed a bit. I've regained my sanity.

This brings us to Christmas in July. I found a town called Santa Claus in Indiana. That's where we are now. We are in the Santa Claus Lodge, and yes, it's absurd. My daughter actually doesn't believe in Santa Claus because her grandma told her it's all made up when she was 4. So, she mostly says about the various Santa Claus statues, "They're creepy!". Here's a sampling of the Christmas absurdity at our hotel:

And I'd like to leave you with one last image that expresses how I feel about our imaginations. Imagination is more important than knowledge. (Einstein said this, I think).