MY LOVE FOR A THRILLING STRUGGLE, AN L.A. STORY

Chasing summer has been one of my favorite pass times. I was never a fan of cold weather. Being in Canada during the winter months has never interested me. I often say I was born on the wrong continent. To start our story, it was October in Vancouver. I looked out the window and felt a looming depression rearing its head. I thought to myself, I have to get out of this fucking city. I was friends with this girl, Helga. She was one of my closest friends at the time. I suggested to her that we drive down to L.A. together. She jumped at the idea, so we started to make plans, to leave Vancouver for the winter. There was just one problem we didn’t have a ride. We needed to figure out how to pull together a bit more money and find a cheap car. Our friend decided to buy one of my paintings. It gave us just the boost we needed.

I managed to find an old 1980s Jetta. I am surprised how well this car held up. With some luck and thriftiness, we were on the road with some change in our pockets. We took highway 5 all the way down through Washington and Oregon. At Grants pass, which is right before the California border, we switched to highway one. It hugs the coastline almost all the way throughout California to Mexico.We stopped in Cresent City, California, for a drink and food. We started talking with these guys, Bill and Bob. They were tattoo artists, I was stoked to have met our new “friends.” As the night went on, Bob agreed to tattoo me if I drew the picture and did the stencil. Helga and I went back with them to their shop. They had converted part of their house into a separate workspace. Bob tried to guide me in my process by showing me various drawing books. One trait that was very apparent when I was young is being stubborn as fuck. That is just young and dumb at its finest. I learned that drawing for tattoos is very different from just making art. Bob did the tattoo for me that I would later cover up completely.

About two hours south, the highway veers inland down towards Santa Rosa. We continued on route one till San Fransisco. We decided to stop for food in San Fransisco. Although I’ve never been to Vietnam, I had the best Vietnamese food in San Fransisco! I even went back after I was done with my meal to tell them how good it was. They seemed annoyed an just said thank you over an over until I left. We met some other randoms who appeared to be on the level. Helga and I parted with them and ended up crashing on their couch. In the morning, we said goodbye and were on our way again. After San Fransisco, we jumped back to highway five to save time. If you are not pressed for time or gas money, I suggest continuing on highway one. Highway five runs down adjacent to Death Valley. Between San Jose and Los Angeles, it is the desert people! The car was not happy but luckily we had no issues aside from making sure the coolant was full.

I can not explain the overwhelming joy of driving into Los Angeles the air was warm, the sun danced along the street signs like glitter. If I were planning on being homeless for the rest of my life, I would not choose L.A. It most certainly is not the worst place, but I can think of at least fifteen more attractive places to be. We slept in the vehicle the first week and blocked the windows with various clothing items and art. The first night I saw a house on a dead-end street that was being renovated. I thought it would be the perfect spot to rest up for the night. Maybe about twenty minutes later, the cops show up. The police officer knocks on the window, and I roll it down. He says, “ah, how’s it going tonight? We received a call from a neighbor about you being on the property.” I said, “oh, we just thought this would be a good place to sleep.” The police officer was great and super sweet. He told us that overnight vehicles are allowed at specific shopping centers such as Walmurt. I was a bit apprehensive as I felt our level of security would be at a low being out in the open like that. Despite our concerns, we went and slept in the parking lot. Aside from some non-confrontational car thieves trying our doors, it was fine.

Helga and myself had been on a power health food kick. So we decided to go to Santa Monica and splurge a little on a nice meal. We decided to check out one of the raw food restaurants. At this time, around 2010, there were no places like this in Vancouver. Today, some vegetarian restaurants feature raw desserts and meals. This would begin my love affair with raw cheesecake. If you have never tried it, I strongly recommend it! I would even go as far as to say I prefer it over regular cheesecake. I know that may be a lot to process, but it is true. The filling is made with cashews, coconut cream, and lemon juice. The crust is dates and almonds, It doesn’t get cooked. However, I like to do a berry compote for the top. It is a bit expensive to make, but even more so if you are buying it at a restaurant. It is one hundred percent worth it though, everytime.

Our paths crossed with another fellow who shared an infinity for health and wellness. I had heard of this program P90 he spoke of but, knew nothing about it. So we talked to our new friend Chad, a coach for P90. As he spoke more about his work, It seemed to me, he had a lot going on. The company gives you their product and training, then go off and start your business. He came off as a laid-back decent guy; and had mentioned his girlfriend a few times, so I decided to take a chance and asked if he could use a live-in maid slash cook. I told him I had been a cook for most of my life and owned a cleaning company. He agreed to have a trial week. Helga had been talking to this downhill biker she had met at an event in Canada. Helga had met up with her guy a few times now and stayed the night over there once or twice throughout our first week staying with Chad. She came back one day and told me she would be staying with her guy. We were sharing a vehicle, so she said I could keep the car. I was naturally a bit annoyed. The plan to stick together quickly derailed and I was now facing the trials and tribulations of L.A. alone. Helga left and I only saw her onc,e again after, when she came to get paid out for her half of the car. After forHelga left, my living situation with Chad was still going well. The arrangement was great, although he didn’t eat anything besides powder packets, freshly pressed juice, and wine. They say one glass of wine a day is healthy. .I’m guessing that is why it was Chad’s drink of choice . Unfortunately, once you finish off a bottle, it’s no longer healthy. He came home one night in a terror; this man was ready to go. We went out to a club he wanted to go to. There is something about going out in hollywood driving a hummer just made you feel like a baller. He had nicknamed his house “the crib bitches” in his gps. So when you tell it your going home it responds in a British womans voice “ok, going to the crib bitches.” I love it, Chad was a riot! That night he told me his girlfriend an him broke up. I could tell he was having a hard time with it, he started telling me all about his success. I guess when your having a hard time focusing on whats good in your life is a fantastic way to avoid your feelings. I felt sorry for him so I endulged him and listened to his drunken stammer. Chad wanted to watch a movie with me and cuddle. Since I wasnt born yesterday I put him to bed and went to my room and let him sleep it off. I didnt think much about him making a pass. I figured he was drunk and maybe it wont happen again. I was wrong, it did happen again. Chad is harmless but I decided to end the arrangment as it was no longer working out for me.

Santa Monica was beautiful; Chads house was right on Santa Monica bullvard. Which is pretty much beach front property. If you walk out the front door accross the street and walkway theres a cliff. About a hundred feet down are the properties literally on the beach. Santa Monica is alright as far as Los Angelas goes but I spent alot of my time around venice beach. Mainly during the day because it gets sketchy at night. I really loved walking down the beach seeing all the street performers and nomads camped out. The type of people I met around venice beach were my kind of weirdos in their natural climate. I remember meeting these guys one was around my age and very handsome. The other was a tall lanky older man maybe in his sixties. We smoked a couple joints together and then Tom the younger guy started talking about Avril Laviene. He said they dated for a long time but he disapeared on her and shes been looking for him. I honestly at first thought it was a joke. I told him I was good friends with avril and I could call her up. When I said this his eyes lit up as he anticipated me calling my friend Avril. This is when I realized Tom was compleatly out to lunch. It was so weird to converse with someone who had compleatly lost sense of reality. His friend told me he had done a lot of bad drugs and one day he just started talking about Avril Lavine. He said he has tried to snap him back to reality but since trying so many times he now just accepts his friends mental state. I did say I talked to her and she wants nothing to do with him. He disregarded it and said that she must just be mad with him. Some who wander are lost and you may not be able to help them. Unfortunatly drugs are more readily available then phyciatiric care. Not to mention alot easier then dealing with your issues. The system is flaud and the middle class and poor are falling through the cracks.

Being a beach bum in California isn’t terrible. I met musicians, artists, dancers, buskers, rich, famous, poor. All walks of life. So I had been homeless for almost a week. I would have went and stayed with Helga and her new boy if i thought that was a choice. She ditched me, guess she wasn’t a fan of roughing it. The trip was kind of a shit show all around but I wouldn’t of had it any other way. As I looked online for cheap places to live, there was an ad that an elderly man had placed. It advertised a free private room for someone who would be able to help take care of the home owner who was a 40 year old Autistic man. I didnt know what to expect but I thought it would be nice to have a roof over my head for a minute. I’m not sure if you have ever seen the tv show horders; But this house was straight out of it. There was a pathway though the house shaped by various collectables, belongings and junk. The only place you could see the floor was the kitchen area. The dinning table had piles of stuff stacked up about four feet high with a small space big enough for a plate. The cupboards were greasy and everything seemed to have a yellowish ting. Cocroches owned the kitchen they were everywhere. I’ve lived in shanty places before but this one took the cake. I lasted three days at this place. The elderly man was weird and quarky but nice and the handicap man that owned the place was sweet. Looking back I should have pushed harder to get that place cleaner so they could both have a better standard of living. I was highly underqualified to accept this position as I had never worked with anyone with autisum but it was a struggle to clean and manage the house as people with autism are not fond of rapid changes in their environment. I felt I wasn’t quite the right fit for their situation so I went on my way.

I recall having a lot of road rage on this trip. Los Angelas was the absolute worst for traffic. I don’t know how people live there full time. I was smoking a pack and a half of ciggaretts a day; luckily they were only $4.30 a pack at the time. The thing with L. A. is rush hour happens 4 times a day. Between 7am to 10am is a super bad time to drive. Then you have a little window before lunch where its not bad till 1130. Another window at 2pm for about an hour and a half. I don’t miss LA at all but that would have to be one of the worst things about it. Surprizingly though if your kinda broke cheap food is readily available. I basically lived off of in and out burger. You can get it protein style too so its a lettuce wrap. I could eat for under $3 like a full ass meal. That was the cheapest option because I remember basically living off of it. Around this time about two months in Helga decided she wanted to go back to Vancouver. This was the first time she had contacted me since she left me at Chads house. I didn’t exactly feel like being accomidating her, considering how the trip unfolded. I told Helga I wasn’t leaving yet and she caught a flight home.

I found another spot to stay for a reasonable price because I would be renting a couch without private accomidations. The one bedroom apartment was on hollywood bulivard. There are an esorbant amount of tourists as it is but this is tourist hell. The appartment was about a block away from the chinese ming theater. Gold star placks along the sidewalks. This is the street everyone wants to come and see. I dont recall exactly what happened but I remember the person i moved in with was fucking craaazy. I dont think I even slept there one night. Accross the street was low income housing in a hostel type style building. I ended up meeting my friend Anton who was a manager/caretaker of the place. He was a kind hearted beautiful human being. He worked in exchange for free accomidation. We were both starving artists and smoked weed so we ended up becoming good friends. He tried to help me and went over and above to be a friend. He offered to get me a spot in the building but I could never live on Hollywood bulivard. Too over saturated with humans. I am the worst at staying in contact sometimes but I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to this man. You were the only star I met on Hollywood bulivard I hope your light is shinning bright my friend.

I reached out to my old roomate Chad and he put me in contact with this woman who also worked with P90. Kiki is a smoke show power house of a woman. She started a successful business as a couch and built it up from the ground. She has really inspired me as she has accomplished so much and still on top of it everyday. The amount of self control that woman has is beyond me. We ended up helping eachoher out quite a bit while I was there. Kiki gave me some purpose and at this point in the trip it was really nice to have a girlfriend. I was so thankfull to have kiki in my life at the time. Although I find it difficult to get along with women more often than not, having a female presents around is nice. Some time passed and I got extremely sick of the city. Kiki met the love of her life and I naturally saw less of her. I was staying at Huntington beach with a friend I met who worked as a cook at a restaurant on venice beach. Jeremy was also a bit of a god sent. He was just a gem, never tried to make a pass, and was always a gentlemen. In a sea full of stangers you can find real people who are kind and genuine. So thanks Jeremy from the bottom of my heart for just being cool, it really ment alot to me at the time.

The erge to leave the city was becoming more and more apparent as the days passed. Till one day about a month before I legally had to leave I decided it was time. I filled up my tank and drove till I ran out of gas. I was dead broke at this point and still stuck in the states. The one thing that traveling has given me is the ability to manage problems well and find solutions quickly. I pulled together some art that I had and put them in frames. I waited for people to come and asked for gas donations in return for my art. I was a decent artist at the time but maybe they just felt sorry for me. The point is, it worked and I was able to return back to Canada. I wont romantisize Los Angelas it was a fucking hell scape the traffic was terrible and 80% of the humans there were too. I would never go back to this god awful city but thats just my experience. Some people love it. Go see for yourself Santa Monica and Venice Beach are pretty great if you don’t mind the traffic.