030109

 San Francisco to San Jose to Santa Cruz, CA

Sunday March 1, 2009

     4:20am  I just woke up. It’s drizzling. I’m not going back to bed. I got plenty of sleep.

     6:35am  I came to Haight Street and went over to the bums and tried to tell them my story, I was bored. I started talking and it seemed like I had their attention. Then all of a sudden this one homeless kid tells me, “Will you stop talking?” I kept going with my shpeel and had two attentive listeners. Then the dude says again, “Will you stop talking?” Damn the ignorance in this world. I won’t stop talking.

                   Nobody wants to hear the truth, but I’m going to scream it at the top of my lungs! I was just testing you anyway.

     9:36am  I just ran into Michael again.

                   Couple 

     10:18am  I had a great presentation with beautiful Beth. I took her picture.  One of these girls is Beth.  

     10:25am  I am having a fun time here on Haight/Ashbury. I put on a great show for Beth. She was such a beautiful girl. She smiled the whole way through. I told her the Note From the Rich and everything. I’ve got twenty cents so I’m going to go to the library and get a couple more printouts of havethisbook.coms. I’m almost out. I’ve been handing them out like crazy.

                     I am so dumb. Michael showed up again. He had lost some hash and was determined to backtrack his steps and find it again. Thinking that he would be right back I volunteered the use of my rain poncho and he accepted and took off walking. Stupid-me, I have to wait for him to come back, because that poncho is necessary. I am stuck here underneath this eave because it’s raining, waiting for my poncho to come back so I can move.

     10:35am  Bruce was nice enough to give me a cigarette on Haight Street. I appreciate it, Bruce. Everybody gets credit.

                      More people I told my story to.  

     10:37am  Michael has returned with my poncho. He gave me some change so I can get more printouts.

     11:15am  Garrett and Nika from East Bay Fellowship Church, they volunteered me some food. I appreciate it, guys. Everybody gets credit, thanks.

                     The library is closed. It started raining. I’m standing in front of the Goodwill.

                     Bulletin Board  

     11:49am  Steve was nice enough to volunteer me some food. I appreciate it, brother. Everybody gets credit.

                      I am really grateful those bible thumpers gave me some food, but different people of the same group came up to me and gave me an exact same bag of stuff I had lying right there in plain view. Cool, I guess.

     12:11pm  Sean was nice enough to hook me up with a cigarette in front of the Goodwill. I appreciate it, brother. Everybody gets credit.

     12:45pm  Aaron was is being cool enough to hook me up with a cigarette on Haight Street. I appreciate it, brother.

     1:40pm  Beautiful Claudia hooked me up! She gave me all this food from an Ethiopian restaurant. No forks, so I have to eat it without silverware. I got to tell her my story. She's beautiful and she's only fourteen years old. I couldn't believe it.

                   Claudia hooked me up with forty dollars! I told her how some dude in Monterey gave me three hundred dollars for my cause and she promptly looked in her purse and gave me a couple twenties! She's a believa!

                   Michael just gave me a cigarette on Haight Street. I appreciate it, brother.

     2:48pm  I should finally make an entry by now. I just a hair up my ass to leave.

                   It's about time I made another entry. It's really loud on the train, but I am already on my way to Santa Cruz and San Jose. I just got a hair up my ass to leave. Right now I am on the BART heading to Milberry. I scored a courtesy ride on the bus from the McDonald's on Haight. It's going to rain. The rain has been pissing me off. It should be raining in Santa Crus too, but at least it'll be a different place.

                   I just got off the BART at Milberry. I'm going to go down the stairs and catch the bus to...I don't know. I'm going to try and go to Santa Cruz and San Jose. I have to go to all the saints.

     3:08pm  I am in the bathroom at the Caltrain station. I bought a ticket at the vending machine. A two-zone ticket. I noticed there's a San Antonio stop on this train. I'm going to stop there on the way back. I have to.

                   The train comes at 4:24pm, so I'm going to walk around and look for a place to buy cigarettes.

     4:00pm  I just got to the 7-11 on Hill Crest Boulevard, El Camino Real. I bought a pouch of Buglers. I don't care if I'm late. I'll catch the next one.

     4:08pm  I'm standing in front of the 7-11 smoking and hacking my lungs out because I just took a hit of weed. Some guy with an umbrella walks up and goes in and out and hands me a lottery ticket and tells me good luck. Yeah, right. Like I'm ever going to win the lottery. I'll try it. Maybe I will. Everybody is lottery-crazy right now. Jackpot is 212 million dollars.

     4:14pm  Leaving from the 7-11. I'm walking back to the train station.

     4:25pm  I walked to the 7-11 and got some ice. I bought some Buglers and casually walked back. Right when I was walking up to the station the train was about to leave and I was able to jump on it.

                   Argh, I should've never train fare. Nobody told me shit when I got on.

                   About ten minutes ago the train stopped. It's backed up and waiting for the train right behind us. When it comes anybody needing a stop in between here and San Jose can get on a bus and then the train I'm on will express to San Jose with no stops in between. I am still mad I paid train fare.

     5:57pm  I just got to San Jose.

     6:15pm  The express bus to Santa Cruz just left. The line was huge. There was no way I was going to get on the bus with all my gear. I'm going to wait for the next one. The bus driver said twenty minutes.

     6:48pm  I am on the Santa Cruz bus.

                   I just got off in Santa Cruz. I rode the 17 bus. I totally remember Santa Cruz now. This is the same transfer center I got yelled at hardcore for asking for courtesy rides. I'll be sure to put a [10-19-04]. I'm hungry. Let me see how much money I've got.

                   Right when I got off the bus this kid asked me if I had any weed and I gave him a hit off my special cigarette. I asked him if he knew where the closest fast food was and he told me, "Right there, Chinese food, eight dollars a plate." I thought about it and went inside the place and told the guy inside to give me a five dollar surprise. He filled a container for me. I sat down to eat, but wasn't going to eat it all. When I asked for a to-go box he tells me twenty five cents. I tell him, "You mean to tell me I come in here and spend five dollars and if I want to take it with me I have to pay more?" I shrugged and gave him a quarter, but he volunteered me some extra rice.

                   I just had an awesome presentation with Christopher.

                   "Chance favors the prepared mind."

                   Anyway, I am in Santa Cruz and I'm having fun, I guess. I'm going to camp in front of a storefront. I saw another bum here, so there's power in numbers. The batteries on my camera are dead, so I can't take pictures. See, when I first got here I went to this strip where I saw people hanging out. It was kind of hopping. I went and exposed my shirt.

                   At the work-for-free question sometimes people tell me, "Oh, I would, but nobody else would." People don't see the world as it is, but as they are.

Next day..