El Paso to Ozona, TX
Wednesday May 14th, 2003
7:30am It's the 14th. Guess where I am, guys. El Paso, TX. Last time I left off I was at the Greyhound station in LA seeing if I could bum up money for my ticket to Berkeley. I had asked these kids for a dollar and they ended up giving me a ticket to Albuquerque that was worth a hundred and forty dollars. They told me to go inside and see if they would let me trade it in for a ticket to SF. I got all happy and asked them if they would watch my rucksack. They said sure so I went inside and had to stand in line a long ass time. They ended up telling me I couldn't change the destination on the ticket. Anyway, when I finally get back outside the coolest thing happened. My life had become dramatically simplified. My rucksack was gone! My whole life basically. My entire wardrobe, my computer hard-drive, all the microcassettes I need to type up my book with, it's all fucking gone. Oh shit. What the hell do I do now? I'm stranded with nothing in LA. God damn it. Dude, I was flipping out.
I even called my mom with my last five minutes of a phone card I had. She asked me how much a bus ticket was to San Antonio. I told her a hundred and twenty five dollars. She immediately refused, telling me she didn't have that kind of money. I told her I hadn't asked her to do anything. I was just calling her because she was my mother. I told her I would figure something out, like I always did.
After I hung up with my mom I put myself in check. I realized I needed to start practicing what I preached. Possessions never meant anything to me. It can all be replaced. If I need some more tapes with magical adventures on it, I can just do it again. If at first you don't succeed. Now, in my hand I was holding a valid bus ticket to Albuquerque, NM. It was for today. The guy told me he didn't need it, but now I'm thinking he probably stole it. This dude hustled me, but at least he gave me a good bus ticket. It's going East. I might as well go back to San Antonio. I lost all my shit and I can't survive..err, well I could but I have a court date on the 22nd.
I went inside the Greyhound station and just to make sure I asked this lady if my ticket was good to Albuquerque at least. She told me yes. Cool. I still had my Adidas bag, water bottle and walking stick. My Triforce of Wealth.
I fell asleep in the Greyhound station and when I woke up I had missed my bus. I told the lady and she said I could hop on the bus that had just pulled up heading East to Dallas. While I was riding the Greyhound I talked to the driver about my situation. He told me that in El Paso I would be able to get my ticket rerouted through San Antonio. Badass, I'm going to get all the way home, I thought. I had originally thought I would ride the bus to Albuquerque and have to hitchhike the rest to San Antonio. I was much happier after talking with the driver, hee-hee.
Oh yeah, and on the bus I was looking through my Adidas bag and guess what I found. Four CDs I forgot I had. All my important files from my hard drive. My backup! So in spite of losing everything I still had my mission. Boy, was I relieved.
When I finally got to the Greyhound in El Paso, I asked the lady to reroute my ticket and she said no! Damnit, damnit, son of a bitch. So now I'm stuck here in El Paso. I walked over to the Blue Agave bar to see if those dudes who hooked me up last time still worked there. Neither of them were. They are doing poetry night tonight and there are tons of people watching someone on stage. I asked them if anyone could go up and recite and they told me sure. So I put my name on the list and before I knew it they called me up. Whoa, there's nothing I love more than an audience. I went off on my scripts and ideas. Everyone was listening, what a great feeling. Wow, what perfect synchronicity. It feels like I was meant to be in El Paso tonight. This is all a little eerie, hehe. I have marked my territory all over Texas now.
Right before I left I was able to call my mom from someone's cellphone. I told her I was okay and in El Paso. That I was going to find a place to sleep for the night and then wake up and start walking East. She asked me how much a ticket to San Antonio was from El Paso and I told her seventy eight dollars. She told me she would pay for it and to go back to the Greyhound station and call her from there. She wanted me to give her the number to the Greyhound station so she could talk to someone. I told her it would depend if someone had a cellphone or would let me borrow fifty cents.
So off I go back to the Greyhound. I asked the lady for the number and wrote it down. Then I go around asking people if they have a cellphone. I asked this nice lady Joann if she has a cellphone. She didn't, but she offered me her phone card. How generous of her. I like Joann. I called my mom and gave her the number. All this time I was worried because I didn't know how my mom planned to pay for the ticket. As far as I knew Greyhound only accepted cash.
Well, I didn't have much else to do except wait to see if my mom could buy the ticket over the phone. Right by the payphones there was this really hip looking girl sitting on the floor with a guitar and all her luggage. I immediately took a liking to her. I walked up to her and told her, "Hello sister. Would you care to hit my peace-pipe?" She grinned really big and said, "Sure!" I told her, "Okay, let's go sit outside." This girl was really rad. Her name is Joanna too. We went outside and she asked me if I had a cigarette. I told her no, so she started bumming. Wow, I was falling in love, hehe. She was able to get a couple Mexican Raleigh cigarettes off this dude. I loaded my one-hitter and handed it to her. Wow, I was so comfortable despite all my bad fortune lately. Thanks Joanna, you're the best.
While Joanna and I were outside smoking I hear my name being called on the loudspeaker. I get this huge grin on my face and go inside. They hand me the phone and I talk to my mom. She gives me some special code number that proves the ticket is paid for. My bus leaves around three in the morning, so I have plenty of time to kill. Thanks mom.
Joanna had been waiting for like twenty four hours at the Greyhound. Her bus was finally leaving at midnight. I love making friends at the Greyhound. We're just chilling out here smoking Mexican cigarettes. I got bored so I asked Joanna if she would come walk around downtown El Paso with me. It was about ten thirty, I think. You want to go for a walk Joanna? Joanna says sure. Cool.
We were back there for about ten minutes when these two younger Mexican dudes run back behind the wall. Looking to take a piss or something. Joanna and I are all stoned and say hello. We tell them that we are waiting for the Greyhound and just looking for a place to smoke some weed. This thuggish dude asks me if he can get a hit and I tell him sure. I load up a hit in the one-hitter and hand it to him. After he took the hit, he kept holding the one-hitter. It seems like he thought it was cool and had grown attached to it. I could feel him appropriating my pipe by the second. He told me, "Man, this is one cool pipe." I told him, "Yeah, I know. It's not even mine. I'm supposed to give it back to my friend Andrea when I get back to San Antonio tomorrow." I told him that just to let him know he would really be dicking me over if he stole my pipe. And since weed makes people peaceful, he finally gave it back to me. He probably would've jumped Joanna and I if we hadn't been smoking weed. Whew. Praise the ganja, hehe.
Okay, Joanna and I walked back to the Greyhound and I saw her off when her bus came. I gave her a great big hug and thanked her for being so cool. I got her email address and stuff. I crashed out in a chair until three in the morning and my bus came at three thirty.
9:50am We are in Fort Stockton, now.10:40am We stopped at the Burger King in Ozona. I got like a dollar and eighteen cents. Let's see if I can get anything.
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