Ventura, CA
Thursday December 18, 2008
4:47am I decided to leave early from the armory this morning. I’m not catching the shuttle to Ventura because it leaves at six. I woke up around four with eight hours of sleep. I went to bed at seven thirty last night. I hope it doesn’t rain today. I’m going to go fly my sign today at the mall. The people are cool here. I like the employees at the shelter. I’m going to sit down and have a wake-and-bake session in front of the Arco AM/PM.
5:38am I’ve had fun so far. I came over to the AM/PM. I filled up my bag with ice and I bought a bottle of water. I bought an apple pie and some Mother’s cookies. All of a sudden this guy up and hooks me up with a banana and a hot coffee. I am waiting for the sun to come out. The cashier came out here and yelled at me to stop asking for money. I told that I wasn’t asking for money. That I hated money. I told him I was a journalist, that I was living a book. He said okay, but that his boss would run me out when he got there. I told him I would take my chances. I’m waiting for the sun to come up so I can go fly my sign over by the mall.
6:04am Mike, in front of the ARCO, he volunteered me some money. Five bucks. I appreciate it, brother. Way to support the cause.
That guy was all smiles. He told me, “It was a pleasure talking to you.”
7:10am Let me tell you what’s happened so far. I saw a sign that said UCSB, so I started following that. Even though I kind of remember going there last year and being denied access to a computer because I’m not a student. I thought I would just go ask them again. The traffic is real slow at the mall. I saw a street called College Drive, so I started walking it assuming it would end up at a college. I walked about a quarter mile and then I see this old guy walking on the other side of the street. I asked him, “Does this street end up at a college eventually?” He told me, “No, it used to back in the day.” I offered him my website and hit him up for my story. He told me that he was just going to walk to the end of the street and back. I started my presentation and we started walking. When we got to the end of the street he told me, “This is where I turn around, but if you want to walk back again, okay.” Every point I made he was saying, “Uh-huh, yeah.” Agreeing with everything. I gave him my website. He told me, “I have to warn you, I’m not in a donating mood.” I smiled and told him, “That’s alright. It’s a free story.” I just walked all the way to Telegraph Road. I’m going to sit down at the bus stop and smoke. I’ve already had two presentations already today.
8:00am I forgot to tell you, I waited at some bus stop. I’m going to go downtown and score some weed somewhere. I’m not going to fly at the mall today.
8:18am I just got dropped off on Main Street. Nobody is out. The sun is coming up. It’s starting to warm up.
8:47am Gary was nice enough to give Lorenzo a quarter for a phone call. He appreciates it, Gary. Everybody gets credit.
10:17am I had to rewind because I accidentally left it recording in my pocket. I’ve had a good morning so far. I hung out with Lorenzo and let him borrow my phone card. Since I got a five dollar bill I have like nine total and I want go get some weed. I went to the park and sure enough this girl sold me a couple nuggets for ten dollars. It’s some really good weed too. I’m all stoned. I just came to the library. I’m going to check my email. Maybe I’ll stay a whole hour. I’ll go eat at Catholic Charities at 11:30am and I have another library at my disposal on the Avenue. At the Foster library downtown you can only have one visit a day. Hopefully Sierra has messaged me.
1:30pm I have secured my workstation on Main Street in front of the Palermo Espresso Bar. I’ll take a picture. I’m just standing here letting people read my shirt and handing out my website. I’m not asking for money or nothing. Man, it just occurred to me that I friggin’ feed off of ignorance. I love yelling at people when they ignore me. I’m just pointing it out. Somebody has to. Hehe, I’m going to get in a fight. I’m super-stoned. I scored some good shit.
Ha, this guy just told me, “I already got one from you the other day.”
2:45pm I just had an awesome presentation with Jerry. Whole Odyssey and Note From the Rich and everything. I am totally saturating this town with my presence.
Matt wanted to put something on my tape. Can I take a picture? Matt: “Straight up, we travel-bum these streets, right? You get a fucking education. The problem is you’re going to leave with some scars most likely. Then at that point what you can do is you can decide whether or not you want to be nice or you want to be mean. You should try and be nice even though you’re on these streets.
Now, the government is the biggest mafia ever known. You can have love and respect. It’s legal criminality. That’s what it is. Amerikkka. The reason they don’t like criminals is because they’re more criminals than us and they don’t like competition. They ride in your house with guns and kick in your door. They’re bangers too.”
3:35pm I forgot to tell you, I smoked some weed with these gutter punks. They smoked me out with some one-hitter stuff. Then one of them asked me if I had a digital camera memory card I could spare. I just so happened to have a 24mb one. I was able to trade it for even more weed! Sweet. I bought a five dollar nugget this morning. I came and smoked in the grass right here.
5:00pm I just had an awesome presentation with these beautiful girls. One of them was very interruptive at first, but I got her to listen. They were really pretty girls and were laughing at all the funny parts.
5:08pm I was trying to get to the Avenue Library and ran into Ben who recognized me from last time I was here.
5:37pm I’m going to go hit up Johnny’s Fine Mexican Food.
Johnny’s hooking me up. I walked up and asked, “Can I talk to Johnny?” It was him and he hooked me up, sweet. I gave him my website.
6:02pm Earlier I sat down to eat my burrito at this bus bench. I sat down and some guy was waiting for the bus. He saw my shirt and said, “I love it. World peace through marijuana.” I gave him my website and he said he was going to show it to all of his students, that he was a teacher at UCSB.
Oh yeah, I’ve been having conflicts about saying, “Marijuana legalized.” Since Ocean Beach I’ve been saying, “Marijuana totally legalized.” That’s kind of a little lame too. Maybe I’ll say, “Not only will I get marijuana totally legalized, I will get it recommended too. You can grow your own for free.”
6:29pm I just had an awesome presentation with Kayla Bailey in front of American Apparel. I took her picture. Maybe I’ll hang out here a little bit more. I remember standing in front of the American Apparel in Boulder, Colorado too.
Kayla is just beautiful. She gave me a great big hug. She told me, “You made my day. Thank you so much.”
What more do I need to motivate me? I am so glad I got hooked up with a burrito. That was my deciding factor to not go to the armory. Since it’s not raining I’m going to crash on the rooftop where I crashed with Lorenzo.
It was weird. I had been talking to this one guy in front of American Apparel. He had to go but he told me, “You should go talk to that girl who just went around the corner. She thinks you’re cute. I could just tell when she walked by.” I promptly walked around the corner and yelled at Kayla, “Can I tell you my story? I’m not asking for nothing.” She walked back beaming and I put on the greatest presentation for her. She gave me a big hug. I’m really glad that guy sent me around the corner to get her.
Couple
8:55pm I decided to go to sleep because I’m tired. I came behind the library and Lorenzo showed up. I was happy to see Lorenzo. We smoked some weed. I’m still waiting for like another half hour so people can leave the parking lot and won’t see us climb around to the rooftop.
9:10pm I forgot to tell you, I already snuck onto the rooftop. I’m going to crash out.
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