Getting Mugged in LA

After the Universal Studios Tour, we were both nice and hungry. He told me he wanted to take me to his favourite burger place ever. I didn’t care what, where, why or when, I was up for it! We drove through the city, and stopped at Original tommy’s Burger place. El was raving about the place, I couldn’t wait to try the burgers out. He told me to wait in the car while he went to grab us some. He brought back two Double doubles (double cheese, double patties), fries, their fries, OMG! He also brought us choc chip cookies, we had soda in the car. We sat in the car in the parking lot, eating and talking. He was telling me stories of how he grew up and more stories on the sister. It was a nice way to end such an amazing day. It was cold outside, you could tell it was winter, even though, it was warm all through the day. Tommy’s burgers are to die for, he was right! You can google them, they are listed amongst the best burgers in LA.

From there, we headed back to the hotel. So when we checked out from the hotel that morning, he went to the office and complained about the “racist incident”. Whether that really happened or not, well, the jury is still out on that. They gave him a voucher to use at any of their chain hotels. He brought it back with him, together with a huge smile on his face. I didn’t know how I felt about that. This white man crying racism, accusing a black man for it, something about it just wasn’t sitting right with me. His voucher had the name Matthew on it. As we drove off, I noticed that, and asked him if his other name was Matthew. He told me it wasn’t. I was like then how are you going to claim this voucher if it has somebody else’s name on it. He told me not to worry about it. He would sort it out. OK then, we had just pulled off, he could just make a U-Turn and have it fixed once and for all. Anyway, that night, nice and full from Tommy’s Burgers, we went to get more soda, and drove around LA some more. We also drove past his apartment block, it was nice that he showed it to me, but what would have been nicer would have been to be invited in. Seeing as I was already in LA, but I didn’t want to be pushy. It’s downtown LA, less than a minute away from Staples Centre. You know, where they always have big Basketball games and stuff, also near the Nokia theatre #surreal

We went to a different location of the same hotel, he told me to wait in the car while he was checking us in. After waiting forever, he came back sad faced and told me they couldn’t accept the voucher because, you guessed it! IT HAD A WRONG NAME on it! Duh! Rocket Science? I think not! He asked if I would mind if he were to take me back to San Diego that night. That was really weird. I didn’t know how to take that. I mean I’m not going to tell this man that I don’t want to go home, I wanna spend one more night with him. Who does that? But at the same time, what??????? It was after ten pm. We had planned to spend two night together. What the heck was going on? What if that guy hadn’t been racist? How would he have paid for the second night? I knew something was fishy from the beginning. I hope that his racist accusations didn’t lose that poor man his job. Anyway, I told him to do whatever he wanted, what was I going to say? He apologised profusely and then drove around some more. Talk about ruining the moment!

He asked me to google something on my phone, I couldn’t because my phone battery had died during my photo spree at the Studios earlier on. He should have had his own Cellphone. How does this guy not see that a Cellphone is necessary at this day in age? We found a hotel, he went in, paid and checked us in. He told me he was going to fight those people for his voucher. Do you think I cared? No prizes for guessing. I was ready to lay down. Remember, I hadn’t had enough sleep the night before from his snoring. Shower, bed, snoring, no sleep for me once more, AWESOME! I dozed on and off and was so ready for morning.

Remember, he had promised to buy me a nice suitcase set and return my cheap walmart one? The night before, I had posted something on Facebook about the Tommy’s burgers we had , one of my Facebook friends, told me to try out In ‘n Out burgers as well. I mentioned that to Elvis, he told me it was in the cards, so that’s where we went for branch the following morning. You can google that too, it’s also in the top burger places in LA. They were great! The fries weren’t as addictive as Tommy’s.  I paid for the burgers. We went to the 99 cents store and grabbed a few things, some snacks for the road and tons of Diet Pepsi, I paid, he insisted he wanted to but I mean, it’s the 99 cents store, how expensive can the stuff be if every item is 99 cents each? From there, we went to Sears to look for Suitcases. When we got there, he asked me which ones could I afford? Say what? I have a luggage set, thank you’re the one who has a problem with where I bought it. He hadn’t even seen my set then. Anyway, I looked around and told him I didn’t see anything I liked. WTF? He told me he was going to use his stuff discount, but I would have to pay for them myself. I was like no thanks dude, I’m good!

After Sears, we went to the Gas station, when we got there, he told me he felt weird asking me that, but he had a favour to ask me. I had a feeling I was going to feel weird hearing it as well. I asked him if he had to cos I felt weird he felt weird. He said yeah he had to. He asked me to lend him some money WHAT THE BLEEP! What kind of middle aged man is this? It’s like I’m paying him back for all the fun stuff he paid for the previous day. Or better yet, we were going Dutch! I told him I didn’t feel comfortable with that. He told me he was going to pay me back as soon as he got paid. He was planning for us to spend New Year’s Eve together, he would pay me back then or do a direct deposit into my account. It’s not the same, dude! You just do do that! He wanted $70! (R700). I mean if I had known of the jerkery he was about to pull, I never would have paid for breakfast and the snacks. I knew there and the that that wasn’t a loan, I was giving him the money. My thing about people borrowing money, is either give it to them as in here, it’s yours or don’t ‘lend’ it to them cos you ain’t getting it back!

I asked him what he wanted to do with the money that was so urgent. He wanted to buy a cart (trolley). You know those flat four-wheeled carts? He wanted one for....wait for it.... when,, one day he has his music business, he can use it to transfer his equipment, from the truck to stage. WWHHHAAATTTT? You wanna spend my money on a fantasy that may or may never get fulfilled, what the heck is this? He told me there was one for Sale in San Diego. He wanted to buy it on his way to dropping me off. Anyway, he took me to the ATM while we were still talking about it. And asked me to withdraw the money. Wow, what an a**. Is this guy being for real right now, I kept wondering to myself. I withdrew it and wrote it off as on my first trip to LA, I got mugged. I wasn’t going to ask for it back and judging from the way he was acting, he was never going to give it back. I told him, I hope he at least felt uncomfortable asking me for money, he told me he didn’t, we’re a couple and it shouldn’t matter, we should help each other. Wow! What a fcked up view of relationships, we just met a**-hole!

He got his money, and the entire weekend was a joke as far as I was concerned from then on. I think  El’s a cheapskate, from the whole racism stunt he pulled with that poor guy at the hotel, just to get discount at the hotel. Budget for your sht dude, don’t be robbing people to get by, not cute! Not cute at all!  #99CentStore