Apartment Hunting

It was a nice first night in LA at Carly's.

First morning, I had to start strategising, I told her what my plans were, that I was going to re-register with the casting networks/agencies I was with before moving to Vegas and tell everybody I'm back, book me! Which I did. And the did! I spend the first day back online in my car by some free parking lot in Hollywood. I had a few things I needed to take care of in Hollywood, so I decided to stick around. 

That night, I paid for overnight parking again, Carly didn't have a car, so she didn't quite know what the deal was with parking. I wasn't crazy about paying $15 for parking daily. Too much! But then, I didn't plan on sticking around that long for me to pay for the entire month. 

Carly had a roommate, she was sleeping in the living room but her part was partitioned out with those Chinese room divider thingies. She was also never home, she went to school and worked nights and was in a brand new relationship, so she was always out. Which worked best, otherwise, there would've been too many people in a one bedroom apartment. I did get to meet the roommate on my second day there or so. Nice girl, she and Carly were born two days apart, same year and everything! #twinning!

Carly had had a roommate before, a Korean girl who was here for a month or so, they got along fine,l according to Carly, she told me she still misses her. She wished she were still rooming with her and not the current roommate. Not that there was anything wrong with current roommate, it's just that, Carly didn't think she and the current roommate had anything in common, she was hoping for someone she could hang out with and have laughs like we used to in Hollywood or go out like with the Korean girl. She told me that the current roommate keeps to herself when she was around. 

When the girl and I met, we got along like a house on fire. She literally told me her entire life story that very day. She seemed like a nice young girl who had been seen it all. She has a big heart, supporting her family at her age of 21. 

I remember after meeting her, she and I continued to chat and Carly went to work. When Carly came home, she and I were hanging out. I would mention something about Bee, the roommate, and Carly wouldn't know that about Bee. I  noticed that they didn't know anything about each other. Which was very interesting and totally none of my business. I think that made Carly feel weird because she thought that Bee was one way and I saw a different side to Bee. That made her wonder if Bee just didn't like her (Carly's) company. That's the thing with having more than one other person in the house. Two will get along and one will feel weird. Good thing I wasn't there temporarily. Also as a side note, I always bring out the side to people, people who have always known them have never seen. I guess that's my specialty. 

Within 24 hours of my arrival, Carly had signed up with casting agencies, she was getting booked on shows on days she had school and work, I was just like, wtf? She would get booked on shows I had applied to and didn't get booked and walk out like, hey, gurl, heeeeyyy! I'm on my way to Hollywood, I got booked on this show by so and so. I'm thinking to myself, uhm, I thought you were not doing any acting work, what happened? But I had to save my energy, first because I didn't want to create tension in someone's home, secondly, because I needed my energy for house hunting. I had to focus, she was being herself again, copying everything  I did. So early! 

She would book herself for something and have to leave early because she had to get to work, she would then have to forfeit her pay because she didn't stay until the end. Where's the logic? If you hadn't gotten greedy and tried to steal my only bread and butter, I maybe would've been booked for the spot you took and gotten paid but you had to be a bitch! Like who works for no pay? 

I got some jobs too, I was working, fortunately, we never got booked in the same show ever! That would've been really awkward cos btch, I ain't tryna give you a ride! I know I stay in your house for free but you don't have to be an asshole about it! 

I was busy every morning and night, looking for accommodation. I would have appointment and stuff, I was already getting fed up of being around Carly, I was considering settling and just moving to Hollywood. I will see Beverly hills later, I gotta get the fck outta here! On our days off, we would go for a walk downtown. I saw a different side to downtown LA. When I lived there before with Daddy, I was locked up in that hellhole, I never really got to explore Downtown. One day, I went to the 99 cents store, OMG! That was the 99 cents store up the road from Daddy's. Fck me! That brought back all the memories! I never thought I'd see myself back there. I was caught off guard. Imagine if I bumped into him? I wonder if he would recognise me? Wow! 

I decided to drive down the street towards his house. I remembered the route because we went there all the time and he once let me drive there and back, which was nice of him. I parked in front of his place and just thought about living there. Where I was in my head when I did. It was quite something being there again, I tell ya! One day, I took Carly there because that was the only 99 cents store with parking in the neighborhood, not that close to her house, maybe 10 minutes drive, but it was close. I think she was zoned out when I told her that's where daddy used to take me, I didn't even bother showing her where I used to live with him. Why bother, if she doesn't give a sht?

There's a market, diagonally across the street from Carly's. OMG! She took me to this taco place, Christ! Best tacos ever!  So cheap, too. $3 each and they put so much meat on it, nomness! My favorite is Pork, of course! Sometimes, I would have half Beef and half pork or half chicken and pork. They're all good. Carly's favorite is pig snout. Meaning, as you may have guessed, the nose of a pig, gurl, I can't! I just thing about all the snort!

One of the weekends, we went to Little Tokyo. Carly's place is down the street from Chinatown, Little Tokyo is also close by. Walking distance. We had a nice time there, taking pictures. I have been looking for those pictures the past two days, otherwise I was almost done with the blog already. I tried sorting my picture folder out but it was too much of a mission, I decided, I will do a picture blog when  I am done sorting them all out. So far, I did about two hours of sorting and stopped. So please bear with a sista.

Carly took me to a Japanese supermarket in Little Tokyo where she usually gets some of her groceries. It's a pretty neat spot, affordable too. We walked home. I tried to boycott but she was like, let's walk a bit, you'll see, it's close. I'm not a big walker, big, yes, walker, not so much. But  I did it. It took us less than twenty minutes to get back to the apartment.

Not too long since I moved in with Carly, it was her friend's birthday, she asked me to tag along as she went to shop for a gift. She bought her friend a Victoria's Secret perfume. She bought herself one as well. That's the Carly  I know. She always gets herself something when she buys gifts for her friends. I ain't mad at that! We were there forever, while she was not able to make up her mind. She can never make up her mind, even though she knows exactly what she wants. When you get to the store, she confuses her self and then spends hours trying to decide between what she wants and what she doesn't. I was like, listen, you're paying for parking if we're gonna be here any longer. I can't do this anymore. Let's go!

Eventually we left. After she got what she originally went there for. Then we went to the 99 cents store to buy wrapping paper. We spent forever there while she couldn't decide what color wrapping paper she should get. She was confused between her friend's favorite color and hers. I was like, this is a no brainer, get your friend's favorite color, this is not your gift! She was like, but I really, really, really love this color!Christ! Eventually she bought yellow, her friend's favorite color. From then on, everything she bought herself was yellow. I was like, are you still shopping for your friend? Why's everything yellow around here? She told me that yellow has always been her favorite color, hadn't I noticed. I brought up the friend's birthday, that I was there when she told me yellow was her friend't favorite color, she denied the whole thing and tried to pretend like I was the delusional one. I just agreed with her, she needed that more than me.

My first day there, I did some cleaning, the dishes were piling in the kitchen sink, the floor looked like it had never been vacuumed since she moved ink and there was something rotting in the trash can. I had to clean because I was sleeping closer to the kitchen and the smell was killing me. Carly came home that night and gave me a hug, she told me that those are the things she misses about me. How I always keep a clean house. Her roommate wasn't that way, she never helps her out. I just said, you're welcome. I didn't want to get into it because clearly the roommate was never there and all the sht that was all over the place was Carly's. I don't know why the poor girl would have to 'help her out' with all that when it's her house and the girl was paying rent.

Carly may have taken me out to dinner that night as a thank you. She is generous when it comes to things like that, I'll give her that. She is not the worst person in the world, obviously! Who is?

I had been seriously looking for a place, calling, emailing and all that. A lot of places require application fee, somewhere between $30 and $50. How many of those can one folk out while looking for a place? It's non-refundable, mind you? Some of them want you to bring your own credit record, that you have to pay for too sometimes, or always? I don't know. It wasn't such a fun experience looking for a place this time around. It took way longer than it usually does. Normally within a week of looking, I find a place. Usually, the first place I view, I like and I take. This time, things were different. Carly was very good, she told me not to settle. She would always encourage me when I'm just like fck it, I'll just move to Hollywood. She would tell me that's not my plan, I need to stick to my plan. I can't thank her enough for all those words of encouragement.

I did go to view some places in Hollywood, some places in Beverly Hills, like two servants quarters, I was interested in, the guys wanted to see pictures of me. I wasn't ok with that. One of them seemed really real. We emailed back and forth, he answered all my questions until we got to the point of me going to see the place. He asked to see a picture because there are lots of scammers out there. I don't know how a picture was going to prove I wasn't one. I reluctantly gave in and sent one. Never heard from him again. Oh well!

I bet you that guy is still advertising his space. I used to see it religiously every week I checked the classifieds.

I viewed another servants quarters 'Beverly Hills Adjacent'. It was going for $1200 all inclusive. Unfurnished. Decent price, I just didn't know how adjacent we were talking, so I went to see it for myself. It was in a nice neighborhood, close to a very dodgy neighborhood, so that was a no no for me plus it looked more like a jail cell than a $1200 space. I would've had my own entrance, which would have been a plus, I didn't have to bump into anyone. They had kids and everything. I don't know how all that would have panned out at the end of the day. I am not big on overcrowdedness, especially for that much money.

I told them I would get back to them, they were so nice, I couldn't get myself to call back and say, meh, nah thanks!