At first I thought Chris was only joking with me but he followed up with words that made me know he was serious. I was briefly angry for the situation I had been put in but knowing Chris was a man of integrity, I felt he was only doing what he needed to do for his growing family. I can’t say that I would have done much differently. Yeah my money would have been gone anyways but the idea that the rent wasn’t paid with the possibility of the landlord stopping by, to collect rent from me that I didn’t not have, increased my drive to find a new situation quickly.
For a few days I was constantly dreading the landlord knocking on the door or arriving when I was out to the grocery store and be waiting for me to return. I slept poorly but what did help was prayer. I prayed to God that I needed help. One day soon after I received a call from Jesse in Los Angeles. His girlfriend’s cousin was moving out of the apartment and the room was free for me to take over. With prayers answered I collected all I had and drove to my new home in Los Angeles. I’ll be forever greatful for Jesse and Kelly’s kindness.
Now in Los Angeles the next step was to find a job so that I could stay there. The ideal situation would be a serving or bartending gig. Working a nine to five dosen’t allow actors to go on auditions. There were many times that I would go on several auditions with only a few hours notice. It’s part of what I think of as the “great balancing act.” You balance situations with in situations with in situations. The situation with finding a serving or bartending job in Los Angeles is there are a lot of folks, just like you, trying to do the exact same thing you are trying to do, even find the same job. Some of those people look almost exactly like you and you will meet them in the audition line. Competition for those good flexible jobs are extremely high and you usually only get in if you know someone.
I had been to a few open calls that I found on Craigslist where there would be people lined out the door waiting to apply when I arrived. There were a few accounts where I sat through scams or jobs that would Ben runnings scams. It wasn’t looking good on the job front. Money was quickly exiting my account and I needed another income quickly.
One day I got a reply to my email applying for a nutritioninal suppent company and headed out to my interview. I was sitting at a red light behind a car when I head behind me the screeching of tires. I see a man holding his phone in his hand with a face knowing he’s gonna hit me, and he does. He crashes into me so hard that my car crashes the bumper of the car in front of me. My car was totaled.
To be continued.......