I am a total misfit...Part 2
art·@in2itiveart·
0.000 HBDI am a total misfit...Part 2
Why did I choose California? http://i.imgur.com/WfMRBIx.jpg My friend Leone, in New York, had offered to pay for my trip to the Hudson Valley, in Upstate New York if I wanted to go back there, and let me live with her in her house, since she had just gotten a big Worker's Comp Settlement… but I wanted to stay friends with Leone, and I somehow knew in my gut that it was not going to work out and I would lose her friendship. I have known Leone for about 20 years, so she meant more to me than that chick in Longmont who wanted me to move in with her. I had only known her for about 4 years back then, and so if things imploded, which they did, it was a smaller loss than losing a friend I had known for 20 years. http://i.imgur.com/GYLXGMs.jpg [image source](http://www.fotothing.com/Studio88/photo/5a5f0fa16b9ea9926dcb778136550232/) In addition, I just did not want to back to New York. When I was living in Woodstock, which is a vortex, it was like I swooshed around and around in a giant toilet bowl, and I could not get anywhere. I just did not want to go back to that. So, I asked Leone to pay the gas for me to go to California, instead, in trade for me doing her website for her. My sister had said that worst-case scenario, I could stay in her driveway, on Mañana Way, in Pt. Reyes Station. I did not want to stay in my sister's driveway, but it was better than going to the homeless shelter in Denver. I thought, at the time, and it was better than being stuck in the poorest county in New York State with a friend of mine that I knew would hate my being there after a few weeks. Leone agreed to that. My sister, as I mentioned before, has since lost her house, and is now living in her Volvo Stationwagon, with her dachshund. She is going to her friend's office in Novato from Friday to Sunday, where she gets to set up her "shop" as she calls it, and then the rest of the time she is probably parked out at an ocean beach at night, and during the day she is at the Library or in Oakland, visiting her mom at the upscale nursing home where she is living out her days in dementia. My family is whacked. My cousin, one of my sister's running buddies, rents an apartment above her garage for about $3500 a month to foreign students who attend UCBerkeley, and my other cousin, my sister's other running buddy, rents her upstairs apartment to whomever for some ungodly amount - while my sister is living in her car. http://i.imgur.com/3h55z3H.jpg My sister is no fun party either, of course. She knows everything about everything and about what everyone should do and she believes the Galactic Federation is going to "reset" the Global Market via an "Event" predicted by some dude named "Cobra". http://i.imgur.com/K88f6yB.jpg [image source](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--Xq7JW8yd1Y/UGtzUNDodcI/AAAAAAAAAbk/_2vLdPeGp8I/s1600/Com.jpg) I get it. I would not want to live with her - but - being that I believe in the Law of Correspondence - that when one suffers, all suffer, I believe it is my job, to help where I can - and if I have something that will help and I don't want to help - then I need to change myself to be able to help. I do have some property in Southern Colorado near Crestone in the San Luis Valley, that my friend bought for me when I was in that situation - back in 2011. My buddy - who was (he died of cancer suddenly) a real hippy, in his heart - got a really good job making really good money and he bought all of his friends who he feels are super misfits - some land. http://i.imgur.com/GmPOJ12.jpg It's desert property with an underground aquifer. People live on this land off the grid. I offered it to my sister when she first lost her house, and she was not willing to go there. I think it's because she is 74 years old now and it would be too hard for her to figure that out on her own now. The winters are very intense, and the rest of the year there's this wind that can drive you crazy. I can't live there either right now. I am much more conventional than even my sister. I am dependent on having a community of people I know nearby, just for sanity. http://i.imgur.com/4HeQhps.jpg I had tried to get an intentional community going out there in 2012, but that kinda fell flat, for the most part. Here's the [project](http://all-are-welcome.weebly.com/). Maybe some day. Anyway… if I had a house here - I would have offered my sister to come live with me, and I would figure it out HOW to make it work because I do not believe that it is ok for a family member to be on the street. I kind of hold my family to this standard in my head, and when I left for California, I thought they would not let me land on the street. I have since changed my point-of-view. I left for California, and first I went to San Diego to hang out with a buddy of mine who used to live out there. I had never been to Menifee or swam in the ocean in San Diego until then. That was pretty special, I have to say. http://i.imgur.com/oLH8gEI.jpg I have never experienced such amazing water as I did in that little bay there, while he surfed - I think I floated on my back in that water for about 5 straight hours. It was a perfect cool temperature and the sun was beating down. It was pure heaven, as I thought about what it must have been like to live there as a Native person before we took over. That night I tried to stay in a Walmart parking lot in Menifee, but Walmart has since stopped letting people stay in their lots and I was run off. I had to stay on my friend's property in my car, because he and his wife were getting divorced and he did not want anyone to see me there because of what they might think. http://i.imgur.com/i9owIE6.jpg The next day, I left for Santa Barbara. My niece, my sister's daughter invited me to come live there. http://i.imgur.com/rELemST.jpg She lived on a property with a bunch of different houses on it, that she sublet to other people. She was redoing the place for the landlord - There were 2 guys living there, and she with her daughter. http://i.imgur.com/2Ul9Vdq.jpg and she gave me this tiny little house and ran a line out from her house so I could have electricity. It was beautiful! There were avacado trees all around, the weather was amazing, and my niece seemed to like having me there... http://i.imgur.com/cqWW6Zu.jpg There was an outdoor shower... http://i.imgur.com/zE50Jr2.jpg It was wonderful and luxurious and too good to be true, because after 1 week, she changed her mind and told me to "GET OUT!". I am not really sure what happened. I gave her the moon and start painting as payment for that week's rent. http://i.imgur.com/MVeaV1N.jpg So, I left, and went to my cousin's house in Oakland for a week. Then to my other cousin's house for 2 weeks, then to my friend Tim's house for a week, back to the 2nd cousin's house for a whole month, and in that time, I got a job, teaching my 3rd cousin with dementia art once a week for 2 hours, for $100. It was October of 2013 when I went to live at Tim's in San Pablo, and rented a room from him for $75 a week, with a partial trade of house-cleaning...(To be continued) http://steemitboard.com/@in2itiveart/posts.png Read [Part 1](https://steemit.com/art/@in2itiveart/i-am-a-total-misfit-part-1) Artwork © 2017 [Joanna Whitney](http://joannawhitney.weebly.com/)
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