Here is the link to part 1 of this story in case you missed it
https://www.ambernicoleartist.com/blog/how-i-moved-3000-miles-away-from-home-with-500-dollars-and-a-dream-part-1
Back in 2011 I moved into a house in Simi Valley with 7 other people and was paying $700 a month for a bedroom. I managed to talk to the landlord about helping us with payments. We made payments weekly, then bi weekly and then monthly when we could afford it.
We had no furniture. I remember buying a lamp for 10 bucks at walmart that I still have. Our room didn’t even have a light. Tv was on the floor. No bed, nothing. We were just so broke. We shared a prepaid straight talk flip phone. I mean you gotta do what yah gotta do to make it! We managed to make ends meet but we had to be very humbling.
Not much longer, I started school that summer and I loved it. We did short films, did production work... I mean it’s a dream if you want to go to film school! I was so happy and humble to be there.
I ended up working at subway for some extra cash but they cut my hours to 13 hours a week so I left and got a job at walmart overnights.
Little did I know that would change my life forever. It got harder to go to school while working the graveyard shift but I kept going. I met some amazing individuals at Walmart in Simi Valley. You all know who you are. In fact I’ll attach a video of some of the good times we had. We used to all play basketball after work, swim, or explore. Whatever, the world was ours.
Check out this video of what it was like:
https://youtu.be/VaGd-UKjiTc
The only thing I hated was being roomed in a party house. I would come home to parties in the night, random people everywhere, my food and drinks stolen out of the fridge... the crazy part was it was mostly people in their 30’s living like teenagers.
I went to look for a new place. Sigh. Did I mention that looking for places in Southern California is not easy? I found this one lady on Craig’s list. She said that she had a condo for 650 a month, she is rarely there and needs room mates to watch the house. Sounds amazing right? We jumped on that deal. She wanted us around more to get to know us before moved in, so we spent thanksgiving there. We planned to move out in December. Little by little her story kept changing. She apparently was going to be there more often..Actually now that we paid our deposit, her and her boyfriend were going to be “living” there full time all of a sudden. She also started to tell me where I should put my furniture. She said my tv has to go in her living room and not my bedroom. -_- I started to feel some type a way. She called me one day and asked me to go over there and change the cat liter box for her. Neatly placed near the box, was a book she looked like she was reading called “how to deal with difficult people”. I was like wow. She thinks we are difficult? Screw this lady. She was the difficult one. Who tells people they can’t have their own tv in their room?! So I got cold feet.
I already told the party house landlord that I was moving out. It was a week until Christmas and I was scared. I called my party house land lord told him the truth and he said I could stay the remainder of the month rent free and just stay there. I was so thankful but still unhappy with my room mates. I got my deposit back from that crazy lady and didn’t move in to her condo. No telling how that would have turned out. People are so controlling.
January rolled along. My car decided that it was time for it to take a dump. Mind you this is the same car I drove cross country. It was a 4 cylinder car. One of the cylinders popped and it was running horribly on 3 cylinders. That was so stressful and the LAST thing I needed. It was my emergency escape vehicle in case I needed to get home to SC. This was a Korean car and was impossible to get fixed for cheap. I’ll never buy one again by the way. I was so stressed out. One of my annoying roommates actually said something nice and meaningful that I’ll always remember.
“In six months, you’ll look back at all this and laugh”
Well, I’m not laughing per say but I did get out of that situation and my stress from then seems trivial now. He was right though. We can get through anything with time. We will prevail.
When I got my taxes, I used it for a down payment for a newer car from a dealership. I really couldn’t afford a car payment but we had to. It was stressful times. Let me tell you.
When you want something so bad you have to make sacrifices. We never bought anything. We were living off small means. When we went out to eat at McDonald’s we would each get a dollar burger, share a small fries and a large drink. So I mean we would barely pay anything for two people to eat. We found ways to have fun for cheap. We would go to the 3 dollar movie theater on dollar hotdog night! I mean it was a cheap way to get out and still enjoy life. We would drive to see where movies were filmed like back to the future and even went on the price is right and the Conan show!
Back to the story!
It started to get better. The Two most annoying roommates moved out of that party house. I used to compare them to jersey shore. I mean even after they moved out, they continued to still come over and annoy us. I came home from school one day to see the roommate that apparently “moved out” to be working out in the middle of our living room. I gave him a death stare and never saw him again. 🙌🏻
For a couple of months it was nice and peaceful. I was beginning to be happy in that house...until these two besties from Michigan moved in. They were right out of high school and wanted to “party in Hollywood” sigh. They took partying to a whole new level. They brought random weirdos from Hollywood over to party and sleep with at the house. She even threw away my shampoos and conditioners in the bathroom to make room for her stuff. 🤔 I was infuriated. I confronted her and she refused to pay me back. Let’s just say I got her back 😈
I started to look for another place. I wasn’t too pleased and didn’t want to end up in another bad roommate situation. So I really wanted to meet and get to know the next person well.
I got super lucky. I found a place in a rich neighborhood. The guy was divorced with two kids in middle school. He was a working actor and used to play on Star Trek deep space 9. We had a lot in common and got along well.
This dude was great! We moved in immediately. It actually felt like paradise. I love gated communities. No more party’s at all hours of the day, a nice swimming pool and just a nice home to relax in. Cody’s family even came out to visit us. It was nice seeing family out in so cal! I actually was super happy! We started to get promotions, things were looking up!
September 2012 rolls around. I guess when things seem great, something serious catches you off guard and changes EVERYTHING.
Cody’s mother was going to have heart surgery. She called him the night before and they talked. We were so happy for her. A few hours later, his brother called at 5am... we knew it wasn’t good news.
His mom passed away in her sleep. We were devastated. We just talked to her. Why does the world have to be this cruel? She was just about to have surgery.
We called work and asked for bereavement. Having a parent pass away when your 3000 miles from home is rough. I could see in his eyes he was missing home. He needed his family. Sadly, he couldn’t make it to the funeral but we did a special one for her at the Pacific Ocean. Rip beautiful Hope Jenkins. You were a kind soul that deserved so much more. I’m grateful for knowing you for the time that I did.
I talked long and hard with Cody and he wanted to go back home. I don’t blame him. I couldn’t keep him here. I was here for me and he was supporting me. I didn’t want to give up but he had to go back home. I couldn’t keep him here. I couldn’t afford it on my own just yet.
We decided to move back to South Carolina on October 6th 2012 but we were going to make it another fun cross country trip. This time we were going to drive slow and hit up all the nicest places like the Grand Canyon etc.
That will be part 3 of my blog and the story will continue with what I did in South Carolina and how I moved BACK! :)
Thank you for reading and I can’t wait to share the next few posts. Everyday is an adventure!
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