i do believe ive had enough

after a few days of apartment/soul searching, ive decided to pack it in as far as la is concerned. theres just too much compromise attached to living here. allow me to explain: decent - and only decent - places to live around here are way out of my price range. in order to survive (briefly) id have to live in a tiny studio for like 900 bucks a month in an undesirable (dangerous) area. im not interested in not wanting to step outside of an apartment at night, worrying aboot my place and car getting broken into, etc. and even to afford that id have to have two jobs i bet. and to do something im actually interested in id probably have to work for little-to-no pay, which id be happy to do, except id be homeless in three months. i could always borrow a little money, but that would be stemming a tide rather than solving a problem. and living within thirty miles of a beach is even more cost-prohibitive. its not a place im in love with anyway. its got its good parts and bad. some things are super-cool, but also ill be giving up wildfires, earthquakes, smog, and freeway snipers (five incidents since ive been here).

tonight is my last night in california, in pasadena, which is one of the nicer communities in the greater la area. but of course, its super expensive and pretty far inland.

one nice thing is there were a couple further south locations that couldnt be visited on my way out here... tomorrow i go to joshua tree national park and then phoenix and tucson for a couple nights. after that ill be "down in the west texas town of el paso" and then im gonna go back to austin for a while. it was probably my favorite place on my trip, so perhaps ill stay. everything there adds up - apartment costs are reasonable, its pretty safe, job prospects are good, and its big into independent film.

one thing im really looking forward to is some more open road. ive been in the la area for two weeks now, and ive grown to miss driving long distances. i did go to san diego twice while i was here, which is a two hour drive, but its different cuz of all the traffic. i cant wait to drive five hours through a desert with no one around.