Los Angeles - Letting the Days Go By - Style Council

Blogs

Next: What Happend to My Piece of The Cake?

Letting the Days Go By

by Linda Immediato

July 2, 2006 1:07 AM

And you may find yourself in a Motel 6 in Van Nuys,
And you may find yourself eating a Tommy burger at 2 am
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a financed Jeep
And you may find yourself with all your belongings in a Venice alley

And you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here?

How DID I get here? It's a long and boring story. But my lease was up at the end of June and my landlord wanted me out. O-U-T. At least that's what I interpreted the 3-day eviction notice to mean. I needed to find a new place, and despite a borrowed Westside Rentals password and constant Craigslisting, I found no place that would take me and my dog... at least none I could afford.

Most nights during the two weeks I curled up fetal on my bed, my dog on the floor looking up at me like a kid who hears the knocking of Child Protection Services. Yes, Stevie, I failed to take care of you. I'm 32. Imagine I DID have a child, a real one, not one who slept on the floor at the foot of my bed scratching and licking her privates. But a live human baby. Lina is having one. A beautiful baby GIRL. But me, I can't even keep a home for me and my domesticated pet, who requires only the occasional praise and a daily bowl of lamb and rice nuggets and water. I feel like a failure. Finally a few days before the reckoning, I start to pack after long work days. How did I accumulate so much shit? I kept old bills, receipts, and the business cards of people I don't remember meeting. I kept ill fitting clothes and furniture I barely used. The day before Armageddon I packed at a furious pace. I dragged the furniture into the alley. I dragged my old red bike, the new IKEA closets I built, and my cherished desk to their new fate, either a beggar's treasure or the garbage man's burden.

When all was said and done I had a storage unit in Culver City, a Jeep full of "going out" clothes, an air mattress, and a dog I couldn't house. I called my friend, a friend I thought we could stay with, but alas, a cat was involved, so the comfy garage I thought would be refuge was an illusion. I looked at Stevie and cried. "You can call the pound, they'll keep her and you'll have 5 days to get her," offered a friend. "that'll buy you 5 days." Stevie back at the pound I found her. I couldn't do it, Plus, 5 days wouldn't help. Friend after friend, offered to let ME stay with them, but Stevie could not come— cats, and more cats. So I drive. I drive— to where I'm not sure. All I had was a dog and a financed Jeep. I'm down one dog, and a beautiful house and now what? There's a Motel 6 in Van Nuys that allows dogs, there's a Tommy's around the corner, I can eat. I'm starving. That's as far as I got...

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?

Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Trackbacks

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://mt.laweekly.com/mt-tb.cgi/35949

Comments

There are 2 comments posted for this article.

Hi, I just want to say hang in there... I'm in the same position you are... I have a job, a Dog I love with all my heart and no place to live,, except the back of my truck.. I'm about to take an apartment in not the best part of town... mainly becuase they will have my dog and the rent is cheaper then anything I've looked at... wish me luck... stay in touch I want to keep up with you.....

Posted on September 7, 2006 9:09 AM by Linda

Westside rentals what a rip off, check out their F rating at the BBB, this boiler room merchants flood the paper with hundreds of bogus adverts.

Call on anything and you will be told yes its available or be re-directed to a bunch of outdated rental listings.

Go on test them out Make up a property and say you saw it advertised is it still available?
You will be told 'Yes' and we have others, you can call Westside up make up a dream home in a dream spot and hey presto aboiler room telemarketer will make that one magicaly become available.. Talk about Bait and Switch!

Another Big Joke are all the landlords being taken for a ride with the WSR sign boards.

A landlord wants to rent his home so Westside rentals will stick a board on his property with or with out his permission funny thing is the board has nothing about the property nor the landlords number if you notice all the boards are really designed to be free advertising for WSR.

Al the boards say is Westsiderentals.com and a phone number call the number and you will get a sales pitch to come and check out their listings.

So that leaves landlords looking pretty stupid giving WSR free advertising space on their property when there is no mention of their property on the board and no sales pitch talking about their property unless a customer pays and then gets redirected to other landlords properties.

Suggestion: Landlords trash those boards now and stick your own board out the front and if you want to list with a company list but dont be a fool and redirect potential tenants elsewhere.

Posted on January 10, 2007 1:01 PM by WestsideRentalVictims