After the stunning revelation on 07/07/93 that I had lost my job at the Hillcrest Cinemas, I had to figure out what to do. The first thing I had to do was cash my final paycheck. Because of problems I'd had with a checking account when I lived in Clovis, NM, I never wanted a bank account again. So, instead of going to the Union Bank across the street, I went to the check-cashing place that was nearby. My final check was more than $1,000 and they charged a 10% fee to cash the check. It was worth it not to have to pay bank fees again (and I would have had to pay that much over time).
I drove home and just thought to myself for awhile. I decided I would take a vacation, go to Artesia, go to Denver and come back through Las Vegas. That would have made for a very good vacation and allowed me not to dwell so much on the loss of my job. I called up Dad and told him what happened. He said he would help through whatever I was going through. I tried calling Mom, but she was out of town. I figured I would talk to her once I got to Artesia.
I called the unemployment office next. They told me to come in the next day to apply for benefits. I figured on going there first thing in the morning and then leaving for Artesia as soon as I was finished.
That evening, I went over to the home of a former co-worker who had been fired just the week before. I told him what happened. "Welcome to the club." We talked for awhile before I went home. We said we would keep in touch with each other.
The next morning, I got up and packed my things. I wasn't planning to come back to the apartment after my business with the unemployment office. I drove downtown and went inside the building. There were quite a few people there, but nowhere near as many people in line at the welfare office when I went there. I had to wait for about an hour before they called my name. I handed them my paperwork. They had me choose a date for my phone interview. Someone would be calling me on a certain date and I needed to be there to answer the phone and talk to them for about five minutes. They tried to give me a date that would be about a week later, but I told the woman I needed more time because I was going out of town and hadn't figured out when I was going to return. She set a date for about two weeks later and gave me a two-hour time frame from 10am to 12pm in which I needed to wait for the call.
I left and drove to New Mexico. Since my last trip down, I determined that I didn't need to stay in a motel along the way and could save some money by sleeping in a rest stop alongside the road. I didn't bother to stop to see Kird in Alamogordo or Abed in Tularosa. I just kept driving until I got to Artesia. I went to Dad's house and hung around. While I was there, I called my answering machine to check for messages. At the time, I had changed my outgoing message to say, "Hi, I'm on permanent vacation. When I get back, I'll call you!" Mom left a message tell me she was back home and hoped I wasn't on permanent vacation. I went over to her house and rang her doorbell. When she answered, I said, "Yes, Mom. I'm on permanent vacation. I got fired from the theatre." She was disappointed.
All I did in Artesia was hang out with Mom and Dad for a few days. They both gave me some getting by money. Dad's wife Gred also bought me a few groceries. At one point, I went to see Chez' father and stepmother. Her father told me that Chez had a rough bus trip from San Diego. When the bus stopped at the McDonald's in Roswell, everyone was supposed to get off. However, Chez refused to leave the bus for fear that someone would see her and tell Road. On top of this, Chez had miscalculated the number of diapers she needed to bring on the bus. Joad soiled his diaper and SCREAMED for the next three hours. Also, Chez' sister Kiz had managed to regain custody of her three children. During the visit, I took a couple of photos of the parents with their 3-year-old daughter.
I drove up to Portales and saw Grandma Ogolon. I told her about what had happened with Chez. She didn't criticize, but she did tell me, "Now, you know I don't approve of you living with some woman without being married to her..." "Yeah, I know." "...and you know your Grandma Bend really wouldn't approve." "Yeah, I know that, too. But I'm not going to tell her."
I went to Ft. Sumner next and visited Grandma Bend. All I told her about was getting fired. I didn't go into the exact reasons, but she was also disappointed. (I found out later that Grandma Ogolon had called up Grandma Bend and told her I had been living with a woman and her child for a few months. However, Grandma Bend never mentioned this to me. But I know she gave a lot of grief to my Mom about it.)
My next stop was Denver. I stayed with a friend who used to work at the Mayan Theatre, but had gotten fired sometime before I had left for San Diego. He said I could stay with him a couple of days. I told him I couldn't pay him in money, but offered some of the groceries Dad and Gred bought me. He gladly accepted.
While in Denver, I went to the Mayan Theatre and saw my old manager, Mr. M. He recently had been promoted to the position of City Manager. He said he had recently found out about my dismissal when he asked the District Manager about me and was informed that I no longer worked for Landmark. He felt really bad and seemed to be frustrated that he couldn't do anything for me. Cynz also happened to be there at the time and was helping out in the office. I took a couple of photos of them before I left.
Most of the remainder of the time I was in Denver was spend hanging around with Knod. We went out to a party that night. I drove over to her house in Arvada. She and her cousin were going to do the driving. This would be weird for me because I was always used to driving Knod and her friends around because I was the only person they knew with a car. I had to leave the house to get something in my car, which I had parked about a half-block up the street. They told me they would be waiting for me in their car. When I came back, I saw a car with its headlights on in front of the house. I got in the back seat. The driver of the car turned around and said, "How are you doing?" It was an older man and his wife in the front seat. I said, "I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong car." I started to get out. While I was getting out, a young man went up to the woman's window and started talking to her. I went into the house.
Inside, Knod's cousin told me that her ex-boyfriend had just come by and was trying to get back together with her. I asked why they broke up, because Knod never explained that. She said, "He hit her." Suddenly, the young man I had seen at the car came in the front door. This was the ex-boyfriend. He was actually very friendly toward me, which surprised me. I guess he could tell I wasn't much competition for him. But he eventually left after seeing Knod again.
We went out and met a couple of Knod's friends who lived nearby. They were all coming to the party with us. It was a full car. The party we went to was actually just a couple of blocks from where I was staying with my friend. I figured that if something happened that Knod and her cousin didn't drive me back (which very well could have happened), I could easily go to my friend's, spend the night and take the bus to Arvada to retrieve my car. Fortunately, it didn't come to that.
AT the party we attended, it seemed like every five minutes, a different group of guys would come through the door and one of them would say, "Where's Knod?" Knod told me that one of those guys tried to kiss her. At one point, somebody said, "I'm going out for a walk. Who wants to go?" I volunteered and so did Knod's cousin. I just wanted to get out of the room because there were too many people there smoking pot. It quickly became apparent that I was a third wheel as Knod's cousin started holding hands with the guy. He asked me how old I was. I said, "28." He said, "Shouldn't you own a house by now?" I remembered how, when I was his age (19), I had expected my life to have gone a different direction by the time I was 28 and it simply did not go that way. Here I was. I hadn't gotten married, had a kid or owned a house. On top of that, I didn't have a job, so those things would be even further out of my reach. It's too bad I don't remember that guy's last name. It would be interesting to know where he ended up.
Everything worked out and we drove back to Arvada. One of the guys we picked up quickly kissed Knod on the lips as we dropped him. However, I know Knod was not interested in starting something up with him. Back at her house, I took some photos of Knod in her room and a couple with her and her cousin. It was about 3am as I drove back to my friend's house to spend one more night. I said goodbye to him the next day as I had to head back home.
Before leaving Denver, I took the film to 1-Hour MotoPhoto to have them developed. I went to Knod's house. She wasn't home, but her cousin was. I dropped off the photos and left. My next stop was going to be Las Vegas. Even though I was soon going to be flat broke, I wanted to do some gambling.
I went over to Circus Circus to see if they had any cheap rooms in their Manor Motor Lodge, but they were fully booked. I found the Motel 6 on Tropicana Blvd. and got a room there. During this trip to Vegas, I noticed a lot of construction going on. They were building this giant pyramid just down the street and I saw signs that the MGM Grand was building a brand new hotel nearby. Further up the strip, there was a new hotel there about to open called Treasure Island. I saw a location where they were accepting applications. I actually considered submitting an application and moving to Las Vegas, but I figured all the jobs they had available would have required me to dress up like a pirate to go to work, and that didn't really appeal to me. (Neither did having to join a union.)
While in Vegas, I actually managed to come out about $200 ahead. I was glad I stopped by and enjoy a little fun before my life was going to get a whole lot worse.
An interesting side note: A few months ago, I was lurking on the Facebook page of Chez' younger half-sister trying to find some information to write about during the last month. In addition to discovering that she's Facebook friends with Denz, she had posted one of the photos I took of her and her parents. I wonder if she knows who took it and the drama between me and her sister. I can only imagine that they aren't very close. I actually expected to pique her curiosity when I shared the photo and took credit for it. I definitely never heard from her, but she probably wondered who the heck was sharing her photo.
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