To Catch Up

It has been 20 years, 2 months, and 24 days since my last confession...

Actually come to think of it- I've never really confessed. I've simply existed.

To actually record every tiny detail of my life thus passed would be impossible at this point, thus I shall merely make references where I see fit.

Currently I am typing this from the Cafe Roma in San Francisco, California. The single cup of amber chai that is steaming next to me is woefully waiting to cool. Construction workers toil out the window. Their sweat silent save for every time the door opens and a stream of street sound wafts in. The Christmas music over head is seductively intriguing the ear to daydream about sleighrides in the snow... which it may be doubtful that many of the latte sippers here have experienced. The black suits and leather coats behind me chatter a drone of "important business concepts" interrupted by the occasional fake laugh that will erupt from a nervous intern.

It has been an adventure here in SF. Let's just go over the past month eh?

Time was ticking down at the Asian refugee house. We all had 5 days to move out before teh house was demolished by the city. It seemed that all of the refugees had found places living at Chinese restaurants or with friends. However, I had not made close enough friends yet to ask to sleep on their couches. I considered talking to my friend Straten about getting more workhours climbing trees from him and sleeping over at his place. However more bad news came about. I received a phone call from Straten around 9 pm asking to be bailed out from his home that he shared with his business partner. It turned out that they had gotten into a fistfight and broken up the business... suddenly he was homeless and jobless as well!

I couldn't turn him away. I don't know why- but I just couldn't. So I snuck him over to the Asian refugee house when everyone was asleep. He crashed in a sleeping bag as I slept on the rubber cot. I would wake him early and drive to an internet cafe in Fremont to look at apartments. There was 300 bucks in my account and getting lesser. There were all kinds of places for rent. An architect that asked me out on a date after the room showing, a house full of condoms and cats, and a beautiful apartment in Berkeley for $500 a month.

The plan had been that Straten and I would share a room until we both got on our feet- thus rent would be cheap. The gorgeous well-lit room in Berkeley seemed ideal. No deposit. Move in in three days. Free utilities including wireless. Five minutes from school. Only one flaw... one very big flaw. They wouldn't allow Straten. they said that they didn't want a caucasian male over the age of 30 in the house.

Straten insisted I go and pay for the place- but what he didn't know was that instead I personally turned down the offer. The Asian refugee house evacuated that day and Strat and I slept under a tarp in a park. The next day we slept in his friend's multimillion dollar mansion. Then the third day we got $250 worth of work. We put all of the money in my account... now we were up to $518 total. That evening was a low point. We ended up taking our sleep to Straten's old highschool baseball field. The dugout was fenced off so I slept on the pitcher's mound. He slept at Home Plate. Then it rained...

We rose at 5:30 and went to a Starbucks bathroom to freshen up. we both handwashed our socks and underwear in the sink and dried them under the hot air blowers. Then tiredly we trudged to Rockridge library for a bit of a break.

I took my little acer laptop upstairs and began to craigslist apartments and rooms for rent. All of them wanted a deposit. I eventually gave up and began to look at every add. From jobs to for sale. That's when a miracle happened.

FOR SALE: 24' islander Sailboat... $500 flat. Buy it today. Take it today. Great Liveaboard.

I called in curiosity. A $500 sailboat? The man on the other end introduced himself as Ted and said first come first serve. He also warned me that four other buyers announced that they were on their way. I ran to the library balcony and spotted Straten asleep in a chair with a newspaper over his face. "Strat!!! Get up man! get up! We have to get going!"

He snorted and jumped from his chair. "What? Where?"

I ran downstairs with computer cables flailing about and grasped his arm, yanking him towards the door. "We need to get to Berkeley... NOW."

Half asleep he stumbled along with me, almost at a full out sprint. Poor guy had no idea what was happening. I squealed the car out of the BART parking lot. "Give me directions to the Marina please."

He pointed the way, including several shortcuts as he could tell that I was very serious. We swerved into the harbor and parked in the only empty space left. I called Ted as fast as I could, keeping my fingers crossed. It turned out that someone had already looked at it and said they would return. However if we liked the boat and brought the $500 bucks first then we could have it.

It was love at first sight. The cute little sailboat bobbed in the water seeming to be but a toy next to the 38' neighbor. We could only hunch over in it- but there was a room to sleep in and a bed in the kitchen. Electricity, water fixtures, and a toilet were also available. Straten laughed and commented on what a neat little craft it was and how he liked the black sails. "Once you're settled in your new place in Berkeley and I save up some cash I'll buy a boat and live on that. It's the only way to go."

"We'll be right back. I swear." I told Ted as I ran towards my burgundy Honda. Straten follwed behind, completely confused until our speeding vehicle came to a screeching halt outside of a Chase bank.

He glared at me. "You are NOT going to buy that boat Rain. You need your apartment. Stop thinking about me."

"I AM going to buy it and that is that. I can't have you homeless." I argued.

He laughed, "Look, you ahve a place to live, we can't afford to buy a boat and pay your room's rent at the same time. there just isn't enough cash. It'll be ok. I'm just gonna live at the Eagle Hotel for a month."

(The Eagle Hotel is a crackpot blown down dismal place for $145 a week.)

"No Straten. I'm getting the boat. It needs to happen." I start to get out of the car but he grabs my arm firmly but gently.

"I can't let you do that Rain. I'm sorry but you have a really good thing going here. If you even dare to go in there and put money out for me to buy that boat..."

"Straten- if I bought it, it'd be OUR boat."

He shook his head. "No it wouldn't- you can't have an apartment and a boat at the same time."

"I'm not going to." He stared at me blankly. "Straten... I gave up the apartment. If you couldn't be there then I wasn't going to be either."

He didn't say anything. Just let me go. I backed away from the car and took out everything but the last $18 and sunk back into my driver's side seat. It was completely silent as we drove back. We didn't say anything to each other throughout the signing of the ownership deeds. Nor when the boat was driven to it's own private slip in the marina. No, it wasn't until we unpacked everything and sat down that we both started crying.

Had that just happened? Did we really own a sailboat now? What if it didn't work out and all we had was $18 to our name? What if- what if- what if....

To many readers, you would think that this would be the happy end, but it was merely the beginning of a promising uphill battle. First of all came the slip fees- $208 a month electricity, water, showers, and laundry included. then insurance $189 for the year. Then registration $60. We didn't have cash to pay for that yet! Nor did we have jobs.

We snuck out of the harbor the next day to avoid having to pay the harbormaster and regrouped. What could we do? We didn't ahve professional equipment for tree care. We only had a pair of clippers, a small handsaw, a 9 foot tarp, and a canvas bag. (Not to forget my car!) So we tried what we could. We knocked from door to door. for about four hours until someone finally admitted that they needed some work done. We gave them a $150 discount to do it right then and there. They agreed and it happened all so fast.

Straten did the removal of the tree while I took care of eradicating the overgrown grapevines. We've never moved so swiftly before, creating a pile of brush and debris 4 feet high and 7 feet wide. We took individual trips as we had to haul all of it through the house (weird San Francisco backyards.) Then in a struggle to actually pay for a person to come by and pick up the stuff in their truck, we found another brush pile up the road from a tree company. We called them up, got permission to dump there, then threw the brush onto the car hood, making three trips to and fro.

At the end of the day we received $200 each. We opened a bank account called "the Kitty" to stash group cash for rent and food. We paid for our boat, and moved on from there racking up four more high paying jobs until we realized that we really needed a steady paycheck. After another craigslist expedition, I discovered a tree company hiring an experienced climber. I picked on Straten until he finally called and got an interview.

The night before his interview though something happened. We are coming close to having to pay for our permanent residency here at the marina. First and last month's rent. $416 plus tax. Straten had insisted on carrying the day's workworth of cash in his pocket. All we had. $800. He gave me a call as I was in class to let me know that he was going out to dinner with some friends, he had taken my car and would be back around 8pm. I got home at 9 and he wasn't there. I called him. It went straight to voicemail. Midnight rolled around. Still nothing. 2am. 3am. 6am. 8am.

10am he climbs aboard as I am off my way to the showers. He looks awful. He muttered as he saw me, "I was hoping you wouldn't be home..."

"Why not? Are you ok?" I asked as I sat across from him. He refused to look at me. "Strat, what's wrong guy? You're scaring me a little bit..."

"I drank last night." He replied shortly.

"Oh." I knew that Straten sometimes went for a beer after work, but however he had promised never to drink more than one or two.

"I had to go to the bathroom, wasn't sober enough to grab my jacket." I already knew what had happened from then on- but he continued. "Whoever got it got $800, a cellphone, and my cigarettes."

He started to weep in his hands and sniffled through grimy fingers, "i could really use a damned cigarette right now too..."

My heart dropped but I knew it wasn't worth being angry about. Instead, I grabbed his wrists and told him to come for a drive with me in the car. He followed behind me sadly explaining how he felt like a failure and how he hadn't come homebecause he was so angry with himself. I said nothing. Just pulled up to the BART station and looked around. There were a few people waiting for taxis.

"Excuse me miss- are you waiting for a taxi?" I asked. The woman shook her head. "Get in, i'll give you a free ride in exchange for a pack of cigarettes. Anywhere you wanna go."

She eyed me up and down as i showed ehr my driver's license. Then Straten helped her get her bags inside. I was gonna start driving when a young man tapped on my door. "Hey- you think you could give me a ride too please? I am in a BIG BIG rush. Please. There aren't any taxis here right now."

I nodded and he clambered in. I spun off to 51st street where he'd asked to be dropped off. in exchange he bought a box of cereal, a gallon of milk, and a pack of steaks at the convenient store on the corner. Then he left his name and number. Sam- from Stratton, Vermont. Next we brought the elderly woman- Pam Davis to her new home on 48th. She bought Straten a pack of Marlboro reds and thanked us.

Back at the boat, Straten sat above deck puffing away to the falling sun. Below I made pasta and grilled a steak for him. We shared supper in time for the final streaks of red in the sky. I took my plastic bowl of pasta and raised it up to his steak laden paperplate.

"To good friends?" I suggested.

"To good friends." He said as we 'clinked' dinnerware.

Since then Straten has been working this past week for his new company. I had an interview for a vegan restaurant and also for an animal hospital. We continue to work hard and work together in order to accomplish survival goals.

Will we make the $416+ needed for rent on December 9th?
Will we get the boat registered in time... or will the harbor reclaim it?
Will Straten maintain his Job?
Will I even get a job?

or will we find ourselves broke and homeless like we were a month ago???

For now- though with a mere $46 in my pocket and with winter setting in- we are happy. We just have to keep moving.