(Photo Credit: Bococaland.com)

It’s Wednesday night , so the story continues.

Picking up from last week -

(Sort of. This is sort of starting a new storyline, ’cause the health stuff is over and this is more about the effect it had on the rest of my life.)

My lease was coming to an end in the summer. I decided not to renew it or sign up for more classes in the fall.

I got offered a job working for America’s Got Talent that would go through part of the fall. I was tired of being “the heart girl” at school. I didn’t have as much money as I used to. The reasons for that are two fold.

1) In 2009, before I’d gotten sick, I worked a ton of jobs. Many were low paying, but when you work a lot of low paying jobs, you end up having money. All of that income disappeared as I had to let go of job after job after job in the hospital. So, I’d been using credit cards way more often than before, and had built up a nice bit of debt on them during the many, many months without any income.

2) I now had medical bills as well. Insurance covered a lot of it. (And thank goodness. My understanding is that close to half a million dollars has been sunk into my body. Wow, when I think about it that way, it makes me think I should be taking extra good care of it everyday, huh?)

So, I took the job went to California. At the time, I had the intention of going back to school. (I didn’t go back.)

I only subleased in California. I wasn’t ready to commit to being there for anything longer than my stint working on the show. Plus, I had no idea how long I’d be able to keep paying for a place once the show was over (if I couldn’t find another job).

I lived in some crazy places. I lived in what may or may not have been a drug dealer’s apartment. I didn’t ask any questions, and I got out of there after the month for which I’d paid.

I lived in a place (warning if you’re eating while reading (or don’t want to hear about bugs)) infested, and I mean infested with cockroaches. (Shivers thinking about it.) I sprayed roach spray one night to try to get the ones I’d seen. When I woke up, there were rows of dead cockroaches sprawled out in the spray’s path… I was out of there in three days.

I ended up living in the living room of someone’s apartment. Once America’s Got Talent was over, I started looking toward going to school in the spring. I couldn’t figure out a way to make it work. I wasn’t prepared to take on any more debt than I already had between credit card and medical bills.

(This is the “College Dropout” album cover…) (You know I made the right choice photo when I have to explain it… (Shakes head))

I wasn’t offered any money after filling out my FAFSA. Even if you’re living in California, working, paying for your own stuff; the government considers you a dependent if you’re under 24.

Oh well, I’m not gonna hate on the government for that. They do so much great stuff for us, I can let that slide.

I believe there’s always some kind of way, somehow, to make things happen if you really want them. Maybe that’s true. Maybe that’s a foolish belief. But the truth is, I didn’t know how much I really wanted school, anyway.

I’d never been keen on going to college. Once it became easy not to go back, and I wasn’t quite as young and scared of parents’ reactions as I’d been during senior year of high school – Once I knew I could sustain myself, taking away the worry, “What will my parents do if I don’t go back?” – I just didn’t go back.

I stayed in California for the rest of the month. I did a day on Skating with the Stars. (I drove all day, and everybody lived!)

As has probably been made pretty clear in this blog, I’m not a huge fan of Los Angeles…

This is where we’ll pick up next time.

Tagged: drug dealer roommate, infested apartment, jobs, moving, quitting school, reality TV