So much has changed since I was let go from my staff job as a paparazzo back in March of 2011. I wrote a story that same day that I got “fired” and thought about writing a book re-telling my celebrity encounters as I continued to work for the same agency as a freelance photographer. I saw Elijah Wood at LAX while freelancing and told him my story about writing a book. He thought it was great idea and that day I wrote what I thought was going to be the prologue of my book. But to be a writer is not an easy task, especially with little to no skills. Before attempting to write the book and with money saved-up, I decided it was a good idea to go on a road trip through the USA. I got the idea of filming my road trip from a guy I met on craigslist under the rideshare section, where I offered a ride in exchange for gas money.
That guy turned out to be Peter Morton, a British child star that started his career as Wayne Sutcliffe for Grange Hill, a drama series for the BBC. The road took me from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, where I dropped off Peter, and spent the night with some friends. Then I was headed northeast to Detroit where I was on my way to visit my sick aunt who I lived with for a year back in 2003. I couch-surfed for the first time in Denver, which was an awesome experience, met another craigslist stranger and drove to Iowa to rest up before heading to my main destination. From Detroit I went west to Portland to meet up with my cousin. Couchsurfed in Seattle, stayed with a friend in Vancouver, stopped in Eugene to visit another friend, then some family in San Francisco and finally down back to LA. I posted some of the videos on my youtube channel. I intended to post them all, especially the video when I got arrested in Canada, but now it seems like a pointless task.
When I got back to LA, I realized that I needed to move out of that city. My brother got married that summer in Tijuana and for some reason I thought it would be wise to move to northeast San Diego. I knew I wasn’t going to be a paparazzo anymore, but I also didn’t want to do any work at all. I went on a downward depression spiral where every thing seemed pointless. I gave up on writing a book and decided to turn my stories into this blog. I had a strong desire to travel, but I was trapped by my possessions from LA and the room I rented in a house in Rancho Peñasquitos.
After not working for more than a year, I sold many of my possessions and moved to a single bedroom apartment in Tijuana because of the cheaper rent. Ironically, I didn’t want to move my things south of the border because I was concerned about safety… and now I live feel safer here than I ever did in Los Angeles. My first months in TJ I fell deeper into depression with no motivation for any type of work. I was occasionally posting on my blog with little hope of ever writing a book. I got some guitar gigs and some students, but never enough to support myself. Finally broke and rock bottom, I moved to my parents house, who moved to Tijuana after my brother’s wedding.
Living with my parents was motivation enough to get a job. I found a a writing/editing full time job for a soccer website that was just starting up, though I wasn’t up to date with the sport. Promises were made of higher paid and growth within the company, that I strove to become the best soccer writer for the site. I moved out of my parents house to downtown TJ and started to fall in love with the city I currently live in. Many friends visited me to TJ from LA and some wanted to pay me for showing them around the city, so I had the idea to create Tijuana Adventure. After several months of achieving success as a soccer journalist, I realized my potential could be bigger, or at least the pay could. I bit the bullet and quit my full time job to pursue freelance writing, combined with the other things I’m good at; music and photography.
What does Ted Danson have to do anything with this?
Nothing really. I saw him in the airport on February 4th, 2011, with his wife, Mary Steenburgen and I told him that I wanted to be like him in the show Bored to Death when I grew up. He laughed and said “that’s not a good goal to have in life.” That same day I saw Ashley Johnson, Christina Hendricks, Craig Robinson, Diane Kruger, Jay Baruchel, Jessica Lowndes, Joe and Nick Jonas, Keri Lynn Pratt, Keith Urban, Kim Kardashian, Landon Donovan, Pam Anderson, Pete Wentz, William H. Macy and Zac Efron.
I saw him without his wife once before on April, 11, 2010. There was little to no interaction that I can recall. Though that was the same day that I got a great set of Jessica Simpson that she ruined by tweeting pictures of herself with a wig on (Simpson post)
Matingas 