Sunday, September 20, 2015

Christmas in Las Vegas

It was around 6:00am when I started my drive to Vegas. It was going to be my first time driving such a long distance in the US and in a long time, period. I was excited, I love long drives. I punched in the directions to my place in Vegas and drove off with a tank full of gas. It cost me about $60 (+-R720) to fill up the tank. Vegas, here I come!

I got lucky to beat the traffic, soon, I was on the freeway. Let's go! It takes a bit of getting used to this miles per hour thing versus kilometres be hour. Miles are miles less (1mile=1.6km). I'm used to drive 120km/hr on the freeway. I had to quickly adjust to 55, 65 and 70 at most. In South Africa, all the freeways have the same limit, in the US, they don't. Also, there's minimum speed on the freeway in South Africa, not in the US. The most you can drive in the US, or at least Cali and Nevada, the parts of The US I've driven in, is 112km/hr, which is less than the 120 limit in SA. Just my observations, don't quote me! It was a nice drive though. I had my music playing on my iPod, windows down to take in all the fresh air and there were mountains with nice greenery on either side of the freeway. Magical!


It's a 4-5 hour drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. I drove halfway and took a break for snacks and stuff. I may have stood outside my car and checked it out a bit then drove on. It was still morning when I stopped as I left so early. Welcome to the City of Las Vegas! Damn! The buildings were getting bigger, well, the buildings aren't that big in Vegas, only on the strip. I was approaching the strip when I knew my journey is over. I had arrived in Las Vegas! There's one more car on the streets of Las Vegas from today on, I thought to myself. I was excited! I may have spotted a gigantic smile on my face! It was a good day. I headed toward my street, turned on the signal to turn into my street, then I remembered! I remembered the days I used to visualize myself having a new car, driving it and hearing the indicator sound as I was about to turn into my street. My dream had become a reality! In a matter of months. Good times!


I parked my car right where I'd always imagined I'd park it, off loaded it and ran into my apartment thinking, wow! Did that just happen? Did I just go all the way to LA to buy a car and drove back in it? Wow! Thank You!


It was a few days before Christmas. I had considered going on a road trip around Christmas. For some reason, I didn't feel like driving to another state, and another one and another one in just a few days. I was kinda tired of the events of the previous few days. I hadn't driven in a while, plus all the emotions that I had gone through over the previous days, I needed to chill after that. And that's exactly what I did. I bought myself junk food and relaxed at my place. I was off from work, no pressure at all. My landlord came over and asked if that was my car, she complimented me on it. She has an SUV herself, Toyota Rav 4.


On Christmas day, I sent a few text to a few people, called home, Skyped some people, you know, the usual drill of someone who lives far away from home. I'm used to spending Christmas away from family, even when I lived in South Africa. Nothing new. My friend from work invited me over for Christmas day or so before the day. I accepted. She was going to pick me up from my place. I hadn't told her I had a car just yet. I was going to tell her in person. I had another invitation from someone from work. She's kinda out there, so  I didn't think it was going to happen. I did send her a Merry Christmas Text and didn't hear back from her. I wasn't surprised. I got a text first thing Christmas morning from the friend who was going to pick me up wishing me a wonderful Christmas. I thought that was interesting considering we were supposed to spend the day together. I replied, she asked what my plans were. That's when I just ignored her ass. I wasn't trying to have an Un-Merry Christmas. Sht like that will ruin your day if you're not watching.


I called an old friend of mine, the older lady who lived in her car by the beach, if you remember her. She picked up and sounded so happy to hear from me. I was glad she picked up, I had called and texted the two times I was in LA, to no avail. She told me that she missed me. I mentioned to her that I had been in LA twice in the previous two months, before I could even finish, she got so excited and was like, why didn't you tell me? I told her that was the intention when I hit her up, unfortunately, I didn't get hold of her. She was like, no, you didn't hit me up. I told her  I texted and called her. She told me that her sms box was full, no more messages to go through, why didn't I call? I was like boo, I just told you I called and texted you! She told me there is no way I called her. She would've seen a missed call from me and she didn't. I was like, I gotta go, Merry Christmas! The conversation wasn't going anywhere, I was getting pissed and it was Christmas day. WTF? I called to wish this btch a Merry Christmas and I'm being accused of lying instead. I don't deserve this sht. Bye Felicia! Merry Christmas to you and yours mofo!


After hanging up, I was still pissed, I went to my call logs, took a screen shot of the calls  I made to her when I was in LA and sent them to her then I blocked her because I didn't wanna hear her response. After that, I had a nice warm Christmas at home. It was cold out but the landlord had the A/C nice and high for everyone.


I practically spent the entire Christmas day at home. I had no intentions to go anywhere. I hardly knew anyone in Vegas anyway and the people who had invited me were flakes, which was fine, I would rather spend the day with my favorite person in the whole wide world - ME! :).


New Year's was around the corner - rocket science, right? Haha! I thought of going away for New Year's. I was going to move back to LA end of January - beginning February, I thought it best to wait until then to gallivant.  I focused my energy on my next big desire - to Move to Beverly Hills. I have never even been those people who hang out in Beverly Hills but I was like, let's see if I focus enough on living there if I will end up finding a place there.  I already had Beverly Hills in My vision board. It was a mater of doing my visualisation exercises. I had a Las Vegas key ring I had bought during my vacation in Vegas before I moved there. I guess that was my vision board type thing right there already but I didn't even realize it. I had wanted to live right along the strip and I ended up living two streets off the strip. Five minutes to the bus stop. It was pretty amazing, close enough to the strip that I could walk and far enough that I still had peace of mind whenever I needed it. It was perfect! For an absolutely ridiculous price. I changed the screen saver on my phone from that of the Land Rover to that of the Beverly hills Sign. I did the same on the cellphone. I cut a piece of paper the shape of the Beverly Hills Sign then stuck it onto my Las Vegas Key ring. I may have stuck one more Beverly Hills logo to the speakers that were right by my bed side. What was the first thing I saw when I woke up? #BeverlyHills was trending in my life.


I wrote on my little black book (African American book? Tryna be politically correct ;)) a list of things I wanted in my new Bev Hills apartment:
*One Bedroom (It was about time I'd my own bedroom that actually had a door to it,no more studios)
*Two, preferably more closets. Why not, right! It's my dream, I can go as crazy as I want!
*Glass door in the shower. (No shower curtains that'll be sticking to me. Yuck!)
*Storage for more than one person in the bathroom, you know for toiletries?
*Two Sinks in the kitchen. I had one small one in Hollywood and it drove me nuts
*Own designated parking. It's LA, parking is a big thing! I wanted one with my name on it.
*Free street parking (I wanted my visitors not to have to pay for parking)
*Ground floor apartment.


I would always visualize myself going to my apartment, whish was walking distance from Rodeo Drive. It was going to be in Beverly hills, surely, somehow, I was going to be able to walk to Rodeo Drive, right? For some reason, my apartment was on the right side if you're facing the apartment.  I tried to imagine it in different spots but the one that resonated with me was the on the right, so I focused on that. The last thing you want to do, is to be all over the place. Pick one thing and focus on that until you get it. Make sure it's something you really want. It can't be something Brook has and because Brook is so bubbly and always happy and everyone loves her, you want the things she wants because you think you will be as happy as Brook when you have them. No, my friend. You have to go for the things that make you happy deep down in your should. When you get those things you might just be as happy as Brook, or happier. Good Luck with that ;).


Whenever I remembered, I would look at my vision board and meditate on the things that were on it. I would imagine being in those moments, living that life, the life I have always wanted. Sometimes, the images of me in it would be so vivid, it was scary. As I imagined myself living in Beverly hills, I also imagined myself being in love with my happily ever after. Those were the two things I was focused on after getting the car. I had hoped that  I would have the apartment first and then love but I was open minded about it.


One more month before my move back to Southern California. Soon, we were going to find out if I was going to get that Beverly Hills Apartment or not...




5 comments:

  1. Happiness:). Amazing that you focused so much on what you wanted to achieve and as a result achieving it became so easy.

    I remember the car lady. I think she gave you some nice sunglasses or something. And then?? Why pretend you never called. The last blog I remember of her she sounded like a great person. Where did that come from

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    1. Yes! It's crazy that just focusing on it relentlessly took away most of the hard work and stress that comes with wishing or hoping for something.
      OMG, you have amazing memory! Yes, she gave me sunglasses last year. She was a great friend. I loved her. That's why I never stopped trying to get hold of her. She can be stubborn, she's convinced she's right all the time. I remember once I even bet her a thousand dollars that I was right just to prove a point. She wouldn't budge. It would've been an easy way to make a grand.
      Maybe she was going through a lot, I don't know. Living in your car when you're approaching 60, can't be easy.

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  2. Happiness:). Amazing that you focused so much on what you wanted to achieve and as a result achieving it became so easy.

    I remember the car lady. I think she gave you some nice sunglasses or something. And then?? Why pretend you never called. The last blog I remember of her she sounded like a great person. Where did that come from

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  3. Ahhh bless her soul! She is approaching 60. That's why she doesn't remember

    ReplyDelete