Vanilla Sky

The Wedner Family needed someone to watch their house in the hills of Tarzana, I needed some time alone to think about my future and make some choices. It was the perfect arrangement: while the Wedner Family settled into their new lives in Napa I would watch the house they were selling at the then posted price of 1.5 million dollars. My friends jokingly referred to it as The Mansion. I had maid service, cable television, a pool, a Jacuzzi, and a gym and a tub in the master bath. That tub, complete with water jets, could easily fit 3-4 people in it, and there was a huge window that overlooked the neighboring hills and the golf course of a ritzy country club. I lived there rent free and we all thought that the arrangement would only last a month or two…yeah, right. I was in The Mansion for a full ten months.
The only thing I didn’t have at the time was a car, which meant that I had to walk 2 miles each way in order to catch a bus to work…part of those 2 miles included a steep incline. Hey, I was in the best shape of my life and my ass looked great!!
My life in The Mansion was fairly routine. During the weekdays, I’d get up at 5 am for a workout, different parts of the body on different days. I’d shower and dress, throw my prepared lunch into my backpack, throw on my Discman and so would begin my trek down the hill to Ventura Boulevard to catch two buses to work. My commute – which includes my walk – was a noted 1.5 to 2 hours. I listened to a lot of music and read a lot of books in that time. I would leave work at 5 pm and be home by 7:00. Then, I would proceed to prepare dinner, prepare clothes for the next day, spend a little quality time writing (either in my journal or on a project) and be in bed by 10:00 pm. The weekends could have been a bit smoother, however they, too, had a special schedule on them depending if the realtors would hold an open house or not. On weekends where no open house would occur and I did not have to go into the office, I’d relax and take advantage of being in such a huge structure on my own. My journal entries were full of wonder and decision-making questions. My bank account was actually more steady since I had no rent nor utilities to pay.
On the weekends where the realtors did have an open house, I’d spend my Saturdays pretty much in relax mode unless, again, I would have to go into the office. Sundays were the chosen days for open houses and I’d be out of the house before the realtors showed up. I’d walk down to Ventura Boulevard. My first stop would usually be the IHOP, where I’d become pretty well known by the staff there. After a hearty breakfast, I would go see a movie and do some thrift store shopping before heading back up the hill.
Of course everything seemed so simple then. The fixed schedule kind of kept me intact and in shape. I didn’t seem to be tired one way or the other. There were some nice people in the neighborhood who would see me walking the 2 miles distance between Ventura Boulevard and The Mansion and would give me a ride. Very nice people. I sometimes wonder if they still think of that black guy that was watching the Wedner house who was seen walking most of his time there? I also wonder if I had scared the pool guy, who would normally come by in the mornings, on those days that I’d get out of bed and call in sick…you see, I sleep in the buff and didn’t bother to put any clothes on. It was a great house to walk around naked.
Anyway, one of the main reasons I agreed to housesit was so that I could pay off my bills and put some cash away because I’d been thinking of moving to Seattle for a little over a year at the time. I was somewhat unhappy in L.A. for various reasons. I loved the city, but something just didn’t quite fit at the time. Instead of finally settling on moving to Seattle, something else happened…
With the money I had in the bank, I made a down payment on a 2000 GMC Jimmy. When The Mansion finally sold, I found myself living in a bachelor apartment (with the unheard of cheap price of $575) deep in West Hollywood. On Thursday nights, I’d meet up with my movie buddy (i would usually arrive early so that i could sit inside of starbucks and spend an extra hour writing in my journal). Tuesday nights were usually reserved for renting a DVD. Even though I still did a lot of writing, Wednesday nights were usually held for just sitting at home in front of my computer working on a story or a project. Saturday nights were reserved for either cooking parties over at The Daceys’ place or a party or just hanging out with friends. During football season, I’d spend Monday nights at Revolver where I was integrated into a group of people who met every week to watch Monday Night Football. Nice bunch of folks, and a lot of fun!!! And there was a beautiful man who worked in my office building named Justin that I’d catch watching me from time to time until I had introduced myself to him – and we were getting to know each other. Getting around L.A. in my new Jimmy was…hmmm, truly wonderful!! (jimmy was something of a dream vehicle) And living in West Hollywood was un-fucking-believable!!! I could walk to the Beverly Center if need be or stroll down the Sunset Strip and into Beverly Hills for leisure. A walk down to Santa Monica Boulevard past the bookstores and the bars to the market were like dreams I’d had in my 20s or even to wake up on a sunny spring morning and throw a pot roast into the crock pot and spend the rest of the day having brunch, writing in my journal, taking a walk up through the art galleries around the Pacific Design Center, lunching at the French Market and then stopping in at Video West to say hello to the clerks and/or rent a DVD if I did not have any other plans.
It wasn’t until my friend Mark called me up once again to ask me when I would be moving up to Seattle when I’d suddenly realized that after being confused and unhappy for the last eight or so years that I’d finally had everything I had ever wanted.