this past week and a half or so, i have found myself on perhaps the strangest journey of my life. just a few weeks back, a friend (?), acquaintance (?), random tinder match from about two years ago back in ny (ok this is the most accurate description) texted me saying that himself and a couple of his friends were living in a house in southern oregon and that i should move in with them. i’d never been west of utah, and the idea of experiencing a new location, and getting back out of my mom’s house in a dreadful small town (no offense, just not my vibe) on the eastern shore of virginia excited me a lot. that being said, i immediately agreed before i had given it any thought. i told my boss i was leaving (it was totally getting to be time for me to find a new job anyway, but still… whatever, i digress), i made a quick trip back up north to upstate new york to visit my childhood friends and family one last time before i left, packed as much as i possibly could into a big suitcase, a carry-on, and the largest handbag i own, and bought a one-way plane ticket for the next day. i texted friend/acquaintance/weird tinder man as soon as i bought my ticket, as he’d previously agreed to pick me up from the airport. the response was not at all what i was expecting. “Don’t do it. Sorry”, he responded. i tried to respond but my messages weren’t delivering. realizing that he had totally just blocked my number, i decided to check and see if he’d blocked me anywhere else, not that i was going to try and reach out to him elsewhere, as he’d made it pretty clear he didn’t want to talk to me, but i was curious, and confused. i logged into my second instagram account that i don’t really use to see if i could still find him on there, as i couldn’t find him on my main. my suspicion was correct, i’d been blocked. i cried a bit, talked to a few friends, but didn’t tell any of my closest friends or family members, as i didn’t want to see them mirror the deep shame and disappointment that i was already feeling for myself. i debated cancelling my plane ticket and unpacking, but i was just unable to bring myself to do it. i booked a cheap hotel near the airport for three nights, went to bed, got up got dressed, and my mom and i were off to baltimore to take me to the airport.
i landed in medford, oregon around 11:30 pm, got a lyft to the hotel, and checked in around midnight. upon arriving, i immediately began to realize this hotel was very different from the one i’d seen online. i found myself at an america’s best motel that went by a different name online and looked nothing like the photos. there was a lady in the office wearing what looked like jail flip-flops and people outside yelling on their balconies at 12:something at night. the room smelled like cigarettes and gravy, the bathroom was tiny and dirty, the bed was visibly broken and sunken in in the middle, and there was a random granola bar on top of the dresser that must have been there for quite a while. this place was far from what i’m used to, and my privileged ass was terrified. but what had shocked me most was the text message i received mere minutes after i set my bags down in the corner of the room, where i stood, trembling, afraid to touch anything, fearing that everything in the room was contaminated with some disease or infested with something. friend/acquaintance/weird tinder man had texted me. “heyy! i didnt know you were buying your ticket so soon” (total lie, he said i should come out asap and that “monday would be perfect”). he continued “and my phone bill was getting shut off. i just got it turned back on. this job started back up yesterday and i got my phone turned back on today”. whatever. i went along with it. the conversation continued and i explained where i was and within minutes he was on his way. i thought he was coming to rescue me and take me elsewhere to sleep, so i waited in my little corner by the door, shoes, jacket, and hat still on, bags in hand, ready to leave.
friend/acquaintance/weird tinder man arrived in his small, busted-ass car with a missing window, that was visibly full with more stuff than i had even brought with me out to oregon. throughout the night, it became more and more apparent to me that there was no house and this busted ass car was where friend/acquaintance/weird tinder man had been staying most nights, and staying with friends when he could, which is where he’d left his massive (and beautiful) dog that he shared the car with, that night. during those three nights at the motel (under streetlights, in the city of palms… sorry had to), friend/acquaintance/weird tinder man would come back, one night even bringing a friend, and it became so obvious pretty much instantly, and even more so over time, that i was being taken advantage of, used for a place to sleep, shower, and do whatever else. for whatever reason, i let it happen. as you’ll see quite soon, i actually let it happen a few times, i suppose because i’ve been kind of lost, confused as to what i’m doing on the west coast, 2500 miles from home, and he was quite literally all that i had out here. well, aside from my giant designer suitcase full of clothes, which just constantly reminded me even more that i was not equipped at all for this hemp-farming, living-out-of-a-car life that i’d unknowingly gotten myself into, under the false belief that there would be a house.
anyway, after three nights (cue the song again), i checked out of the motel and dragged my 50 lb suitcase, duffel bag, and purse full of bathing suits and shoes and other non-purse items about a quarter mile down the road. i ordered my usual iced green tea latte with double matcha (8 scoops in a venti because i’m a straight up matcha fiend) and coconut milk, and sat down at a table outside, and made light conversation with the two men at the table next to me who saw my suitcases and asked if i was some sort of model traveling for work. they were in town from miami for just one more night, and were a little too eager to take me back to their hotel room and even invited me to go back to florida with them. i was a bit flattered and a bit creeped out, so i politely declined, agreed to take his number (“just in case something happens and you’re in need,” he insisted), but didn’t text or call him so he wouldn’t have mine. maybe his intentions were good, who knows, I just knew i’d been taking enough risks lately. they left, and the girl the next table over on the other side told me she’d overheard the whole conversation and asked to make sure i was safe and ok, which i gratefully assured her that i was. i pulled out my phone and snapchat messaged a guy i’d found on tinder, which at this point felt like my only hope for meeting people in such a big, new place, and asked him if he could just let me put my bags in his car for the day, until i figured out where i was going and what i was doing. somehow, i was blessed and fortunate enough to find someone to do that for me, without having to look too awfully long or far. we ended up hanging out for a bit, going for a nice light hike up table rock before he had to leave for work, and then meeting back up that night and he even let me sleep in his car, as he’d been staying with some relatives and didn’t have a proper place for me, which he kept apologizing for, although i was quite content with and grateful with his car for the night.
the next day i woke up, brushed my teeth, switched clothes, and left everything in tinder-joe’s car for another day. he went to work and i went to explore lithia park and downtown ashland for the day. i ate lots of food, shared warm conversation over another cold drink in another starbucks with another stranger for what one might consider too long, browsed all sorts of shops, picked up a puppy in the middle of the road that almost got hit by a car (and returned her to her owner on the other side), met a woman who grew up mere minutes from where i did, and listened to beautiful live music as i strolled through the park. all in all, it was a good day. i ended the evening with dinner and drinks in a nearby bar with a couple of guys who had come from costa rica, and ended up going to their beautiful house up in the mountains for the night. the drive back into town the following morning was beautiful and foggy, with all sorts of trees and mountains everywhere.
i met back up with tinder-joe, retrieved my belongings, and tried to get a bus back towards the airport, planning on getting another hotel room just for a night and then getting a plane ticket out of here, thinking of traveling a bit and visiting some friends in some other cities that i’d lived in, before ultimately heading back to virginia. after waiting 20 minutes for a bus, i began to step on, realized it was cash only (or bus card, which i didn’t have, as i had taken a bus once in my life, and it was back in denver), and all that i’d had on me were credit/debit cards. i quickly apologized to the bus driver and said i might be back later after i found an atm and got some cash. i walked back towards the shops and whatnot in town, only about a block away, but it felt much further with all of my suitcases in tow. i instead, stopped behind a farmers market to switch hands with my bags and try and regroup. in that moment, friend/acquaintance/weird tinder man texted me again, just asking whats up and if i’d left the area yet, and i explained to him where i was and what my current situation was at the time. he insisted on picking me up and driving me to a hotel, which admittedly sounded much better than dragging everything i owned to an atm, then back to the bus stop, and finding a hotel on my own after deboarding the bus a couple stops later. i got in the car and a couple hotels later, we found a super-8 that had a room available that night. he helped me take my things to my room, which still wasn’t like the hotels i was used to staying in on my little upper-middle-class family vacations, but i was nowhere near being afraid, as i was at that first motel. i really just wanted to take a nice long shower and brush my teeth, so after several minutes of him sitting on the bed with me, grabbing me and whatnot, i finally just asked him to leave and that maybe i’d see him later. begrudgingly, he did, and i hopped in the shower and chilled for a bit at the hotel room before meeting up with another internet stranger to go bowling.
we got to the bowling alley, a type of place i hadn’t been to in years, and definitely didn’t plan on going to during this weird little trip to oregon that i originally thought was going to be semi-permanent, but ended up lasting longer than i’d began to expect. we hung out at his place with his roommate for a bit, before i headed back to the hotel, as i had to have all of my things out the next morning. he texted me that night, asking if i wanted to have brunch with him the next morning, and i agreed, asking if he could be kind enough to let me keep my stuff with him for a bit until i decided where i was off to next. he was surprisingly more than eager, and actually said that he and his roommate had talked and thought i seemed cool, and were willing to let me crash at their place for a few days. i spent the next couple of days hanging out with the slightly awkward guy who talked about chemistry in the shoe rental line at the bowling alley, his chubby roommate with the self-admitted antisocial tendencies and drinking problem, and their gay friend who was in town from california. we were a strange bunch, but we had fun and they were some really cool people.
i could only camp out in their living room for so long, though, so i packed up my things and whipped my phone back out in search of my next destination. again, friend/acquaintance/weird tinder man happened to text me just as i was planning my next move. this time, he instructed me to uber to the closest hotel, where he came and met up with me for a bit, promising money that i never actually received, nor did i fully expect to. i’m still sitting in said room, in an actual decent hotel, writing this, sipping on a latte from dutch bros (honestly can’t believe i wasted 21 years of my life drinking dunkin and thinking it was good), and probably buying a flight out of here tomorrow, since i only have one more night in this room. stay tuned, loves.
real. raw. audrina. 