I Am On a Journey

So I had a lot of ideas of what to make this last post in Oakland.

It started way back in July with this picture. This was up at July's art murmur. The photo credit goes to Jon Suzuki of The Missing Link, who takes excellent photos. The story behind it is this: This young man found this old book in his grandfather's attic. The book was published in 1925 and is called "Who Made Oakland", written by Florence B. Crocker, and published by Clyde Dalton, in Oakland, of course. When asked, the guy explained that he hadn't been able to find another copy of the book, so he was working on getting it reprinted, and in the mean time, had made prints of some of the images and pages, this being one of them. He said that he'd read through it and it was amazing how much of it was still relevant today. Me, I'm just glad he found it and is doing something with it.

As for me, it is up to me what my future will be, and that's exciting. Talking to a friend this evening, I mentioned that I applied for a job today at an outdoor school that I'd applied to several years ago, and got offered a job at, that I declined to take for several reasons. If I get offered it again, I will not turn it down, and that would be a little bit of a circle back to another life path.

Anyways, here's the deal. I've got 355 dollars to my name. I have a great resume, but no job. I have wonderful friends, but no home, as of tomorrow, I have a cell phone, but it's not smart. My ultimate goal is to get to the east coast any way that I can by Thanksgiving, to see my family, and then get back to the west as quickly as possible to have a job.

How does one do that on 355 dollars? The ultimate, of course, would be to have a job that will pay for this, but, in the mean time, with no job forthcoming, I'm going to turn this into an adventure, and in true Ashley style, a little bit of a community effort. Sitting around was never my style, after all. Though I have to admit it's been nice to take a breather.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to document to you every adventure I have, and every penny I spend of my 355 in cash via my blog. I'm going to utilize friend connections, ride shares, my bike, and couchsurfing.com to travel. I'm going to be trying some pretty unconventional things along the way. I'm pretty sure this is going to be worth it. Let's see how far I can get, yeah? I'm starting on Friday.

I've applied to a lot of jobs. I'll continue to apply to jobs on the road. There's not much more I can do to make them happen, other than to keep my cell phone connected for as long as I can. I have a handful of quarters for doing laundry along the way, and I've packed a nice shirt.

I'm starting in the bay area, and I'm heading towards Tahoe. Do you know bands on tour I can hitch a ride with? Do you know couches I could sleep on? Do you know cooks I could eat with? Let me know!

Here is what I have to offer in exchange for any of these things (You can tell your friend this when you tell them what I'm doing and why I need their help):

I will sing a song
I will cook a meal
I will do your least favorite chore for you
I will do the driving
I will make something
I will walk the dog
I will organize something
I will be a roadie
I will take your picture or the picture of a loved one, to be printed and sent to you after I have a job. (I will take your picture anyways, for the blog, but this offering will be a special picture just for you.)
I will watch your kids for a day, so you can go on a date with your spouse, or take a nap.

I'm sure I will think of more as I go along, but this is what I have for now.

Much love to you Bay Area, and especially you, Oakland. It's been rocky and beautiful and hard and lovely. I will surely miss all of your faces.