Los Angeles: Third Time’s The Charm

NOTE: This post was originally writen for a fellowship entry while moving to LA this summer, which naturally got me thinking about the other times I’ve moved here.

I’m in a cheap motel in Florida. My family is asleep. It’s a big day. We’re moving. Our new home? Los Angeles.

This isn’t the first time I’ve tried this.

The only picture I could find from 2000.

It’s the summer of 2000. I’m 18, living in the hills of West Virginia. My parents want me to be a preacher. My friends want me to smoke weed and play video games. I want something different, so I get a job as a nanny in Glendale, CA while I work on my screenwriting degree at UCLA. I like the kids. They like me.  I’m good with them, since I have four little brothers. One night, the kids fight. I send them to their rooms to cool off. The parents come home, talk to the kids, and fire me for overstepping my bounds. Fair enough. Without a place to live, I’m forced to return to West Virginia. I go to a state school and major in Theater and Broadcasting.

2005, the day I arrived, in Eagle Rock.

It’s 2005. I’m leaving Philly with a broken heart on a plane to LA. I sleep on my buddy’s air mattress. I work part-time for an agency writing coverage. I land some general meetings. I’m dead-ass broke. I can’t even afford the air mattress anymore.

Posing with Batmobiles
At Knott’s Scary Farm with some friends.

I fly back to West Virginia. Get married. Move to Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Orlando. Have kids. Work in television. Build a podcast network. Write some books.


It’s 2021. My family is in Katy, Texas, a day closer to Los Angeles. I grew up here.

 

We’re visiting my dad’s grave. He died a few months before I was born. He was a magician for the circus; an artist, performer, and storyteller.  I clean up his tombstone, do a card trick for him, and introduce him to his grandkids.

Now, we’re checking out of a hotel in LA so we can head to our new place.

A career change at almost 40 isn’t easy, but nearly a decade in corporate media gave me chops and a new direction. 21 years after my first attempt, I’m back in Los Angeles, ready to work my butt off at becoming a produced screenwriter and entertainer.

The third time’s the charm, right?

Down On The Walk of Fame