Semi-New Life in a Different Setting

Even though, I've been so busy with work and just living life, doing errands, studying the Bible, I vow to myself that I should also start blogging more. Especially when someone in particular actually facebooked me saying that he's a fan of my blog? After I finally took the time to try to find the right email that I use for blogger.com and the password, I can blog once more! Yay me! As much as i want to write about my life right now, I think its best to write in order of my stories that I've written so far.

From my previous blog, it was about my living with the Pats, Robert, Rambo, and Dustin. Then I was homeless for four months. One of my girlfriends hooked me up with an apartment, some of her other friends were looking for a roommate so I jumped at the chance. Esp the time of the year, I was homeless was around December, it was so cold sleeping in the car! After living there for a month, the girlfriend that helped me out with that apartment, was having troubles with her own live-in boyfriend and she kicked him out. It was so convenient that she was living month to month and she was friendly with her landlord that she got a hook up to transfer from her one apartment to another apartment and she asked me to be her roommate. I choose to live with her after living with strangers for one month LOL but she was just that way I guess. I've known my friend since 2001, when I was a senior in high school and she was a sophomore, so we've been friends for awhile. Her name is Nancy and we just so happen to have the same birthday - August 10. She was so big on zodiac horoscopes, and she lives by that stuff. I was never into that, I always thought the descriptions of the Leo never applied to me. But which for her, it does a lot. I was still with Robert and he was living with the Pats and Dustin and he was telling me that he wanted to move out of there. So after a couple of months living with Nancy, we agreed to have Robert move in to our junior studio apartment. It was getting cozy lolz. Then after awhile, Nancy's sister, Karen moved in and out then her cousin, Johnny moved in. Usually there at most was 4 people living in our junior studio apartment. What's different with our junior studio apartment was that it had a lame-excuse of a wall separating the main room three quarters of the way and there was no door. Nancy and I shared a walk-in closet - my clothes on one side and her clothes on the other side. As a person walks in through the closet, you walk into the bathroom. So whoever we invite over, they have to walk through our closet of clothes (sometimes it can be messy LOL esp on Nancy's side!) to get to the bathroom!

We had our own shenanigans.
We went to Las Vegas to celebrate our birthday together since it was the same day.
<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/user/lorenceaubabe/media/birthday/LasVegasBday2010026.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v403/lorenceaubabe/birthday/LasVegasBday2010026.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo LasVegasBday2010026.jpg"/></a>


And we went gay clubbing a couple of times.
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Partying it up 80s styles was the thing with Nancy, Johnny & Karen.





Our lifestyle was okay most of the time. Both of our work schedules was opposite so we hardly see each other and we never fight over the bathroom which was a good thing for being roommates with another girl. Nancy works full time at Costco but it would mostly be 2nd shift, but sometimes different hours everyday and even on her days off, she wouldn't be at home either because she would go to her family's house or hanging out with her other friends. Me, I would work all these odd hours because of the inventory jobs that would be sporadic, and the background acting jobs I would get in between the days I don't work the inventory jobs. Then when I would go through these 1 or 2 weeks of no work, I would be so stressed, that I would go back to my modeling. I've been modeling since 2002 and I'm talking about me living with Nancy from February 2009 to March 2011. My work life was hectic sometimes and other times it was really slow. I was really a hustler living the life in LA. I was trying to speed up my money making skills especially I was becoming an old-school veteran in the field of modeling I was in even though the recession has hit everyone in every way possible. The recession has affected all of my jobs that I've had in my life. Less jobs from inventory. More movie/tv productions has left the US or Cali to film in cheaper locations (like Vancouver, North Carolina, New Zealand) so less background acting jobs. Modeling jobs have been reducing their pay and/or moving to other cities/countries where they can get more girls that will do it for cheaper. Like Las Vegas or Miami or Thailand. There were times I was really stressed enough that I was just not thinking and just do risky things that I should have known not to do. But I don't think I should say much details about that. I was working as an independent contractor, trying to find my own work but I found a couple of agents who would help me get new clients as well. At one time, I thought that I was going somewhere with one client, he told me that he needed some help and wanted me to be part of his posse. (He was a celebrity.) But it was mostly talk and he was usually high, stoned, and drunk most of the time. Like, I said, I was trying to up my game and live life to the fullest, but it was getting to be too much. I was even trying things that I haven't done before, like different ways of making money but within the same industry. It was hard to make girlfriends and trusting them to help me go through some things.

Of all my things I have done, I was being careless and I got arrested in 2010 and stayed in the Van Nuys police station for a couple of days and then got transferred to the Los Angeles County Jail. Because this was not my first time but my third time getting arrested, I was considered having 2 warrants (from previous arrests and charges) and some kind of fees that I didn't pay (which I knew I paid off but stupid system). This third time, nobody I knew would bail me out so I stayed for 45 days in county jail which was the worst time of my life. There was crappy, moldy food, a lot of sleeping and laying down. I was thinking about a lot of things. How screwed up I was. How I can never find a full time regular job with taxes taken out, how i always get these temp or part time jobs that wasn't reliable and I'm living in a high cost city. (This was also the time when it was around $5 a gallon too, so most of my driving was 25-45 minutes to go from point A to point B - anywhere, any direction!!) I stopped calling my boyfriend that I had at the time. He still made less money than I was making. But I knew he cared about me. I knew that something had to give. I can't be living like this, getting arrested because of my choice of profession. I divorced my ex-husband in 2006/2007 and I shouldn't be blaming him for my life anymore. It was his fault that I fell into that profession but I chose to stick to it because I felt it was the only thing I know how to do and was making good money because of my youthful looks. I got my GED, but never finished college. I tried trade school but never finished that either. I felt really depressed because I did tried job hunting for the longest time but it was really frustrating and difficult. But I vowed to myself that I am going to make a difference in my life. I don't want to do this anymore. And if I do, it will have to be some place legal like in Reno, NV. I tried to get someone I knew that was working in one of the brothels there to hook me up, but it never went through.

Another thing I wanted to change in my life was my love life. My ex-husband was a dreamer, I was the realist. I wore the pants in the relationship. It was me who brought in the bucks. It was because of mostly my modeling gigs that he still kept the apartment we lived in. When "we" bought my car, the 2004 Honda, he wouldn't let me drive it even though the car was under my name and I had better credit that was why it was under my name. It was me who supported his dream of him becoming an actor and stuntman in the hollywood business. It was getting on my nerves. Then my next boyfriend, we lived together when we lived with Rambo and the Pats and then with Nancy and Johnny/Karen. It was great, he treated me better and loved me more, but financially it was similar to living with my ex-husband. I lived with them four years each. There was several times when Robert couldn't come up with his share of the rent and I had to pay for his portion, I keep on telling him and myself that I did it out of love. But how can I pay his portion so many times and then his car kept on breaking down and I would help him get his car fixed then one time, it got towed and we had to get it out using my savings that I had. I'm not the type of person to kick somebody out because I;ve had enough. I knew that he wouldn't have any place to go so eventually I decided to eliminate myself out of the picture.

My cousin in Kansas City kept on telling me to move in with her. My other cousin in CT was telling me to move back home to live with them too. Both of them tried telling me this when I was homeless. Both of them tried telling me again after I got out of jail the third time around. I had to think about the pros and cons of living in Kansas City, CT and Cali. So I decided to move to Kansas City to be close to my dad and his brother's family. My two cousins being like my sisters but I haven't lived near them since 1996.

That would be the next blog. Til next time. Laters!

The Explosion

It was the middle of summer 2008 that I couldn't hold my emotions in any longer regarding sharing the apartment with the Pats. And because of my little hysteria, they chose to move out. All the while, Rambo decided he wanted to officially move back in with his family because he's been paying for the apartment in LA when he's spending half the time of the year in Las Vegas with his family. Robert and I was trying to look for another apartment as well but failed. Both of us didn't have good credit, or not enough money. Patricia had more than enough money for her own apartment with Patrick, and they got Dustin as a third roommate when they got a 2 bedroom apartment at the Grand, a complex located right by the Sherman Oaks Galleria. At the end, Robert was invited to live with them, sleep in their living room on their couch and I ended up homeless, living out of my car.

That year I was homeless for four months. It was mostly my pride that I didn't want to share an apartment with Patricia. But I didn't care. Robert and I ended up getting a storage unit for most of our stuff and Rambo's living room furniture that he left behind. He even offered it to us so we can have it when we get our own apartment. I utilized all that time to work as much as I can. All I did was hustle, hustle, hustle... But all I ended up doing was paying for my cell phone bill, my car loan payment, car insurance, and a very high storage bill. In the beginning, the bill was $250 equaling to $1000 for 4 months until I found an apartment with 3 other people.

I spent a couple nights at different friend's houses and apartments. I didn't want to over-stay at any one place. I would go from a friend's house in Beverly Hills, to Carson to Canoga Park, Woodland Hills, Tujunga and back and forth. I usually just sleep a night or two, use the time to take a shower, and heat up food and go to work early in the morning.

While I was homeless, I was also dealing with drama at work as well. I was working my inventory job and there was management issues and a big turnover. My boss partnered up with one of the crew managers of the company and there were several disputes in the early part of their business relationship. My boss's new business partner eventually stole more than half of his clients and employees. It was then when I received a raise, increased hours of work, people noticed I was sleeping in the business parking lot and gossip to the bosses, and the crew manager turned part business owner offered me a motel room for several nights. I was hesitant but reluctantly accepted the offer. When the business split was finalized, I was asked who to work for. The one who help me out with motel rooms, who has most of the clients/employees. Or the one who originally managed the company for more than 20 years and bought it from a family member. I decided to go with the original business owner because mostly of loyalty and integrity.

Living With Roommates After The Separation

After I separated and divorced from my ex-husband, Mathew Lorenceau, I lived with Uncle Soukanh in Canoga Park. Then I had a string of apartments with various people. I had the pleasure of living with my friends: Rambo, Patrick, Dustin, Robert, Nancy, Johnny, and Karen. All of them I shared fond memories with. Of course, we had our bad moments too.


The Original Trio



The First 4 Roommates



My first apartment was with Rambo, Patrick, and Dustin. We were the original roommates. Rambo had a roommate before asking all three of us to move in with him. Rambo's ex roommate was giving him problems and he just moved out a month or two before we moved in. After a month he lived there (December 2006), Dustin wanted to move back home to Missouri.Rambo and Patrick left to go work a season of Ultimate Fighter for a couple of months. I started to see Robert, a friend of mine that I knew through my ex husband, Mathew. We started seeing each other while I was home alone. Robert was different, he cared for me and respected me a lot more. The way he acted shows that he loves me. We started dating February 2007 and then he soon moved in March. After working a season of Ultimate Fighter, Rambo and Patrick came back home and we had fun hanging out.  Among them was going to Santa Monica Pier, going out to eat, being part of a reality show that never aired on TV and making our own commercial to submit to a ketchup contest.



The second set of 4 roommates






At the end of summer 2007, Patrick started dating Patricia, a girl he met through Craigslist.com. She started sleeping over, from the first night they slept together. As the days continued, her little corner of stuff started growing bigger and it spread across the living room and the rest of the apartment from Patrick's sofa bed. I didn't like it very much. It wasn't technically my apartment. I just pay rent to Rambo and he was hardly there most of the time. She took showers, watched tv and went online in the apartment and stayed living there for free for 4-5 months. It totally aggravated and annoyed the hell out of me. She was not only living there without official permission but she was a slob. She couldn't clean up after herself at all. She leaves a mess wherever she went. I usually had to clean up after them. At first, I can handle one slob, which was Patrick. But dealing with two slobs was worse.


Patrick and Patricia (The Pats)


Everyone in the final group roommate pic

At the end, I couldn't take it anymore and I exploded and went hysterical towards the Pats. They ended up moving out along side Rambo. Rambo couldn't afford living in LA while he was living half the time in Las Vegas and the other half of the time in Los Angeles so he decided to officially move back to Las Vegas to live with his family. Dustin and Robert went to live with the Pats in another 2 bedroom apartment nearby while I became to be homeless living out of my car.

Transition in My Life Part 2

After I asserted my independence from this guy I met thru the internet, I was able to live my life the way I wanted to. I started to have friends, acquire the things I actually wanted rather just get leftovers from people, and started to do stuff that I didn't get to do when I was younger. During my childhood, my mom raised me being overbearing and having many restrictions. I lived a sheltered life.

Things I have done for the first time when I was in my 20's that should've been done when I was a kid:

• Planned my own birthday party
• Got my own birthday cake with my name on it and specialized it with my favorite cartoon
• Sleepover with a group of girlfriends
• Finished collecting majority of my Sweet Valley High book collection
• Went to Chuck E. Cheese (after thought - 2010 in KS)

I also began living the single life as an adult. I dealt with guys flirting with me and the way I flirted back! Oh boy... I was a menace lolz... And then I had 5 friends with benefits that infamous summer of 2006. Alot happened that summer. I went clubbing with  my new friends I made from working background on Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, that was fun and one of the greatest times of my life. We all went to the after party, post production party, wrap party to the actually movie as well as celebrating two of our friend's birthdays as well as mine at some of  Hollywood's bangin night clubs that summer. I learned my body's tolerance level towards alcohol as well as new drinks that I grew to love. My favorite drinks are long island ice tea, adios motherfucker, hypnotique, mai thai and some others like it.

I continued to work the same jobs but I concentrated on saving money which I was really proud of myself. I saved enough to buy myself a car even though technically my ex husband had my other car. One of my girlfriends successfully helped me get my car away from him. At once point, I had 3 cars under my name:

1. 2004 Honda Accord  silver 
2. 1988 Mercedes bergundy 
3. 2002 Honda Civic blue

 I worked hard and played hard that year. I became the social butterfly that I wanted to be. I made new friends wherever I went. I never thought I would make friends on set when I work on different TV shows and movies but I did. One day, I met Rambo, Patrick and his two friends on the set of Miss Guided, a TV show produced by Ashton Kutcher. Who knew I would end up being their roommates later that year? But it happened. Patrick's two friends moved back home to Missouri and his other friend, Dustin moved here and then he moved back in a month as well. Rambo, Patrick and I just clicked  and we started hanging out. Our friendship was great. Rambo hooked up Patrick with a job at his work which was doing production on Ultimate Fighter. They do shooting in Las Vegas so they left for a couple of months. I was getting used to living by myself in my new apartment. During that time, I was beginning to see Robert, a friend of mine that I met through my ex. Valentine's Day, we went out and became romantic for the first time. We were inseperable ever since. I even asked Rambo and Patrick if he could move in while they were away and they said yea. After working one season of Ultimate Fighter, Rambo and Patrick came back home. It seemed that everyone clicked very well and we all had a great time living together.

Transiton In My Life

There was a first transition in my life when I moved from Danbury, CT to Los Angeles, CA when I was 17 years old. It took me awhile to get used to it but California is home to me as much as I miss Danbury. I was beginning to be a "California Girl". Now after living there for 10 years, I decided to move to Kansas City, MO where most of my family is. Granted I do have family in Los Angeles, CA, but it wasn't the same. I tried to get close to them but they were dismissive and didn't welcome me when I started living there. I guess there was a snowball effect of feeling unwanted and moving out too quickly from my Aunt Manivanh's house to my Uncle Soukanh's house and then to my soon-to-be ex-husband's apartment. I also went from an insecure, unsure teenager to becoming a more confident, insightful person. I became more sociable, more comfortable within my own skin and learn to make more new friends with ease in my own element. I liked that I had the courage to stand up on my own and did things for myself. It took me awhile to learn all those things about myself.

When I was in high school in CT, I didn't have much of a social life. I was an outcast, living in a strict household. From living by myself with my mom in a 1 bedroom apartment to being evicted, living in a womens' & children shelter for 1 month then sent straight to a foster home for 2 & half years. All of them had rules and I had to follow them.

By the time I went to CA, I was kinda rebellious. But not in a way that you think. I didn't automatically join a bad crowd or anything. I just happen to meet a guy online, not knowing what his real intentions were. Me being a naive, innocent 18 year old, was being gullible and nice to this man I barely knew who was 13 years older than me. But he gave me an opportunity and his home to me when I felt unwanted where I was living at. Maybe in under certain circumstances, he was my savior and enemy at the same time. He helped me out at my time in need but he got me into a living where I didn't know what I was getting myself into until it was too late. Sooner or later, I was making bank and supporting myself and my new boyfriend. I was getting so used to the type of income and going shopping whenever I feel like that I just couldn't say no the type of job that I was doing. In the field, I was getting to be a top earner where I was working at and it made me feel better about myself. Nonetheless, I felt trapped in a situation and stayed there a couple years too late. I stayed in the relationship, got married so the guy can get his green card and I moved out again 4 years later and back to Uncle's house.