There is More to Life, TGIF, Give it a Rest, Etc.

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(Feels good to write about something besides pervert priests: This story is at City of Angels on Alternet SoapBox on Page One for a few hours, or click headline to read: )

I Lived in a Car in L.A. with a Teenage Daughter and Survived to Write About It, Part 2
“Lizzie, I don’t like this spot anymore.”
“I don’t either,” she shivered, “there’s an old man who’s been walking by and looking at us every hour on the hour.”
I started the car and pulled out. Here, I’d thought the Hollywood Rec Center and park at Cahuenga and Santa Monica Boulevard would be a safe place for us to park, since we’d be sleeping in our car that night. I don’t know, maybe some part of me was still stuck in the last century thinking public parks and rec centers are safe places.
I started the car and pulled out. Here, I’d thought the Hollywood Rec Center and park at Cahuenga and Santa Monica Boulevard would be a safe place for us to park, since we’d be sleeping in our car that night. I don’t know, maybe some part of me was still stuck in the last century thinking public parks and rec centers are safe places.
We pull out and Lizzie cries out, “Go mom, there’s two guys, go! They’re just a few feet away from the car. Go!” My tires screech. A block away I realize we’re being followed and I become Steve McQueen in Bullitt on the flat side streets of Hollywood. We go left on Lexington, right on Cole, then floor it up to Fountain, criss-cross a few blocks until we are at Selma near Highland. The car was still right behind us. So now I became Bruce Willis in The Fifth Element. Halfway into an intersection in front of First Baptist Church of Hollywood, I squealed into a U turn, the dudes in their car so close behind us there was no way that car could -Turn too and follow us. We drove away, watching them sink into the dark going the other direction.
Phew.
Hollywood Highland Mall Has Great Rest Rooms for Homeless Middle Class People, Clean, Open Until 3 AM
Now we were close to Hollywood Highland Mall which for homeless middle class moms like me, provided a last chance at a public restroom before everything else closed, a clean one. The Ladies Room at Hollywood Highland Mall is open until about three AM. My daughter and I became nightly regulars.
The trick was to park as close to Hollywood and Highland as possible, ride the mammoth escalator past the shop that sells hundred dollar jars of cold cream, then acting like I belong there, walk along the mall second floor to the hall that leads to the Kodak ...

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