About Harmony Shaheen: The 20s Decade Part 5

If only somebody had told me that porn was not the solution…

Photo by Johannes Krupinski on Unsplash

The money was rapidly flushing down the drain. I had to stay in Los Angeles and wait for Geico to fucking haul my car back to their shop, figure out what was wrong with it, and then decide whether it was salvageable or you know, totalled.

I didn’t get my answer for two weeks because Geico sat on their ass. They didn’t even compensate me the entirety of my time there. Somehow, I had to get back to Arizona, but I didn’t care much about that yet.

I tried to make the best out of a fuckhead situation. My friend and I became more than just friends (puke, what a bad decision that was), so we continued getting extra stoned and stuffing our faces with food because you know, why not. I didn’t really know what the hell I was doing with my life at that time and had an ‘I’ll live for the day’ kind of mentality.

Los Angeles is a pretty cool city though, if you have the time and money to explore it. Like, you can basically find anything you want there. I grew up in Burbank, a kind of bougie part, but even Downtown Los Angeles has a lot of unique shops, cafes, and places to visit.

So I mindlessly wandered.

I finally got word from Geico that the car was totalled. Drats. So much for my freedom to roam wherever I pleased. For the record, I haven’t driven a car since October of 2020, when the accident happened.

I got back to Arizona via Flixbus. Flixbus got me to Tucson, and my landlord drove me back home. The trip took twelve hours and goddamn did it suck. The bus reeked of piss and two consecutive meals of fast food and gas station snacks will fuck with your brain and make your veins clot.

Well, sadly it didn’t suck enough. Every two to three weeks, I went to and from Los Angeles to visit my newfound boyfriend/best friend via either Greyhound or Flixbus through the remainder of Fall and into Winter. In hindsight, I guess I needed company and I was desperate for a change of scenery.

The relationship was weird. I’ve never in my life met someone who smoked so much fucking marijuana while still sort of being functional. I’m talking like Wiz Khalifa levels of weed that…