San Antonio, TX
Friday April 2, 2004
8:10am I am leaving my mom's house. I had a good morning. I woke up and ate the last bowl of cereal with the last of the milk. Oh yeah, my mom gave me ten dollars! I saw that she had a disposable camera on her bed. I went, "Hey, can I have this camera?" She said, "Oh no, Luisito bought it and I stole it from him. I told him I would reimburse him . . . but I'll give you some money for a camera." So bam, I got ten dollars! I'll get a camera and some weed.
I'm walking to Walmart. My daily nature hike to Walmart.
8:17am I walked down Wickersham a bit and realized I was almost out of tape. I need to go get another one. A blank tape. I'm glad I noticed. I just knew there was something I was forgetting.
Oh yeah, I started doing push ups this morning. Let's see how big my arms get.
I really don't know what's taking me so long to start doing them. I'm dumb. With my stretches.
8:19am I just switched out the tapes. I'm recording on a new one. #3.
I'm glad I came back. I had left my army pants too. I gotta get those.
8:27am I'm off again.
Today is Thursday, the 2nd. First Friday tomorrow and then Saturday and Sunday is Marleyfest.
8:50am Jesus me dio un cigaro. Te lo agradezco, Jesus. Todo el mundo recibe crédito, gracias.
I scored a cigarette from Jesus! Awesome.
Jesus was one of the construction workers working over here on the road. Some big water pipe their putting in Braun Road.
Add to my quotes, "You really shouldn't drink from the mainstream. It has become polluted and carcinogenic. You will get cancer and we will all die.
9:03am I stopped at the Exxon and smoked the cigarette that Jesus gave me. I'm just walking into OP Schnabel right now. Going to take my nature hike to the Walmart. I have a camera to buy.
Wow, I just walked into the woods and I saw three deer.
Oh yeah, I never told you. The guy I met at SAC the other day, he gave me some photocopies of a book he had. About the sling. It can be a deadly weapon. That's how David slew Goliath. It's got instructions on how to make one and everything. I want to learn how to use a sling. I can carry it wherever I go. It's like a gun.
I want to learn how to sling. I can practice here in these woods. I'm going to try and make one. There's instructions here and everything.
I did a little circle. I'm back at the park. I got lost on the trails. Let's see, to get to the ditch I have to go Northeast.
To the cliffs, I mean.
9:21am I just saw these two dogs, these strays out here. I called out to them, "Hey, what's up doggies? Come over here. I'll give you some lovin'." They ran off.
9:42am Nick, this random guy walking in OP Schnabel Park, he hooked me up with a five dollar bill! That's awesome! I'm going to go get me a camera!
That was perfect, dude. I was meant to talk to that guy. He gave me five bucks.
I didn't even ask him for it. He listened to all my shit.
Cool, there's a roadrunner. I see a roadrunner. Awesome.
It's so awesome how I got lost earlier. If I wouldn't have gotten lost I would never have met that guy.
I was about to go down some trail down the cliffs and I saw that roadrunner, so I came back. Maybe I'm supposed to follow it. I'm going to go to my hideout and see if there's anybody smoking weed. I doubt it, though. It's early.
9:50am I'm down by the creek already.
9:51am I just put on my rain poncho. I donned my poncho.
Change the quote to, "I have found near-perfection in accepting imperfection." I'm not saying that I'm perfect either.
10:20am I just got to the Walmart. I'm going to check the schedule. I'm going to go buy a burger from McDonald's. I'm hungry.
610 at 10:55am. About half an hour. I'm going to go eat some food and play videogames.
Oh yeah, I got a camera to buy.
10:28am I just ran into Todd Lange, who I knew in middle school. When I saw him I asked him, "Is your last name Lange?" He works in the photolab. I told him, "I'm Victor. I have a twin sister named Laura."
Got me an outdoor camera for like four dollars. You can't beat the price.
10:42am Tasha is hooking me up with a cigarette. Awesome.
The 88 didn't have his transfers out. None of the drivers were at their buses so I thought, "Cool, I'm going to go see what the letter of the day is." Anyway, I got on the 609 and said, "Hey, anybody got a cigarette?" This girl said, "I got one." I told her, "What's your name?" She said, "I've talked to you before." I told her, "Then you know what I'm doing."
I still need to find out what the letter of the day is. Or else get a courtesy ride.
10:50am It started raining hard. The camera I got doesn't have a flash on it. No wonder it was so cheap. I'm going to go buy another camera with a flash. Damn, wasted four dollars. Well, it's not wasted. It's a daytime-use camera.
11:26am I am at University Hospital already. It's still raining. It's getting a little chilly. I'm going to put my pants on in the bathroom.
11:36am This brother hooked me up with a cigarette. A menthol here in front of the hospital. I appreciate it, brother.
11:45am What was your name? Ubil hooked me up with a cigarette here at the hospital. I appreciate it, Ubil.
11:50am I'm on the 92 headed downtown.
It's coming down like cats and dogs.
12:04pm I'm downtown. I'm going to go to Travis Park and get a hotdog.
1:10pm Randy hooked me up with a cigarette. I didn't even ask him for one. I appreciate it, Randy. Awesome.
1:23pm I just came out of the Leap of Faith Cafe here at the Travis Park United Methodist Church. It's by the day-center. I've been down here before, sometimes they feed for free. I went back there now and it's a cafe. They're charging money for shit. Umm, it's a church! What the hell? What's this world coming to?
Anyway, I asked the cashier if I could tell her my story, but she said, "I have to work." I told her she could just wait to hear about it when the rest of the world did. I left. Hehe, that was funny. Leap of Faith Cafe. That's blasphemous. These people are going to hell. Selling food at a church. Don't they know that money is the root of all evil?
I'm going to go find somebody in the park to tell my story to. Oh yeah, the sun came out. It's beautiful now.
1:50pm I came down to The Riverwalk. It's a beautiful day. Good 'ol San Antone.
2:00pm I was walking in circles and then decided I would go to The Riverwalk. I saw these two little hip kids pass me. I turned around and walked up to them. I went, "Hey, can I tell you guys a really interesting story? I'm not asking for anything. I just want you to listen." They heard my platform. They were looking around town. I'll just email them. What were your names again? Zack and JJ from Michigan. They go to Michigan State.
Man, I had a great presentation with those kids from Michigan. They told me, "We'll spread your story in Michigan."
I just realized why I accidentally came to The Riverwalk right now. I gotta go take a picture of San Antonio, the statue.
2:10pm I just realized I had two cameras on me. I need to document this beautiful day. Let me take a picture of the ducks.
2:31pm I just had a really good presentation right here on The Riverwalk. These kids listened to me. Santos hooked me up with a cigarette in the end. Him, Pamela and Michelle listened to my story. I appreciate it, guys. Tell your friends.
2:34pm They let me take a picture of them too.
I'm just here smoking a cigarette and giving everybody the peace sign. All these riverboats full of tourists. Oh yeah, and every person that walks in front of me, I tell them, "Welcome to San Antonio." I'm the greeter, hehe.
2:55pm I just had this great presentation with these kids that just walked by on The Riverwalk. From Dallas, TX. Can I get a cast of characters? Jackie, Leslie, Jamie, Joe G, Viyush, Megan and Jason. These guys listened to my story. I appreciate it, guys. Tell your friends.
I took a picture of the riverboat going by with tourists waving at me.
3:03pm Man, it is really weird how that statue of San Antonio looks just like me. It's crazy.
3:05pm I wonder if the baby the guy is holding is San Antonio or the person is.
3:08pm Greg hooked me up with a cigarette over by the mall. I appreciate it, brother.
3:15pm I had a great presentation with this guy. I told him, "Thanks for proving me right."
He agreed with everything I said. A cop saw the whole presentation. It was awesome.
3:37pm I was walking in front of the Alamo and took a picture. Ha, I got the cops in the picture. These two guys just recognized me right now. They saw me on The Riverwalk. They said, "What's up, Victor?" I told them, "See, I'm everywhere."
3:56pm Tracy said hi to me on the bus. I had told her my story a week ago, she said.
Cool, she just gave me a cigarette. She said, "You don't have to bum one off me. You know better than that."
4:15pm I came and I talked to Colleen Hays at the bus stop. She's talking to Phase. I told her my platform and she gave me like $1.50 for a hotdog, badass. She doesn't think I can get one for a dollar. I'll come back and give you your fifty cents back.
4:30pm I smoked out with Phase at Travis Park on a bench. He told me, "Victor, if you don't get no bigger, you're still my hero." Aww, I told him, "Gawrsh." Phase from LA. We're always giving each other knuckles.
4:37pm Mr. Ramos didn't give me a ride to SAC.
The #4 pulled up and told me, "Sorry guy, I can't give you a ride."
4:50pm 4975 wouldn't hook me up either. I was just testing you, brother. You failed.
4:55pm I was going to go into the Salvation Army, which I have never been to before. Phase doesn't believe me. He said, "Oh, we can go to Sally's and eat." Alright cool, I guess I'll go do that too. I walked by and saw the Open sign was displayed at a tattoo shop. The Pair of Dice Tattoo Parlor. I came, but the door's locked and nobody is here. It pisses me off. I have a update for these guys. I haven't seen them all year.
5:37pm Badass, Patrick at the tattoo shop is going to let me put my offline webpage on his computer. Oh yeah, all this time I thought tomorrow was Friday. Today is First Friday and I've been missing it all this time. I have to make a sign.
5:52pm I just went in this detour kind of close to Travis Park. Some guy on the other side of the fence gave me a box. It's kind of wet, but I still have a good panel to write on. I have a marker.
6:02pm I just made my sign. It says, "ON MY WAY TO SAVE THE WORLD FREE STORY," with a peace sign.
6:11pm I walked down St. Mary's the wrong way. I finally asked some guy who knew and he told me I was going the right way now. About four blocks.
6:30pm I got to First Friday with all the people there. There's a band playing real loud, so there's no way I can tell my story. I'm going to keep walking and see what other stuff they're selling here.
6:49pm I just ran into some guy I'd talked to before at the park. He recognized me. I recognized him first.
7:04pm I came back to Travis Park. I have my destination for tonight. I'm going to go to this guy James' house. He wrote his address at some trailer over by where Elva used to live. I'm going to go there and he said we'd just smoke weed and chill out. He said I could even crash if I wanted to. I'm going to crash there. I got Marleyfest tomorrow.
First Friday was a big letdown. It wasn't that big of a crowd and it was all raining and they had a band playing.
7:22pm It's the 42 to Roosevelt I need to get on.
7:32pm I just got off the 42. I asked the driver if he knew where George's Trailer Park was. He said Riverside is a little bit further. I have to walk to Riverside.
I got on with a decoy transfer I trimmed.
7:35pm I just entered the Riverside Trailer Park. 370 Riverside Road.
7:55pm Man, I am having the worst trouble finding this place. It's as if I am totally in the wrong RV park.
8:05pm I saw some people inside their trailer, some Mexican family in 805. I went up to them and said, "Hey, Excuse me, con permiso, hello?" I asked her, "Hey, where's lot five?"
8:27pm Cool, I found this place eventually. Right now I'm talking to James. He said a couple years ago. Wait, what was the story?
James: "On About October the 18th of 2002, I think it was. My grandma had passed away. A week later my grandpa went and threw me out of the house and told me that I wasn't welcome to stay there anymore. I was only downtown for about a week. I was getting pretty depressed and I started getting back in my drug habit. I started shooting up heroin. I couldn't find anywhere to go. It was dark, it was late. I stopped by Travis Park, not really familiar with the area at all, as I am now. I was currently homeless and staying down there for a while for about 2 years. Now I know everybody down there and I know my way around. Umm, Victor had stopped by and smoked with me. We started talking about my grandma and everything like that."
Victor: "How did I initiate the conversation? Because you were twitching or something?"
James: "Nah, you asked me if I was shaking. I was lying to you up front. I said, "Nah, I ain't got a problem." Then I started shaking more. I guess you saw through me because you were like, "Do you want somebody to talk to?" It amazed me that at that particular moment, you stopped my whole train of events. Because I was going to go from there to the gutter punk bridge to do my last forty units. I was planning on OD'ing with that. You sat down and talked with me and everything and calmed me down. After that, people from the Victory Outreach home came about an hour later and I went and stayed at the Victory Outreach for about three weeks. I checked myself out and got my life together. But yes, you did help me out, Victor. I just wanted to let you know that. Thank you.
11:45pm Dude, what a magical experience I am having tonight. I finally found the guy's trailer. It's like a little badass house they got here. There's a little magical hippie garden back here. It's right next to the San Antonio River. I couldn't believe it. This guy told me I had saved his life. Oh dude, I have a true believer. He's offering me all these resources. He's got this land right here. He owes $1800 on and when he gets that paid off it's going to be his. I can't wait to take pictures in the morning.
I told him, "I want you to do what I'm doing. I want you to type up your stuff. He has his own scripts, like everybody else. He's really smart. He's self-taught like I am. I really feel like I am among brethren.
It's going to happen soon.
I can't be stopped.
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