Needless to say, leaving my home state came without expectations of relocation… and with the worst timing possible. Immediate & emergency “crisis” was swiftly & suddenly upon me. A “friend” from back then offered a helping hand, and though it came with conditions… it was the only help I was being offered back then, whether by friend or family.

Nonetheless, persistence was key. Focus was mandatory. Objectives were obvious, at least to me.

Living outside out California for the first time ever wasn’t so much of a challenge as it was an experience. I’d never felt cold like what Detroit showed me. After feeling it for just a few days, my mind was made up. I never wanted anything to do with geographically relocating to this particular part of the world, ever again. I thought love would warm my heart substantially enough to withstand that cold. Man, was I wrong… and to boot, I’d ended up in the hometown city of a Football team that directly opposed my own favorite.

Still, I was fully prepared to leave as soon as I experienced my first winter there.

What started as “reuniting online” ended up being a vitally on-time relationship for both involved parties. My living situation sadly & abruptly came to an end in 2022’s December. With that, I fell into the interests of an old friend who offered to help me out. I had no idea how far our friendship would end up going upon arrival. Yet, that’s another story for another time.

The first thing that struck me about Detroit, Michigan… the entirety of it wasn’t nearly as “conditioned” as Los Angeles was, to put it nicely. Though Detroit had been made-out to be a primarily ethnically-populated “ghetto,” my experience there mirrored no such instance. Though that’s given, considering that it was frigid beyond God for the duration of my stay there… and I barely went outside.

And I mean it… it was as cold as motherf**k. I couldn’t imagine anyone would want to be outside for long enough to actually commit a crime. Unless, that is, they were wearing ten layers of clothing and five beanies to go with their five matching scarves… or, maybe “Ghetto Eskimos.” Whatever they “were,” they’d need 10-Hole Dr. Martens, quad-layered-socks, their war gloves & four-five layers of clothing.

Yes…… when you’re from the west coast, -37° Fahrenheit really does suck that much.

It wasn’t until we went to our (my) first Green Bay Packers game in Detroit. I got to watch Aaron Rodgers’ team kick the ever-living crap out of the measly little Lions. It was as much fun doing so as a trip to Magic Mountain.

Even then, I could hardly wait to leave Michigan. Not because their football team was terrible… not because their own crowd booed the best NFL team assembled by God… but because their weather should be considered a crime against humanity. They say homelessness in Los Angeles is a problem. I say weather in Michigan is crisis-level. Football teams visiting that particular state should be allowed to wear padded, weather-proof body armor, PLUS their uniforms. Homelessness there isn’t a problem at all. Truth be told, the poverty-stricken probably find themselves frozen-to-death, maybe within twenty minutes of being outside. Seeing weather across three states like that felt like that entire region was on the verge of freezing to death.

With that, something within me somehow told me that Nevada’s weather would offer us a better experience together. Having done web work for a businessman out there in the past, I made a call. Having worked at a cash-card company’s call-center for a little over 90 days… I explained to my Vegas buddy that I wasn’t born ethnic Eskimo. I told him sub-anything-degree temperatures would be my frostbitten end. I said I’d be better off out there working for him.

Boss proceeded to advance me thousands. Then, soon-to-be-deadbeat-wife & I packed up to move to Nevada.

My duties in Nevada involved the development and SEO of websites for several different restaurants, all owned by one company. Each of them had main-strip casino food court presences, up & down Las Vegas Blvd. I’d sometimes spend overnights hanging out & taking pictures of places I wandered to, and whatever else I saw.

Las Vegas from that particular perspective was unforgettable. Not for what I did there, not for what we saw or who I knew…… it was about going out & seeing something new every night that you wouldn’t see anywhere else. Every night was a chance to live a little bit irregularly…… or at least, fit into a whole city’s worth of crowd that did… and easily, for a little while. It was like having an all-day pass to a city-sized theme park. Police out there even seemed happier. A dispensary down the street made commuting tremendously painless & stress-free.

…… and it was the absolute opposite of everything Michigan was, weather-wise. The entire time I was in Michigan, temperatures did not once soar above 84° Fahrenheit. We left the Northeast in May of 2015…… just in time for Nevada’s summer to welcome & dually inundate us. As miserably & disgustingly as possible, all by way of weather, Vegas greeted us with open, sweating, musty, hulking arms.

Temperatures didn’t even drop beneath the high 90’s at night, once the month of May hit Vegas that year. Everywhere I went was air-conditioned, and I chugged at least a gallon of water a day. I was in my best shape in years & I was overwhelmed by how repulsive Nevada’s heat was. I’d never seen anything like it. Walking outside was like stepping into a sauna. Walking inside was like comparatively stepping into Antarctica.

Our first summer there, temperatures hit highs in the 120°’s. By the end of our second summer there, my now-ex-wife left Vegas, leaving me in the process. She wasn’t the first to do so, either. Again, another story for another time.

“Forgot my woman, lost my friends… things I’ve done & where I’ve been.”

~Layne Staley