What also got repetitive was Gus’s pitching to me but I expected as much. He was a sales guy and sales guys are always talking up what they’re doing which I knew from living with Gus and from all those phone calls I recently got. That’s just part of the deal with salesmen. They’re always trying to sell you something. This time he happened to be trying to sell me a new car but it when it wasn’t the car it was the insurance. When it wasn’t the insurance it was the painting. When it wasn’t the painting it was the bonds. He was the same as ever. What was also the same was that he wasn’t too specific about what he did and even now was rather coy about his specific title and job. All I knew was that it involved cars somehow because he was trying to sell me a car. I told him my car was working just fine but I’d think about it. It was never really about the car, the insurance, the painting or the bonds he was trying to sell me though. He seemed to be always trying to convince me of this notion that he was working at a very prestigious place and doing important work which would make me inherently respect him…although I never bought into any of it. After all, I met him when he was renting out his one bedroom studio. I mean, the fact that I wasn’t ever remotely interested in hearing about any of it never seemed to sink in with him. Nonetheless, I was always happy enough to let him think I was somewhat interested in the car and that I believed he was working at some kind of prestigious company. I mean, what would be the point of bursting his or anyone else’s bubble? He’s the one who has to deal with his reality…whatever it may be. It was beautiful up here though, and Gus had a better idea of the landscape than I thought. He drove me around to some of the beach areas and it immediately brought me back to the west coast even though you could spot all kinds of differences if you knew where to look for them. Maybe that was my problem all along. I just wasn’t looking in the right places for those differences. But really how different was any of it? After all, the coast was the coast. And Gus was Gus. Whether they’re on the east side or the west side of the country the coast would still be pretty and Gus would still be trying to sell you on his professionalism and whatever crap he was pushing that month.
I guess more than anything else I wanted to find somewhere that was different. New York was about being somewhere that would be a whole new experience for me because I felt like it was all I had left. Well…that and giving people the treatment. Unlike some of my friends, Nathan had made it a point to tell everyone he knew he was leaving Los Angeles and moving back home. That fact didn’t have much relevance when I was drunk in South Dakota, but now that I was cutting through the backwoods of Rhode Island and into