It’s another slow morning as I roll out of bed around 10:30 am. John and Liz are still sleeping too, so I make myself some breakfast out at the truck. This gives me a chance to reflect on the last few days. I didn’t expect to stay this long in Santa Barbara, but it feels so right to slow down and get some rest. Besides we are still taking care of last minute details and working out the kinks, so it is really part of the flow, and neither Kris nor I feel rushed. We could stay another night... But perhaps it is time to move on.

Another sleepy morning in Santa Barbara.

John wakes up and is amazed at how late he slept in. Kris wakes up too and we spend the morning looking at maps, hanging out and making phone calls to the friends of my friends in LA. I did fortunately connect directly with my friend Arrowone who offers us a place to stay, and I also connect with Natasha’s friend Joan whom she wants me to meet.

I decide to do my taxes. Yup. Just like that. I got my w-2’s and my 1099 and I’m going to get online and do it. It actually went pretty smoothly! A couple of glitches with Internet Explorer so I switched browsers and in a couple hours had e-filed my taxes and would be getting a direct deposit of my refund. This made me quite happy, cause now I feel like I’ll have some money for the return trip!

But we still needed to get some more oil. So we headed into town and started scouting restaurants. A few places were closed on Sunday, and one place the owner was so cold to us that we didn’t even bother to pump the few gallons from his grease barrel. We really only wanted to get another 20 gal or so and then we would be near capacity, close to 80 gallons. We weren’t getting very lucky today, and the sun was heading for the horizon when John called us from SoHo, where he was setting up the sound equipment for the band. He said that the restaurant had a barrel of waste oil at the bottom of the stairs! So we sped across town and attempted to pump the oil. We got about 14 gallons before the oil became too thick to go through our pump. We might have some air leaks in our hose fittings, or perhaps it is just better to leave the thick stuff. Not completely satisfied, we walked around and tried a few more restaurants that were in the building. No luck, although the chefs at Buchon all came out to see the truck and were very excited about it. After fueling we went into SoHo and had a Guiness with John.

We headed back to John’s and while Kris cooked up some food, I took care of some phone calls and we packed up to depart. It was about 9pm when we left, and I asked Kris to drive so that I could get information from my friend Beth in San Francisco about Mexico and the Yucatan. But we never connected.

When we finally arrived in LA, we were both exhausted!

Thomas is too tired to stand.

Arrowone graciously took us in and set us up with a futon. She was exhausted too, but never too tired to share the vision. She is starting a film production company with the intention of creating shared leadership and directing roles. A rotating cast of incredible people working together to share the load, combine resources, and move forward to create intentional works of art. It is really inspiring and she invited me again to come and be a part of the project. Perhaps when I return I will come check out L.A. At some point.

Arrowone & Thomas in Los Angeles.