When I awoke at 3:30 a.m. yesterday, the first thing I did was check the news. And I had a very bad feeling about what was going to happen in Los Angeles the more I learned.
A primary source for me was linking videos and articles on Discord as the day progressed. He's a burner and protest organizer, but we'd not yet met in person.
He added me to the Street Medics server in a newly created role of journalistic observer some months back, and I remember what he said: "We don't need you yet, but you need to be familiar with what we do when the time comes."
Ding! That time is now.
He picked me up midafternoon to let me crash at his place for the night and do my first load of laundry in months.
After a shower, he narrated a livestream of things unfolding in L.A. on his 65-inch TV, pointing out which cops to keep an eye on, next moves and then further projections, the vast majority of which came to pass. Back in his room, he had a three-monitor command center tracking different feeds and switching between them in the living room when he sensed something might be about to happen at a different site.
As we drank and got high, with the protest backdrop, he brought a tub of gear out. He asked whether I had a shirt that says PRESS, and when I said no, well, that was an easy enough problem to fix before the upcoming No Kings Day protest that I'm now going to. He's got bulletproof vests, gas masks ... dude is prepared.
I apparently acquitted myself well enough that he's going to ask his roommate if I can crash in the guest room I occupied last night for the longer term. He's also wrapping a 200-page book that he needs an editor for, and asked me to quote him a price, but I admitted that was well out of my wheelhouse. To be continued ...
The cat, who usually takes a month to warm up to someone new, took to me in about six hours. It was so nice to have a purring floof around again ... she was doing headbutts and the whole nine yards.
At 8 a.m., he knocked on my door to announce he needed to leave for work in 20 minutes, so if I want a maintenance beer before we head out, now's the time.
I down the final beer I brought by as I check the news on my phone ahead of getting the laundry out of the dryer, which he'd started back up sometime earlier. I gather my other things and head out to his truck.
He comes out with one of those green HEB bags, saying "you forgot something." In this bag is five additional beers of his.
As to the housing offer, even if the roommate objects, he's happy to let me park on the street there and avail myself of the facilities as needed.
So, income possibility, about to be thrust firmly into activism by someone who knows what he's doing, relief upon realizing I may not need to brave another Texas summer in an oven, and to be perfectly honest, the easiest interaction I've had on first meeting in years.
Hanging out in his living room was like hanging out with my college roommate from 27 years ago.
๐ถThere's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear. ๐ถ
That's some serious stuff. I wouldn't fully trust that guy if I were you, so be prepared for the worst if you're seriously committed to this. If not, I'd find a way out, if possible.
I mean, he's the founder of Street Medics Austin. I view this without fear as serendipity.
Ok. I didn't know. Just try to be safe .