Culver City

Today I made 30 dollars.

I was the first one at the office. I left 15 minutes later than usual, but Saturday seems chill. Nobody's on the streets. No traffic. I arrive 15 minutes early, and nobody is there.

I call Spenser and he tells me he's almost there. When he arrives, we talk a bit, and we see Mari`a and Sydney (?) across the street. Spenser tells me I'm gonna partner up with Mari`a today. A surge of disappointment comes over me.

I've seen Mari`a a couple times but I never really talked to her. She's black, extremely confident, almost too confident. I prejudged her to be the loud arrogant type.

At the office, we play Mafia. The two mafias are Mari'a and Alexis, my partner from yesterday. I have the worst reading and recognizing skills. I accuse everyone but these two. I die at the end.

Maria gets in an argument with Spenser about getting a banana. It negs her out.

We go to Culver City and we suck. We get rejected left and right. Maria's trying this English accent and mixing it up with her American accent mid sentence. It's so ridiculous. I love her energy and confidence.

We get kicked out of a hospital.

We go the wrong way in another building and set off an alarm.

We just fail the entire AM. All the businesses were either closed or already hit up. All the foot traffic are too groggy from the foggy morning.

During a smoke break, Maria buys me chapstick from a liquor store and calls a black lady over and lets me pitch. I drop on her. I'm eternally grateful to Maria. I give her credit but she tells me it was all me. Generous.

I drop on another black lady next to Bank of America.

Maria literally pitches everybody she sees. She has no regard for courtesy. It's awesome. Such a contrast from Alexis, the prejudger, who totally ruined my 'talk to everyone' habit. I need to pick it back up.

We get lunch at Wendy's and Maria buys me. I think she's trying to be a good leader. She's negged out, I could tell, but she tries to hide it. She's constantly encouraging me.

I start talking to everybody. I almost lose a sale once because some white boy takes my demo and refuses to return it. A lady walking by is curious and I just take it from him and ignore him completely and pitch to the lady. The boy's friend says "you're such a troll." His little trolling could cost me 8 to 29 dollars.

I drop on the lady.

We go next door to Albertsons' and I drop again on a black lady at the entrance.

It's raining pretty bad, and we decide to go to Venice Beach. Maria is negged out and tries to call Char, but no pick up. I call Spenser, and he tells us exactly what I'd expect him to say. Keep working our territory to a T regardless of the rain. We make a U-turn and hit up everything we missed.

I enter a subway and get three of the female workers excited and about to buy when a customer comes in and kills impulse. I think I still have a chance but Maria comes in and squashes everything.

We move on. I forget I parked my car in a limited parking spot and I tell Maria to continue merching without me. She seems to not want to leave my side. I tell her that she can keep going, but she tells me to just shut up and walk with her.

We continue, and Maria tells me every time a girl compliments me and how good I look. One lady sitting at the bus stop says "ooh! your boyfriend is cute! your baby is gonna be beautiful. asian's dont age and blacks dont crack"

Maria calls me love, bae, babe, and Dave.

In our fourth quarter, I actually revisit an Indian restaurant I got kicked out of earlier in the day. I actually drop because there's another worker there. Before I could drop more, an Indian man, the boss, tries to swindle me. We get into a bidding war until Maria enters and pretty much tells the Indian man off. Whoo. Go girl.

We return to the office. No leaders, lots of newbies, I don't feel so bad. Alexis keeps asking everyone how much they sold. Vibe killer.

I tell everyone how amazing Maria is.

I give Sydney and Asha (?) a ride to their bus stop in Crenshaw. These three black girls all take the bus to work. Wow.

Maria and I decide to get dinner. I try to go to a couple chicken spots I know in Ktown, but they're all packed. We end up settling for Thai BBQ. I pay to repay her initial generosity.

I learn a lot about Maria. I guess my confidence and indifference vibe makes me more trustworthy. She tells me a lot of personal stuff, ranging from her ex-boyfriend to her belief in fairies. Stuff like that.

We have a good time, we laugh. On the way out of the parking lot, a lady reverses into me, but no damage is done. Maria jumps out of the car to defend me, to fight the lady.

I'm a cool cat. It's all good, nothing happened.

I take Maria home, then return home myself.

Interesting week.