Sitting on the porch in Ocean Beach, it’s not quite 4:30 am on Sunday morning and I am wondering what is going on here in this neighborhood?!  For the past ten minutes I’ve been listening to what sounds like gun fire and cars crashing!  It sounds like it’s at the end of the street, on Sunset Cliffs.  Okay…now I smell something?  Burning rubber!  Oh God, it’s real. The noise is not from a neighbor who forgot to turn off their television.  MERCY!  Pretty soon I expect to hear the sirens.

I have heard sirens every day since I moved here.  Fires, gun shots, local stores robbed at gunpoint….what’s going on?  I thought that Ocean Beach is filled with peaceful, pot-smoking hippies; not criminals?  Although I will tell you, there are a lot of homeless here!  A small group of them got some cash out of me one morning and while chatting with them, they proceeded to show me the oozing sores all over their bodies.  I nearly shrieked when I saw what looks to be staph infections and boils on these poor, filthy people.

Maybe I should be thankful that Robin fired me and I am going back to Florida tomorrow morning?  Perhaps boring Deltona isn’t so bad?  In Deltona, I have REX!  He’s my four-legged, pit bull protector.  He’s my pal.  My SHADOW.  Follows me around all day long and damn, I never thought I’d miss a DOG so much?!!!

(Breathe Shoshi, breathe.)

Whew!  Okay, where do I start?…I know I’ve been grossly uncommunicative for the past three weeks since arriving home in San Diego but it’s been a whirlwind!  Sickness, strife, sadness, sedition.  We’ve got it all here; beautiful San Diego.  Come on down and see what money can buy!  Step right up and open your wallet wide.  Shopping is what it’s all about folks; nothing is ever enough.  Money, money, money, M…O…N…E…Y.  Screech!  Not my song, sorry.

This is my song…..

By the way, the girl in the photos with me is my sister.   She and I are the two eldest of four siblings born to our parents.  Dawn was born in the fall of 1966 and me, Spring 1964.  I call this photo movie “A Spot On The Lens” and you will see why when you view it….there’s a blotch that shows up on my face, arm and in the clouds.  In some of the images, it ruins my face but in most you won’t even notice.  The friend of ours who shot the pictures had just gotten the camera right before our shoot.

Photos by Missy Dodson