Step Off!

9Go West, Young Man

With one portion of my life complete, I was more than ready, anxious, and excited to see what was in store for me next. I was 22 years old and so wet behind the ears my lobes had pit stains. Obviously, I was curious but also unsure what the future was holding for me. I hoped it was holding a job as well as some money, because life was about to “get real.” But truthfully at that point, the only thing that mattered was, I was in L.A., baby, and I was ready to give 'em hell!

My cross-country drive came to an end with me cruising into Santa Monica on the fabled Route 66. Maybe there was some foreshadowing and irony to that, since my first acting gig would eventually land me the lead role in the NBC reboot of that storied series.

My sister helped me out with a place to stay for a minute—see if you can follow this. My sister's neighbor in Ohio supposedly had a friend who lived in Santa Monica, who had agreed to let me crash on her couch for “exactly and only one week” until I found a place of my own. She was a single woman in her late 30s whose, let's call it, quirkiness was only outmeasured by her kindness of letting a total stranger stay on her couch. With the week quickly passing by, I held true to our agreement and on day five I found myself a tiny studio apartment to call home.

Apparently, a few years after I had achieved a bit of success on MTV, the woman told her friend in Ohio, who in turn told my sister, who in turn told me, that we had “hooked up.” Now, ...