More & More Apartments

My ex had come to Los Angeles to work as a Sikh au pair for a rich follower of the religion who wanted a vegetarian cook with motherhood experience to assist her with her new baby. She brought our daughter along.
It was going well, and she thought she could make a career of it. I was exhausted in Tucson, so I gave up again at school. Put our things in storage and flew to LA with two cats in carriers. I stayed with my sister and her boy friend in Burbank. They didn't care too much for the cats. I found work right away at The Bonaventure Hotel downtown and then quickly moved into an apartment in Burbank near my sister. My sister didn't like the Sikh thing too much either. the ex and my daughter moved in there. It was a very noisy apartment building. Next door was a Cuban with a big Cuban flag over his front window. When I knocked on his door one evening to ask him to turn his music down, he told me that he would kill me if I ever knocked on his door again. Underneath us was a large Armenian family with about 12 kids. I actually became friendly with them and would sit out in the courtyard below and share espresso with them after dinner.
The ex's job died and she couldn't find another (she was dressing as a Sikh, she had started in Tucson) and we had no furniture, no household items, etc. My sister and her boyfriend came over once and then I didn't see her again for three years.
The women's ashram where my ex had been staying invited us to move into the house in West LA because the needed help with the rent. They must have been desperate, because I was still smoking cigarettes and ate meat. I agreed to go out back to the alley, if I wanted a cigarette.