Ethan: This is the story about when we hit rock bottom.
It's about love.
It's about hardships.
It's about the struggle to survive...
...and it's about a red bell pepper.
But most importantly, it's about the one thing that saved our relationship.
So this story begins 8 years ago
Hila had just packed up her life essentially,
she had just finished the Army.
And she said to her family, who is very conservative, very protective of her
"Fuck it, I'm gonna go move across the ocean.
And live in, move in with this guy I've only spoken to on Skype who you don't know anything about.
I'm gonna pick up everything and go move to California."
Well in Israel a lot of people when they have finished in the Army wanna go like clear their minds or something.
So they save up as much as they can
and they all usually go for like a long trip somewhere, like South America.
- Right.
So I decided to just come here.
So your- your world trip was "come move in with some fucking weirdo from the internet."
I bought the ticket anyway -Right and usually when my dad says no, it's no
Ya'know
- That's the kind of household it is. -Yeah.
I remember when your brother first dropped you off, I was lingi- living in Santa Cruz, California, which is a college town, I went to school there.
UCSC, which is this surfer stoner fucking grateful dead kinda vibe.
And at the time I think I had like $1000 in my bank account.
Hila you had a thou- you came with like a thousand bucks or something.
Hila being a-- she only had a travel visa so she wasn't allowed to open a bank account.
So from pretty much the first week.
I was just like, well do you wanna put it in my bank account?
I fuh-- I'm not gonna lie I thought about going to Mexico with her thousand bucks dude, that was as richest I had ever been.
From the beginning we both had nothing what-what little we had
we shared in the same bank account out of just straight necessity.
And I think we were teamed up, from that first minute we were fucking--
we were like teamed up boii
Santa Cruz was the perfect setting for our relationship to begin.
It was a beautiful little beach town and then on the other side there was a forest.
It was a small big town.
You could walk or bike to wherever you wanted to go.
But you could also into the car and drive out a little bit.
There was always something to explore and discover
And we often found ourselves just riding our bikes or walking around town looking for something new.
We fell in love in this city!
But sadly, the city also had its problems.
The year was 2009- the economy was really bad.
And not only that but we were in a small college town.
There was a ton of young kids and they were all desperate for work.
I remember th-th-the moment that sticks out to me the most
is when we went to a yogurt shop.
Just some random fucking hole in the wall yogurt shop
And Hila hands them her resume and the dude there is like
"I could take your resume but-" and he pulls out a stack from under the table
probably 200
And he says "I could take your resume, but to be honest we have got 200 just in the past 3 days."
It was pretty shocking that it could be so hard to find just some shitty job.
I don't know, coming from Israel if you wanna get a job, at least with my experience, the next day you can start working somewhere
yeah- like it is that easy
especially as a waiter like, you can find easily.
I would to go ten restaurants in a day riding my bike boom boom boom
come back just fucking completely demoralised.
Damn!
And then, Hila's like- cause I'm here with like, a fucking full CV
written out like, immaculately, perfectly typed up.
It's like I'm applying to be like an ambassador, or some shit.
I just wanna wait tables!
I just finished college, I got a degree,
and nobody would even fucking give me a job to wait tables man!
It was tough!
You- we'd come home every night
fuckin' cook some beans and eggs cause we were broke as hell.
And we were working on a children's book, that was our first creative project together.
That was how we'd spend our night.
And the next day, we'd both go fuckin' lookin for work, and come back.
After a month, our money starts dwindling.
pay rent again
we're down to like fuckin' 600 bucks
we're like "we can't pay rent"
and Hila, you know, is a very sane, down to earth, rational person
and she start looking at our bank account and she's like
"I love being here with you but..."
"it's just not enough money so"
I'm not going to be homeless
I'm not gonna be homeless here with you
and Hila just like I need to I need to
go home I need to leave and that was
kind of a setting that we were just fucked
she would have gone home
her dad would have been like "I was right
shame on you listen to me now" like fuck
I couldn't get a job and now like the
love of my life is going to fucking go
back and it's like you don't get a
second chance of this shit you can keep
talking to Skype for another couple of
years so you got to get on with your
life we were getting there
you were 21 I was 23 it's like get on with it
so the feeling was bad it was very bad
every night we would sit at home and
forget our problems by working on this
kid's book, hila did the art and I was
supposed to write stories but I could
never really nail it down. but Hila
she always drow this little girl that
was lost in this big imaginative world
the risk she took coming to live with
me was huge and I think she must have
felt very scared and alone a lot of the time
and looking back over the art now it
seems so obvious that she was writing
about herself, she was that little girl
we go home that day and our house-mate
sweet girl great girl love her
boyfriend was like a big-time drug
dealer and he was slamming you go to his
house got like a nice T- like a new TV
like we were broke so when someone has a
nice TV and like a playstation like
you're doing well dude and I saids' what do you
do for a living man like hook me up with
a job and he pulls out a fucking Ziploc bag
probably this big, fuckin' with weed in
it and he's like I sell I sell weed dude
obviously I'm like okay well not gonna
fucking, that's not really an option for
me and I guess he probably knew that we
were struggling from our house-mate and
he's like dude i'll give you i'll give you
a good deal on this shit like I'll hook
you up if you want to to get into like
slinging, and me and hila, w-we almost had like an
epiphany moment where we're like you never
think about yourself as like a drug dealer
[H]: yeah but also in the setting of
Santa Cruz everyone is kind of a drug dealer
which is funny, [E]: everyone has a side hustle as a
drug dealer. [H]: cause' e-everyone
there smokes, it's crazy and the weed there is insane.
[E]:yes [H]: and it's just like the-Santa Cruz is
about the weed. [E]: you you drive through santa cruze
and the whole the whole city is
covered in a
it's not a Marine layer it's not fog
it's actually weed smoke but this was
the brilliant part about our business plan
me and Hila were the only two people in
Santa Cruz that didn't smoke weed,
so we had this brilliant idea we'll sell the
weed and keep the money! Instead of
smoking the extra. [H]: I know everyone always
say I look super high but it might
be hard to believe we don't smoke.
[E]: So we have five hundred dollars in the bank
we bought four hundred dollars worth of weed
he hooked it up- [H]: It was like a big
investment for us. [E]: that was the investment of our lifetime
I felt like Warren Buffett in that moment
so we get a bag of weed like I'm all fucking
sketched out on the way home
I'm acting like. And I think at the time
we have like literally twenty dollars
in our bank account left there was
nothing went grocery shopping that same
day and we got some like eggs and some
beans and all the shit and I remember
this memory is Iike crystal clear
my mind like it turns into this
wonderful metaphor for like how low we
had gotten, [H]: yah,
[E]: it was a beautiful red bell pepper and
Hila wanted this red bell pepper for a salad
I was looking at
the things in our cart and I'm like
adding it up in my mind I'm looking
I'm counting up that everything in our cart
I'm like at 19 we have 20 bucks, like
I weigh the bell pepper i take the bell
pepper I weigh it looking at the scale I'm
like this puts us over we can't buy
this bell pepper
this puts us over [E]: yeah, and I think we
both just really remember the moment of
like putting it back. [E]: Like, it's not an
extravagant purchase It's not like a beer
right? It's not like a bottle alcohol
it's not, it's not ice cream right? It's a
fucking bell pepper like you need that
we've had to put it back and that is
just crystallized in my mind that bell
pepper moment was so memorable
it was funny I think we we took it in
stride but it was also really scary
[H]: yeah [E]: we're like fuck we cannot
how like. Alright our life spots you can
we putting back bell peppers we were
handling it with like humor but I think
we both felt like.. [H]: this is the end [E]: like, this isn't good
[Jazz] Now, i remember somewhere
around that time we were having an
argument in the car. Hila was talking
about how she would probably have to go home
and I was trying to comfort her I was
saying in 10 years we're going to look
back on these times as some of the best
times in our life and frankly when I was
saying it I didn't believe it myself
looking over these photos I think we
both can agree that they were probably
the best time in our lives we were there
together making it work against all the
odds and it was just a beautiful time...
We were minor as fuck
we were selling to like probably five
people and making like a couple bucks
everytime and then some friends of
friends would call us up. Me and Hila were like a
bike gang we used to deliver weed on our
bikes and as we roll up together the two
of us and like make a drop and they'd be like
like... What is this? Like who are you guys?
Why is she here? and I'm like don't worry about her
she's my bodyguard
she's here to fucking protect the
payload. Funnily enough we weren't selling
drugs for too long
[H]: yeah, that was the funny part. Right after we did for maybe
a couple weeks.
Yeah. I actually managed to find a job. Yeah
and I think you did too. Like around the same time
just by. I became a babysitter
[E]: I found a job waiting tables and they
were both pretty good jobs actually
We were.. That we were happy with
Yeah, so we quit. Like I think we were
selling drugs made for like two weeks we
make enough money we pay rent
we start saving a little money that was
dope felt good after stooping that low
putting the red bell pepper back
I've been blessed my life and Hila was..
Hila has been the source of all that
blessings. [H]: n..
[E]: it's true dude. It's fucking true like
[H]: I've gotta say a little note to my
parents if you're watching don't this is
not real. [E]:It's fake, it's made-up. [H]: This story is not real.
[H]:It's all fake. Just to Hila's parents to everyone else
this is real obviously but when people
say "Do you believe in true love?" I have
to say yes
like seriously. [H]: This is gonna get too cheesy
No, it's worth saying and this is
like a little Valentine's Day and all
you guys out there but true love does
exist
I'm telling you there's people out there
that complete you and you just got to be
fucking out there dude you gotta be out
there. Shake your dick and be open
and willing to accept them. Are we
perfect for each other? [H]: What is perfect? [E]: Exactly.
Do we make each other better?
Definitely. There's no such thing as perfect
Just people who make you feel
good about yourself
people who bring out the best in you
people who push you to be a better
version of yourself that's what you need
to look for, for a partner and that's what
Hila has always done for me and that
like selling drugs that was the best
the best thing I've ever done.
God bless you. Happy Valentine's Day.
And to all the fuckin haters out there
look at us now look how far we've come
now bitches I got so many bell peppers
and I can't even hold them all
Not really good, not really like pepper that much
[H]: It's really good for you. [E]: I don't really like pepper
[H]: It's got a lot of vitamin C
[E]:to be honest I was pretty happy when we
put it back cause I was like... I don't even like this shit
I would rather have this shit than
the pepper. [H]:Sometimes you need it to mix it up
You know, in the salad. [E]:It does, yeah.
Yeah. Good thing we bought ten of them.