Adventures in My Car - Week 2

Well, I received food stamp benefits, so yay me! That certainly takes a *huge* load off of my shoulders. Of course, I am realizing it's hard to be thrifty and eat healthy without a means of refrigeration and cooking. I'll figure it out. I've been eating a lot of pre-packaged food from Whole Foods and peanut butter sandwiches. The pre-packaged food is getting expensive, but at least it's healthy. I've got to figure something else out though because I can't keep spending that much money on food. I balance it out with not eating a whole lot, but it's not the best tactic.

I am blessed, however, because there are people willing to feed me hot meals. I appreciate hot meals so much more now that I can't have them. :)

So, funny story from this week: I was staying at a friend's apartment complex that has a gate to get in. I don't have a key to this gate, but no biggie because the back gate is always open. However, I left for the day, and when I came back, both gates were closed. I ended up spending the night at another friend's place, and she messaged me at 7:30am telling me the gate was open. When I got back to her place (admittedly, my mistake, it was like 5 hours later), the gate was closed again, and I had no way of getting in and all of my stuff was at her place. I waited for about 15 minutes for someone to come out, but it's a small complex, and it was the middle of the day, so the chances of someone coming out were pretty slim. I tried to jump one of the fences, but they were too tall for me. (At the towering height of 5'2", many things are not as jumpable as I'd like to think they are. lol) But! I found a fence on the other side that was fairly short. The only downfall - it was grown over with *tons* of ferns and bushes and ivy. Ah well, adventure, right?! LOL I hop the fence and realize - I can't actually get through this brush!

So I go hacking through all of it with my hands, and when I get out, I look like this:



You can't tell so much from this picture, but I have ferny bits all over my sweater, in my hair, in my cleavage...just about everywhere. I had to laugh. Because, after all, what else could I do?

The other thing I'm learning from this experience is that homeless people are very respectful and stop asking you for things when you tell them you're living out of your car.

I had a homeless guy stop me at my car. He was so respectful; I was muy impressed. He said, "Excuse me, miss," and stopped about 50 feet from my car and said, "I'm going to stay right here, but I want to talk to you." I was hurrying off somewhere, so I said, "You know what, I don't really have the time for this, and, if you're asking for money, I'm actually living out of my car right now, so I can't give you anything," and he said, "You know, I'm living on the street now too. I totally understand. I'm sorry to have bothered you." I wish I had thought to give him food or something. He was incredibly respectful, and, at this time in my life, I'm probably still better off than him, so lesson learned for me. I can still help out people even though I am at a low point too.

Thank you, life, for this lesson. :)

Adventures in My Car - Week 1

Well, I've arrived back in town, and I'm freaking out about my situation. I only have $50/month to spend on food and toiletries. I'm hoping to get food stamps, but the process causes me some anxiety, and I hate waiting for things. Fortunately, I have done this before and have good people in my life willing to help me with things and support me through this hard time.

I'm spending time at Starbucks. There was this guy who came up to me and asked if I could buy him some food. I was super stressed out, so I ended up giving him this super ugly and mean look and yelling at him. "Um...I'm homeless, so, no, I can't buy you anything to eat!"

He looked really surprised and became super apologetic and said, "I'd offer you a place to stay, but I live with my grandma." I wasn't sure what he said, so I asked him to repeat it, and then he said, "I'd offer to let you stay at my place." Oh...sorry ask for food guy.

I feel bad for yelling at him. It's not his fault I'm homeless, and he doesn't deserve to have me take my stress out on him.

From now on, I am determined to handle my situation with patience and grace and humour.

Background

Hi All!

So here's the story: I had been living with my ex-boyfriend for about 8 months. We were not able to stop living with each other because of financial circumstances, but finally, things came to a head and we decided we couldn't live with each other anymore. He got to move back in with his parents, but unfortunately, I didn't have that choice. So, I decided to live in my car until I could find a job that allowed me to follow my dreams and still be in school and do theatre.

Many people think I'm crazy. Perhaps I am. But I believe this is where I'm meant to be right now, and I am looking forward to all of the things I will learn from this experience.

These are the stories of my adventures as I embark on this exciting new journey in my life!