Edited and reposted from my old personal blog: Originally written on 2012/09/10.
These pictures were taken at 6:19am on 2012/09/10. It still was not really light out at that time. This is Rachel's Women's Center. It is where I eat breakfast most mornings. I also get a shower most days.
This is where I have started doing some very part-time work, compensated with things like a guaranteed lunch and some clothes. The participants help run the place, which otherwise often has a skeleton staff. It is a really good program.
I wish there were something comparable for my sons. It is women only, so they cannot come here. Some of the programs they theoretically could go to are not clean enough for our needs or have other issues, which gets extremely frustrating at times.
I am currently sitting at Rachel's writing this. I ate lunch here and I am waiting to get clothes and take a shower. My chores this morning did not make me as sick as last week, which is probably partly the state of things here being better this week (my work includes handling laundry, and I guess things were just dirtier last week) and partly that my health continues to improve. I am just generally holding up better.
I also learned today that I can take a shower at the end of my shift instead of waiting until afternoon. If I can arrange to already have a change of clothes available, that will help reduce how much time I spend mildly ill from having worked. So I will do my best to arrange that.
I do try to eat the lunch, as much as I can, but it tends to not be up to my standards, in terms of nutrition and quality, which is crucial to my ability to remain healthy and off medication. I am mostly working to get the "free" clothes. I, and to a lesser extent my sons, still sometimes go through clothes like kleenex. I am still sweating out whatever evil concoction of chemicals, drug residues and god-knows-what-else had accumulated in my body over the years to make me so ill. So sometimes my clothes gets inundated with evil ...stuff...and I have to change or get sick.
Footnote: I am on the street to get well. I am, in fact, getting well. So it can be done, though it's very challenging. My understanding is that a high percentage of homeless people have serious health issues and this is part of why they are on the street. I cannot work a "normal" job without it making me really ill. I am currently developing an income that doesn't make me sick. I expect that to be my long-term solution that gets me off the street and makes my life finally work.
My life has never really worked. My quality of life has generally been higher and my overall financial stress has overall been lower while on the street. So I write this blog in part out of hope that it will help others figure out how to solve the underlying issues that make their lives just not work.
These pictures were taken at 6:19am on 2012/09/10. It still was not really light out at that time. This is Rachel's Women's Center. It is where I eat breakfast most mornings. I also get a shower most days.
This is where I have started doing some very part-time work, compensated with things like a guaranteed lunch and some clothes. The participants help run the place, which otherwise often has a skeleton staff. It is a really good program.
I wish there were something comparable for my sons. It is women only, so they cannot come here. Some of the programs they theoretically could go to are not clean enough for our needs or have other issues, which gets extremely frustrating at times.
I am currently sitting at Rachel's writing this. I ate lunch here and I am waiting to get clothes and take a shower. My chores this morning did not make me as sick as last week, which is probably partly the state of things here being better this week (my work includes handling laundry, and I guess things were just dirtier last week) and partly that my health continues to improve. I am just generally holding up better.
I also learned today that I can take a shower at the end of my shift instead of waiting until afternoon. If I can arrange to already have a change of clothes available, that will help reduce how much time I spend mildly ill from having worked. So I will do my best to arrange that.
I do try to eat the lunch, as much as I can, but it tends to not be up to my standards, in terms of nutrition and quality, which is crucial to my ability to remain healthy and off medication. I am mostly working to get the "free" clothes. I, and to a lesser extent my sons, still sometimes go through clothes like kleenex. I am still sweating out whatever evil concoction of chemicals, drug residues and god-knows-what-else had accumulated in my body over the years to make me so ill. So sometimes my clothes gets inundated with evil ...stuff...and I have to change or get sick.
Footnote: I am on the street to get well. I am, in fact, getting well. So it can be done, though it's very challenging. My understanding is that a high percentage of homeless people have serious health issues and this is part of why they are on the street. I cannot work a "normal" job without it making me really ill. I am currently developing an income that doesn't make me sick. I expect that to be my long-term solution that gets me off the street and makes my life finally work.
My life has never really worked. My quality of life has generally been higher and my overall financial stress has overall been lower while on the street. So I write this blog in part out of hope that it will help others figure out how to solve the underlying issues that make their lives just not work.