I have one night remaining and I am so looking forward to ending this madness. My body is like shutting down and I really need to give my body a chance to recover. Blah. I honestly had all of these great points to write down but I cant remember most of them because my brain is mush. AHHHHH, I WILL CONCENTRATE REALLY HARD TO REMEMBER THEM. HHHHHMMMMMMMMM.

I thought I would get lots of work done and accomplish lots of stuff this week. But all my energy is spent eating and being tired. I honestly have enough energy every hour to apply hand lotion. If I had to sleep outside for another night, or spend the energy finding a place to sleep like the 6400 people in Saskatoon who do so on a regular basis, I would cry. Nobody has any idea what these people go through. We have no clue. Let me reiterate my last point. We have no clue.

The support that we have received from the faculty, students and random people this week is totally crazy. I do care about the cause we are raising money for, especially moreso now, but the attention and gratitude we get from everybody is almost uncomfortable for myself. I dont feel as if I deserve the appreciation, which means what Im doing hits home alot more with other people. I didn’t expect that. Its certainly a very novel understanding.

Last night, I woke uo at 4:30 am coughing again. I tried really hard to fall back asleep but when im awake and I havent had like 300 litres of water, my throat kills every time I swallow. So I coughed as quietly as I could for a while and decided that it was useless. So I grabbed my stuff and headed inside out of the cold air that seemed to bother my lungs so much. I was up till 6am coughing and feeling miserable, when I finally feel back asleep until 7am. Its kinda embarassing almost not being able to fulfill the one requirement. I understand that if my well-being is at risk than going inside isnt a big deal, especially if I were to wake everyone up, but if I were actually homeless I would not have that option! I would just not sleep and be cold outside while my health take the hit. I really hope that I can tough it out tonight, so I am gonna bring some extra water and kleenex.

I was really excited to brainstorm some more positive aspects of being homeless, but there arent any. Unless you enjoy being cold and begging for money and not knowing when your next meal is gonna be and not having the energy to do anything during the day and being infinently sick and being smelly all day and not having a support network to fall back on. I can honestly say that I have yet to meet this person.

All I want is to fall asleep on a mattress. But cardboard will have to do for one more evening

 Marc D’Eon

Yeah! I think my lungs have cleared up a bit. It no longer feels like a rollercoaster when I breath. Even my sore throat is doing a bit better. I didn’t sleep with the group the other night because I cough alot in the evening. Luckily it wasnt too cold and I did fine until the freezing rain came down. I woke up pretty quickly and hurried my stuff under a small overhang. Then I rejoined the group for a while, started coughing again and called it quits kinda early. Bah. Everyone is infinently tired and increasingly grouchy kinda. Not by choice, more as a matter of circumstance.

My buddies came by last night and we played Settlers of Catan. Bah, what a sweet addicting game. Emile won, he usually does. It was cool seeing them, because I cant leave campus so I hadnt seen much of them. Im sure everyone across Canada is writing about all of the sucky aspects of being homeless and all fo the things they miss on a daily basis. But, I have begun to develop a list of things that are kinda cool about being homeless…

1. With my hair being greasy, I can style it however I want! Left or right flowing, spiky, random, it only take a few seconds.

2. Hypothetically, if I disliked all of my classes I could sleep in all of them and not even feel guilty!

3. I dont have to spend time showering every morning! I can now allocate my time to activities such as: asking for money, walking around, being tired!

Don’t worry, as the week wears on I will have plenty of other positive aspects of this campaign. Thank you to the faculty of our school, for bringing by a lot of food and monetary donations. It is especially awesome to see you guys getting involved with a student project such as this one. Werd. I am gonna go and take a small sponge bath. mmmm

Marc D’Eon

Well I was officially homeless for a night.Boy was it tougher than I thought. *Note to anyone out there going homeless for the cause… bring a toque, and a sleeping bag, and THICK socks, and warm shoes. All of which I forgot. Made for a lot less sleep than I had hoped, but I survived. I needed to walk every couple hours cause sleeping on concrete can wreak havoc on your hips and back, but a brief walk was all I needed to get comfy again. Thanks to the 5 Days crew for bringing out some cardboard to soften up the cement a little.What a great bunch of people I met out there! It’s amazing how much the little things mean when you have nothing to do all night. Riddles, games, stories, some guy came and sang us a lullaby (amazing voice!). Even a few friends (Raj, John & Liana) came by to visit and donate some money and bring food (the whole group split the Big Mac Raj brought). John and Liana brought us some tea to put us to sleep. Thank you thank you.So was it tough? Yes! Did friends and fellowship make it easier? MUCH. Would I do it again? Yes. Kind of opens your eyes to someone else’s world…. and the more everyone understands each other, the more we can fix the things that are broken in our community.Kudos to you hardcores that are doing it for 5 nights straight. If any massage therapists are out there, stop by one morning and help these people work out their kinks. And to those who can’t experience it first hand, please support 5 Days For The Homeless. It’s a cause that deserves our attention, our support and our heart.T-BoneProducer of the Joe Blow Radio Show on C95.

I fell asleep in my favourite class today. I sit in the front row. I’ve been to classes throughout my years when I’ve been tired, but never this tired. Bah! How the heck am I gonna survive the next three nights and days.

I am also starting to go crazy. I imagine that I will get increasingly insane as the week wears on. The days are now a write-off as I only drink water, eat some food donations and try to fight off this throat infection. Swallowing is a painful chore. I am also afraid that Shannon is plotting my death. ‘Apparently’ I was coughing like a heckin lot last night in my sleep because of my chest cold and it kept Shannon and Marc L awake. Sorry dudes. I may have to create some distance between me and the group this evening to avoid keeping them awake.  

We are now 50% done our donation meter, which is super awesome. Somebody gave us a 50$ bill. I am slighly impressed. Reem really wants to use this computer. She usually argues with her brothers when she gets home so now she argues with us all the time as a substitute. Therefore, I had better header. Tomorrow, I am gonna do a longer, happier post.

Marc D’Eon

Upon much reflection, I have devised a way to outline my experience. I will use a sophisticated, highly technical written system of rambling. I hope you can find the inner will and strength to keep up;

I was right. Sleeping outside is not glamorous. Its fun for about 20 seconds, and then I thought ‘Oh right, I have to do this for 5 evenings. How un-glamorous’. But worry not world. I understand that my 5 day sacrifice, as nobel as it is, is not nearly as tough of a situation as the 6000+ people in Saskatoon who are actually homeless deal with. Im sure I should say that sleeping in sleeping bags outside in March is a hard thing to do, but lets be honest, we have it easy. And that point, should only help to validate the importance of what we are doing. ex: If you find yourself about to donate 5$ in our name because of what we are doing, remember that we are representative of only .08% of the homeless individuals in Saskatoon. Oh, and we have sleeping bags, family, friends and an end in sight. All of a sudden the 5$ donation seems uninspiring. However, collectively I believe we can make a difference. Because the 5$ donation from a multitude of individuals quickly snowballs into a real impact for people in Saskatoon. Keep that in mind.

Now onto my day. My day was ok. I am still fighting a throat infection and a chest cold that has warped into a dry cough. (Warped is my word of the day, btw) Wrote a midterm, drank a heckin lot of water, and talked up 5days with my raspy voice. I had been told that 5days participants ate well during the week. But I’ll admit, my skepticism ran high, even amongst reassurances that food wouldn’t be an issue. However, thanks to generous donations from various individuals and businesses, we have a ton of food. Good Lord, it will almost be a bigger challenge finishing the food we’ve been given than anything else. (shout out to Adam Z. thanks for lunch. werd.)

Much appreciation to our super cool dean Grant Isaac who announced that he and his wife would be personally donating $500 to our total. And thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Haddock for doing the same. Oh, and to Brooke who gave us my favourite chocolate bar of all time. I am honestly floored and very humbled by the amount of support weve received. It is almost surreal in a way. (Oh, Jo Speed, thanks for the emotional lift)

I have decided that Blogs are cool. And that I am getting tired. Time to ready my evening. Adieu.

Marc D’Eon