Every Thursday night is pub night on our campus - so in order to diffuse any sort of drunken issue, we made sure to keep the bongos and geetar going all night.

Around midnight, we were sitting around with some friends who had stopped by to jam with us.  Out of nowhere, we hear someone yell “get a job!” and then we all heard an explosion of snow.  No one realized what had happened until I started to cry.  This insolent individual had hurled a snowball at us - and by snowball, I mean a huge chunk of ice; and the explosion of snow was from the ice smashing right onto my face.  It caught me so off guard that I whipped my neck back in response - for those of you who don’t know me - I broke my neck on May 26th 2007.  Months later, I am still recovering, and sudden movements like that not only hurt me, but they scare me.  The neck & face pain, coupled along the scare upset me (and all of us) a lot.  What hurt us even more is that someone on our very own campus was despicable enough to do such a thing. 

Laurier - I read that something similar happened to you guys - I am appalled that this sort of thing happened at both of our sites.  This type of behavior is uncalled for and so unwarranted.  It breaks my heart to know that some homeless people are harassed verbally and physically with no means of defending themselves. 

TM stopped by again yesterday afternoon and she chatted with me about the impression that the general public have of the homeless.  “They see a homeless person on the street and they think, ‘good, you deserve to be there because it’s your fault.  You screwed up in life and this is the lifestyle that you have made for yourself.  Get a job ya bum’.  But it’s not their fault.  There are SO many reasons as to why they got there.  They could have lost a family member, gotten an illness, gotten kicked out, fired, or gone bankrupt.  If people had the compassion to even stop and ask, they would understand.  Who would choose such a lifestyle anyway?”

I am almost in tears sitting at this computer.  That snowball represented to me just how much it hurts to be misunderstood.  To be ignored.  To be ridiculed.  No one should have to deal with this.  I am honestly overwhelmed.  This has been such an eye opening experience for me and for that I am truly thankful.  I hope to god that people like our shameful snow thrower will one day come to even a fraction of that realization.  In the mean time, I am banking on the laws of karma.  What goes around, comes around.

d. 

The amount of continuous support that we are receiving from the Guelph community is absolutely astounding.  Everything from hot chili donations at 5am (Thanks to our Associate Dean) to random yells of encouragement.  While today was a physically hard day to endure, it was an enjoyable one.

Last night we were up till 4am trying to build a sheltered area with cardboard because it had begun to snow.  I was up by 9am and the day was filled with more geetar/bongo jamming and the donations were coming in strong.  We raised about $1000 today - phenomenal.

It’s going to rain tomorrow and I am secretary dreading it.  My clothes are already damp.   I was so uncomfortable today that I went to the bathroom in the library and dried all of my clothes with the hand dryer.  People looked at me as if I was insane.  I didn’t even care.   I can’t imagine being in these clothes for any longer.  Everyday I am appreciating aspects of my life that I have certainly taken for granted.  I have never wanted warm dry socks  so much.  I would give anything for a hot shower.  A good sleep.  Some deodorant even.

I want to make this blog longer, more detailed and more insightful.  Quite honestly, I cannot keep my eyes open.  Dave has fallen asleep at his computer and Mike actually fell off of his chair and is now passed out on the library ground.  I am jealous of their current resting status - however that really loud library alarm should be scaring all of us shortly…

Tomorrow (especially if it precipitates), I promise to come into the library during the day for a substantial amount of time to write a decent blog.

d.

So I actually fell asleep last night - thank goodness. Right before bed, the boys and I were telling ghost stories - to all of you out there participating, this is not a good idea. This state increases your level of paranoia. So, anyway. we tell the ghost stories and fall asleep. Then at 3am, we hear yelling and sounds of someone running through the snow towards us. To be honest, I peed my pants a little bit. We all had no idea what was going on and who this random person was. It turned out to be a reporter from our school paper. He had come to take pictures of us while sleeping. While it was sneaky of him, and although he gave us quite the scare, he brought us food and has been a great supporter.

Then morning came. I hung around in my sleeping bag until about noon. Then my boyfriend came strolling down to donate some lunch. It wasn’t until I went to embrace him that I felt self conscious about my stench. He later confirmed that I stunk. Being smelly really makes you feel unapproachable and makes you want to alienate yourself from those who are clean (and will therefore judge you). This must certainly be an issue when looking for employment.

After lunch I had class. Hard to pay attention. Then I had a Senate Faculty Appreciation event hosted at our President’s house (on campus). This is a business casual sort of event - Mike and I are also both Senators - and we were both there stinking up the joint. Obviously, faculty and our fellow student senators were intrigued by what we’re doing and asked lots of questions. Then I had night class. 3 hours long. Ya, it was 3 hours of warmth, but it was also 3 hours of frustration due to lack of attention span and comprehension. This must also certainly be an issue with employment/education issues that keep those who are in a rut, in that rut. Lack of sleep and food make it really hard to do anything more than just lay there.

Then we lost Julien. Mike, Dave and I are so delusional that we were worried that he’d been attacked for the donation money. Then we found him. Everything is ok. Speaking of donations, Guelph rocked the house today. We had $418 in donated change. This also has a lot to do with our friend Karie Kwan. This angel is an eager beaver of a commerce student. She has been all over the campaign and has been doing classroom talks like it’s her j-o-b. Thanks KK for all of your dedication, enthusiasm and support. And thanks to everyone at Guelph for being so amazing!!!

Speaking of amazing, we got a super nice e-mail today from a member of our community. Here is what the e-mail said,

“Hey guys,

I am sitting in my warm bed now, and for the first time in my life I feel bad about it. I feel bad because I know there’s people out there, just like you now, that suffer from cold, hunger, and from the uncertainty of the next day.

I am proud of working on a campus that enjoys the presence of people like you!

Sending you lots of warmth,”

This blog is getting long and so I must go. The loud library buzzer just made all of us scream. It gets me every time.

d.

WOW what a looonnng day.  Since my last blog, I was off to find a warm place to sleep.  Well, that didn’t happen. 

My day was full of smiles, singing, shivering and eating.  I walked back to our ‘living room/bed/dining area/jam space’ and sat down with Julien, Dave, Dave’s geeetar and some bongo drums.  We are a pretty talented bunch of bums I must admit.  We sang for a few hours, which certainly generated some attention.  The day went by a lot faster than I had expected, as we were consistently chatting and thanking people for their donations - both monetary and food.  FOOD, now let me tell you, this homeless girl is FULL.  Guelph students have been PHENOMINALY SUPPORTIVE!  I’ve probably had about 8 coffees today.  Tons of snacks and a 4 course dinner.  People brought us subs, PASTA (!), salad, rice, cookies, carrots, banana bread, cake, pizza, drinks, almonds, figs, chocolates, chips, timbits, apples, bananas…(and the list goes on and on and on).   

We also met a really influential and inspiring individual today - Mike will talk about her in his blog, so no need to be redundant….but she was certainly a treat and a will power booster. 

Then, around 7, the chills began.  My lack of sleep caught up to me hugely like a big slap across the face.  I am not feeling very well.  Not at all.  I have the aches, the chills and something of a cold/flu seems to be coming on.  g-r-e-a-t.  Should make the week a lot more interesting.  Julien is also getting oddly sweaty and sick.  This is already shocking our bodies hugely, regardless of that fact that we have been eating well.  I can’t even fathom what this cold is like for the homeless without any food or without any social activity to make the day go by.

I feel as if I have been using the blog as an outlet to complain.  Perhaps tomorrow I will aim to be more provocative with thoughtful posts.  Or maybe I’ll become the notorious complainer… But then again, the more that I complain, the more I feel petty for complaining and the more my own awareness is raised.   

Crazy how that works.

Well, we survived our first night, and it was rough.   So cold.  So uncomfortable.  I don’t know if it was due to my predetermined thought, but I got zero hours of sleep.  I was just in a state of sleepy discomfort all night.  We laid together; Mike, then Dave then Myself and Julien.  Within 30 minutes of laying down, Mike and Dave were out….moments after that, Dave started to snore.  I was so jealous of his deep slumber.  I secretly nudged him a few times to make him stop snoring, but all that did was throw his pattern off.   Luckily, Julien couldn’t sleep either and every so often, we would whisper,

“Are you still awake?” 

“ya”

“This sucks”

Then around probably 5am (I think….I don’t have a watch) I had to pee.  Really badly.  Even though you’re not supposed to hold it, I did.  By the time I saw the sun come up, and birds began to chirp (kinda nice) I decided to get out of my sleeping bag and walk over to the University Center to pee.  Perhaps the best pee I have ever had.  Then, on my way back, I hear someone yelling my name.  It’s Brenda Whiteside - our AVP of Student Affairs.  She is the best.  She gave me a warm hug, 4 hot chocolates and 4 egg/cheese breakfast sandwiches.  Mmmm….all this random food however has given me a tummy ache already. 

I went to class at 9:30am.  So excited to be in a warm place!  I am already SO tired.  It was so hard to concentrate on the lecture.  Quite honestly, I am having a hard time even making sense of this blog.  My thoughts are scattered.  I think I am going to go and find somewhere warm to sleep.

Wish me luck.  Be back soon.

d. 

It’s almost midnight of our first night out.  Julien, Mike, Dave and I dug out a semi-fort in the middle of the university courtyard (with a borrowed shovel) and went hunting for garbage bags and cardboard boxes to lay onto the snow.  We were so busy building our sleeping grounds that I didn’t realize how cold it was getting.  It is currently -16 out there……i’m honeslty scared/nervous for what the night will be like.  I don’t know if I’ll fall asleep.  We’re certainly going to be snuggling close, I already called little spoon.

 I’m not really hungry, but the idea of not being able to eat if I wanted to right now makes me want some food.  I hope someone donates a coffee tomorrow morning….I’m pretty tired and burnt out already.  It’s going to be a rough week.  I am actually looking forward to going to class this week!  Ahhh warmth and something to do other than think about what to eat/where to sleep/how cold I am…

 I wish I could brush my teeth right now.  yuk.

D.