Tommy Christopher and Matt Barnes have already said pretty much all there is to say about the circumstances leading up to this one, so for the background info, see the following articles:

http://www.mediaite.com/online/wal-mart-to-get-homeless-elle-interns-trailer-belongings-out-of-impound/

http://homelesstales.com/2009/09/walmart-return-homeless-girls-impounded-trailer/

Thank you so, so, SO much to everyone who called/emailed/wrote to Walmart on my behalf.  I know that the extra pressure helped tremendously, even if they were abrupt with you on the phone (as a few people emailed to tell me).   Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support.

Went to get my stuff back yesterday from the impound yard.  Waited for about 20 minutes, only to be told that they were having trouble with the alarm.  What alarm? I wanted to know.  As far as I knew, the truck didn’t have an alarm.  Turns out that it’s a factory alarm that Bill must have deactivated, but the battery died from the truck sitting in impound for a month, so when recharged, the alarm reset itself.  Because of the alarm resetting itself, they were unable to start the truck.  They kept asking me for the electronic key to disengage the alarm.  I had to explain to them that when Bill shot himself, the keys were on his body, but were lost somewhere between the coroner and the probate office, so I had to have a key made.

In any event, it was nearly closing time, so the good folks over at Brea Towing told me that they would keep it overnight, have their mechanic come out in the morning and disengage the alarm, and give it to me the next day free of charge.  They were even kind enough to put air in all of the tires, as they were low from sitting from so long.  My friend Sage awesomely came back and picked me up after having dropped me off, and instead I got the trailer today after work.

Which is another thing I should mention – while sitting in the impound lot office yesterday, I got a call offering me a job.  It was from a place I applied to about a month ago.  They asked if I could start immediately.  So, today was my first day back on the clock as an Executive Assistant.  As a bonus, my possessions were returned to me, courtesy of Walmart, as well as all of the kind readers  and media outlets who put the heat on them.  I am feeling supremely lucky right now.  And grateful.  Mustn’t forget grateful!  Thank you!!!

~Bri

Interview – Radio New Zealand (Nine to Noon)

Above is the link to the audio file of my interview Tuesday with New Zealand’s NPR show Nine to Noon.  Sorry, my cell phone connection flickered at a couple of points, but overall I feel like I did decent.

Surprise; CNN news anchor Ted Rowlands called in the morning and asked if CNN could come film a segment.  Thinking he meant in a few days, I said absolutely.  Come to find out, he meant in about 2 1/2 hours!  Panic mode.  Dude; Ted Rowlands and his awesome camera guy were in our trailer today.  Very surreal.  They were fantastic, by the way.  Very personable and set me at ease, so I barely noticed that I was in front of a camera.  They stuck around for about an hour and a half; not sure how long the segment itself will be.  It might air Wednesday morning or (more likely) Thursday morning.  If I get any more info beforehand, I will post it; otherwise, I’ll embed the video on the blog.

In about 5 1/2 hours I fly out to New York, where I be on The Today Show Thursday morning with E. Jean Carroll (my first time meeting her in person).  I can confirm that we are scheduled to be on around 10:30 a.m., and we are being interviewed by Hoda Kotbe and Kathie Lee Gifford.  Will try to get and embed this video as well in a post, if you’re not able to watch.  Sadly, Matt will not be able to accompany me to NY, although I tried my darndest to get them to fly him out as well.  Sadness.

So, yep yep!  After my Today Show appearance, I will be attending a couple of meetings in NY, and then leaving Manhattan to fly home in the early evening.  Should be back home by midnight, Friday morning.  Very, very busy.  And tired.  But all super exciting.

* * * * *

Confidential to Stacey Niffenegger in Gilroy, CA:  I just received your very touching letter in my P.O. box.  Besides thanking you for your very kind and personal words, I wanted to tell you that you are fantabulous and I know you will do superbly at finishing out college.  Your determination to commute an hour each way to and from school to better yourself each day is inspiring to me, as I have yet to finish college myself (or indeed, to attend any classes other than community college ones).  Keep up the awesome work, and know that it’s OK and normal to feel overwhelmed sometimes, especially with a mountainous task like higher education before you.  You rock, chika!

~Bri

P.S.  There is a rat or mouse in our trailer.  We’re not sure which, but either way… gross!  It got into a bag of chips and a sack of potatoes.  Ewwwww.  I hate killing things, but traps must be bought!

My friend over at Stone Soup Station (and HomelessTales.com contributor) Steve Samra filmed this powerful video.  I wanted to post it here because I believe it to be a particularly important one to watch.  For anyone who believes that I consider myself as bad off as (or worse off than) so many other homeless people… I don’t; I’m incredibly lucky, and I know it.

John Doe is a Vietnam veteran.  He lives under a bridge and receives absolutely no financial assistance from the government.  Every day, he is forced to self-catheterize himself several times, a painful and humiliating process.  In the video behind the cut, he bravely demonstrates this for Steve while answering questions about himself, his homelessness, and his experience with the American health care system.

John received an honorable discharge.

WARNING:  The following video contains a medical procedure involving non-sexual frontal male nudity.  It is absolutely NSFW and is not appropriate for persons under the age of 18 or those of a sensitive disposition. more…

A bonus for you this morning; here’s a video of Fezzik (filmed by the awesome Sage) playing with a couple of her other dogs.

I have a job interview today, and I had to take care of some other business all night (meeting ELLE blogging deadlines and fun stuff) so I just neglected the whole sleep thing.  It’s OK, when I get home from the interview I’ll crash for a few hours.

Also, Tommy Christopher over at Mediaite.com has written a great article about the ELLE/E. Jean story; he was kind enough to ask me straight out if I felt I was being exploited or otherwise treated unfairly, rather than speculating, and I was more than happy to answer him.  I hope that the article answers the concerns of anyone who fears that I am being in any way exploited to win an influential fashion mag karma points.

Off to interview, wish me luck!

~Bri

Hi guys and gals!

Have posted two new blogs on elle.com.  Would love it if you could swing by and leave some comments.

http://fashion.elle.com/blog/2009/09/the-thrill-of-the-thriftstore-hunt-.html

http://fashion.elle.com/blog/2009/08/on-the-hunt-for-a-job-and-a-home.html

Again, I don’t care if you love me or hate me, I just want to get people talking about homelessness.  I’m still wading through the “fan mail”, both good and bad.  Please know that I will get back to you, even if it takes me a week.  Things just revved into high gear, I totally didn’t expect any of it, and now I’m muddling through as best I can.  I also have a couple of job interviews coming up, so between that and interning for E. Jean and blogging for ELLE, I’m swamped.  Which is fantastic; I love being busy and keeping on my toes!  Just please understand that I will be getting back to you.  I swear!

Also, for those who have added me on Facebook… I do want to be your friend!  Honestly!  However, that is my private FB for my “in-person” friends from school, etc.  So what I’m going to do is set up a separate FB account for all of my online friends, and then I’ll be contacting each of you and adding you to that FB account instead.  Please don’t think that I’m dissing you, that’s totally not the case.  I’m just trying to retain a bit of my privacy, and I don’t want to submit my friends on my personal FB account to an overdose of info on my current homeless circumstances, etc.

Thanks to all for your support and encouragement.  I have received letters from all over the world saying that I have encouraged/inspired or touched a nerve.  I have heard from currently homeless people, formerly homeless people, soon-to-be homeless people, and those who have never been homeless at all but just wanted to drop a line. You guys are the ones who have encouraged and inspired me.  I am heartened that the direct mail and comments on this blog have been 99.9% positive.  Yes, there have been some naysayers, but mainly on other news articles, and many of them have made assumptions, or have not familiarized themselves more with my circumstances, my philosophy, or current statistics on homelessness.  And that’s OK; I knew to expect this going in, and I’m trying my best not to read negative comments on other sites who may have picked up the story.  I’m a big girl and I can take a little mudslinging 

Thanks to my long-term followers as well, who have come on board tGGtH at varying points over the past 6 months.  You know who you are.  You guys are awesome!  I wish I could figure out some way to bake a giant cake of awesomeness to thank you for your humor, love, support, and generosity.  I’m still working on that, but in the meantime, I can at least say “thank you” a jillion times.

~Bri