Hi all!  Quickie update  :)

Life-altering things have happened this week.  I need to check and find out what and how much I’m allowed to say, but looks as though I’m on the brink of exiting homelessness for good, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Other than that, keeping on keeping on.  Matt’s still in Scotland, and is likely to be for about another month or so.  He’s working super hard keeping up HomelessTales.com, as always, and we’re still batting around red tape and fun things that have to be settled before we can marry or anything.  Still in love and so happy about it though, and that’s going a great ways toward keeping my spirits up.

I may have stable housing soon but will still, of course, continue advocating for homelessness, on this blog and elsewhere!  In fact, I’m glad to have recently done at least a little bit for a couple of girls on the east coast who were thrown out by their parents due to their sexual orientation, and are now living in a car in freezing weather conditions.  An appeal on Twitter brought a lot of fantastic suggestions for shelters, programs, donations, and just ways to keep warm in their current situation.  The girls wish for their names and location to remain anonymous, understandably, but I wanted to give them a shout-out on the blog and let them know that there are so many people rooting for them.  I also want to thank everybody on Twitter who reached out to help them, many mere moments after I posted the plea.

So, yep yep.  Thanks to my loyal readers for sticking around!  Also, I’m in the Guardian today, apparently.  I did this interview quite a while ago, and had assumed that it wasn’t going to go to print, since I didn’t hear back for so long.  So, an extra little bonus surprise today!

I have escaped work for my lunch hour and have found sanctuary in a local Long Beach Starbucks.  Nestled into a corner with my lunch and some coffee, I wanted to make sure I got a post out there about two fantastic readers who would like to help other homeless individuals in need.  So, if you or somebody you know could make use of either of these two generous offers, please contact me at info@girlsguidetohomelessness.com, and I’ll hook you up with one of the two awesome ladies in question.

First off, we have Debra:

Hello, my name is Debra and I was very inspired by your blog.  I am writing because I have some clothes for children, most of them new in sizes 8 – 10 and new shoes in size 12.  I would like to give them to family who has a girl who can wear them – I do not want to leave them at a Goodwill to be sold; they are for free.  I have been told there are a lot of families that park at Walmart or other stores.  I know how things are, for my husband and I are raising 4 grandchildren on our SS check and sometimes the money is gone before the month is over.  There are 6 of us in a 2 bedroom, but I have my faith in God, and feel blessed to have a roof over our heads.  So, if you know of someone who can use the clothes and shoes have them email me at xxxx@xxxxxxxx and I can deliver to them!

Thank you so much, Debra, for offering to help homeless individuals by donating clothing, even though you and your family are experiencing rough times like everybody else!  I’m sure we will find a really awesome family for you to donate to, who will very much appreciate the clothes.

Next, we have Wendy:

I don’t know if you have many readers in eastern North Dakota/Western Minnesota, but my office has a part time clerical position open.  It’s 12-15 hours a week, and starts at $9.  If there’s anyone out there who is near the right place geographically and wants more info, please put them in contact with me.  There’s too many people who are un- or under-employed out there.

Hi, Wendy!  Too, too true.  Thanks so much for your offer; I’m hoping some super-deserving reader from North Dakota/Minnesota will be perfect for the job.  Readers, anybody out there want to be put in touch with Wendy about the clerical job?

So, yep yep, this is today’s quickie post – gotta get back to work soon!  Matt landed safely in Scotland and he’ll be away for nearly 2 months this time (blegh!) so I have to keep myself busy, busy, busy!  We’re hoping to be able to get settled into an apartment or small house in Long Beach when he gets back late November-ish.  I’ve never had a Christmas before, and this will be my first – so we’re both excited about making it an event, and Matt doesn’t particularly want to have a Christmas in a trailer (to me, it doesn’t matter so much, since I’ve never celebrated before anyway – religious stuff, urgh – and last Christmas, which was supposed to be my first, I found out my boyfriend at the time was cheating on me, which sort of soured the entire deal for me up until now).  Besides, the daily commute from Riverside to Long Beach is killing me.  That’s four hours of my life, every day, that I’ll never get back – it would be so great to just wake up and drive around the corner to work.  Maybe soon.

So, anyone with leads on a small, very affordable place in Long Beach or Lakewood-ish that will allow a BIG dog, please let me know!  I’m spending hours each week scouring Craigslist… fun.  But we’re so close, we’re in this limbo stage right now; we just want to tip the scales and get me from “quasi-homeless” to “absolutely not homeless at all by any definition, federal or otherwise”.

Thanks, guys!  Love ya!

~Bri

Well, here’s the video of my CNN interview with Nicole Lapin, on her weekly segment, Young People Who Rock.  It was supposed to be a bit longer, but Obama decided to give an employment update right at the same time my interview was scheduled, so that delayed it several minutes, and bit a chunk out of the time that I was to be on the air, so I had to try and cram a lot of the info I wanted to get in there into a smaller running time.  Therefore, I’m talking really fast, and barely letting poor Nicole get a word in edgewise.  Still, seeing myself on camera or in photos mortifies me, so I suppose it’s one of those blessings in disguise – less of my chunky face on TV, woohoo!

(I’m now seriously considering actively eating healthier; seven months of sustaining myself on cheap-ass food has not been kind to my figure.  I’m not quite as big as I appear on TV – the camera adds 10 or 15 lbs., and most of them seem to be in my face – but I could still probably stand to take much better care of myself).

Matt was there for this interview, so it was his first time on a TV set (the Today Show wouldn’t fly him out to NY as well along with me, so he had to stay behind and await my return, blegh).  I felt a little better and more confident with him there.  Less nervous.  I don’t think I’m quite used to being on TV, nor will I ever be, likely, but I was more at ease this time around.

And now to embarrass Matt a little with photos of his cute self on the set of YPWR.  This is history, folks.  Matt NEVER gets his picture taken.

Nicole was so super awesome and friendly, chatting with me in the makeup room along with the awesome hair/makeup artist, Jennifer, whose Herculean task it was to transform me into a raving beauty (kidding, but she did do a fantastic job!  I got airbrushed!!!!!)  Jennifer is having a baby pretty soon, so congrats on the new kid, Jennifer!

But yeah, Nicole was great at setting me at ease; she’s a total sweetheart and a damn fine reporter – she has this informal, approachable thing going for her, which I think is a great bonus when it comes to reaching out and reporting to our generation.  Nicole is right around my age and clearly she’s super intelligent – I can’t imagine what it must take to be a respected CNN reporter at so young.  Her segment has been going strong for 2 1/2 years, and I’m honored to have been her guest.

So, thanks so much to Nicole, and to CNN for having me on again!

Something I think it’s always important to point out:  Compared to many, I have been and continue to be damn lucky.

I was fortunate enough to garner some media attention that has brought me opportunities.  True, I’m not in a house/apartment of my own just yet, but I’ve taken tremendous strides forward from the Walmart parking lot, and new possibilities continue to pop up here and there.  I am light years ahead of where I was, and the vast majority of it is due to sheer, dumb luck.

Not everyone is so lucky.  Most don’t get this kind of media attention, they go unnoticed.  And many are in very dire circumstances, much worse than my own.

It’s a double-edged sword, this good fortune I’ve had.  On the one hand, I’m very woohoo, perhaps my ship is finally coming in! On the other hand, I’m just one person.  It makes it all the more depressing to read about or even receive emails from hundreds more homeless people, many in far more horrible situations than mine ever has been, who need help.  I want to save all of them, and since I clearly can’t, perhaps the best I feel I can do is continue to try to make others aware of their plight, add their voices to my own.

Hey guys,

So, this afternoon I’m going to be on CNN again.  This time, though, it’s gonna be live!  *eep*  So tune in or set your TiVo to record CNN’s “Young People Who Rock” segment with the awesome Nicole Lapin at 12:30 PST!

I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything for over a week; the new job is fantastic and has been keeping me challenged/on my toes.  Plus my commute is four hours round-trip per day, and when I get back to the trailer, all I want to do is crash and unwind.  So I’ve been procrastinating, and I’m sorry.

I’m still on the back lot in Riverside, although that’s still a much huger step out of this.  In fact, it feels as though I’m in a bit more of a limbo between “homeless” and “not homeless”, by virtue of the fact that now I have some utility hookups, meaning that unlike living in the Walmart parking lot, I can flick on a light switch, cook, use the restroom, and even take a (cold) shower!  This is major progress!

Matt’s flying back home to Scotland on Monday, so I’m going to be spending all of my time this weekend with him – if you don’t see me around, that’s why!  This time, he won’t be able to make it back to Cali for probably 2 or 3 months, so that’s going to suck.

I swear though, after Matt lands safely in Scotland and I can stop chewing my nails over it, I’ll post a more comprehensive, detailed update.  I’ll also try my hardest to keep posting more often!

Love ya,

~Bri