"3 Hots and a Cot."

"3 Hots and a Cot."

January 24, 2014

What do you do when it rains? After 6:00 the library is closed, can't just run into a restaurant and hang, can't hop in your car, shelter is on the other side of town and you can't afford the bus...you post up under an awning and chill. Or you get wet. Getting your clothes wet when you have nothing to change into is no fun. Hitting up a dryer isn't exactly reasonable unless you want to sit in you wanna wait in your skimpys. Now it wasn't exactly pouring down on me, but try walking in even a drizzle for more than 10 minutes and you're gonna be soaked.

I would have never met 'J' if it wasn't for this though! I might be a rookie homeless person, but I didn't need an instruction manual to figure out it was time to get under something and wait. 'J' had a cool spot so I joined. One thing we don't often consider is being homeless doesn't stop at simply not having a home. You don't have anything--materialess (Maybe Webster's will pick that up.) Even if you had nice things, it wouldn't be feasible to keep up with them. I'm about 9 days in and I am already sick and tired of carrying my backpack. I am learning why most people barely have anything on them. At first, you would of thought I was going on a survival test in the woods. I'm slowly shedding items. 'J' carrys a bag about the size of a ziploc. He has been off and on homeless for years now and usually sleeps outside, even when the temperature drops like last night. (I wimped out and slept in my Jeep.) I don't even remember most of what we talked about there, just small talk really. But we decided to go hit up White Castle for dinner because 'J' knows the manager and they usually let him hang out for a long time when it's cold or rainy. I told him my unique situation and offered to buy him whatever to eat, but he politely refused. Time for just a coffee. We hung out for a couple hours really just telling funny stories, of which he was not lacking. "We live in a YouTube worthy world, and that McDonalds should stream it live! haha" He had a lot of funny stories from there. He told one where two guys he knows were really drunk and one accused the other of stealing his blanket in the middle of the night, an all out brawl took ensued and they were tossed out. The funny part about it was they sat on the sidewalk outside and smoked a cigarette together, then the drunker of the two came in and politely asked if he could please have the food he left at his table! You probably gotta hear 'J' tell it, he's a great story teller. He'd be better if he could control his own laughter during the tale! He also taught me about the 'X' system and the '30 min' system at downtown McDonald's. Being smack downtown they have instituted a couple reasonable systems to keep people moving in and out. You get 30 min and you get 1 refill on your coffee. They slap a big 'X' on it to track it. He loves to watch guys try to cover the 'X' up with their hand in attempt to get round 3. Happens all the time, but he's never seen success! Again--gotta hear him tell it.

'J' and I get along. I hope I run into him again. He said he hits the library up almost everyday so I'm gonna keep an eye out. He taught me a lot. I needed to get out to Hillsboro Village for an errand and he taught me the bus schedule, actually waiting at the stop with me. He taught me which 24 hour restaurants a guy can stay warm in for 30min-1hour during the night--something he did last night and a lot of nights during the winter. 'J' is a nice guy, he's got a network of managers that are very kind in extending his stays and he never has to be asked to leave. He is respectful. We've all heard about how homeless will sometimes try to get arrested to get warm...I asked about this and he taught me about

"3 Hots and a Cot." (I felt stupid needing an explanation--hopefully you get it!) He taught me about 'Obama' phones. Hearing him talk about those dreaded times you get put on hold with customer service freakin cracked me up!

"You start sweatin, you want to hang up but you tell yourself their about to pick up, you start countdowns in your head and then you freak out and hang up. Then instantly you just know without a shadow of doubt, that that little customer service girl on the other end answered at that very moment. D&#M!" (I paraphrased that story, but it was freakin hilarious!)

He gets 250 min/month, a small amount of data and so many text messages. He often has to tell his cousin (or sister---i forget) goodbye before he wants to. The phones just cut off when you hit 250.

'J' didn't like having his photo taken. You'd think it would have been awkward after I asked and he said no but it wasn't. That's the type of guy he is. We had breakfast together at McD's--and neither of us had the guts to go for round 3!

I want to sincerely thank everyone reading. Honestly the feedback has been a bit overwhelming. I did not come into this with any solid expectations and have to admit I didn't even plan to write the blog until last minute based on a friend's suggestion. Seeing so many people that truly want to get involved, that want to figure out how to help is an amazing feeling. You know things hit home when people start talking about their giving their time, not just money.

-Matt

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