When this website was first created back in May I thought I'd be in a better position by now to stage my first fund raising event in September to raise money for this organization and to create awareness for what has become an epidemic of homelessness in this country. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened because I haven't been able to secure a full time job, find enough volunteers to help me or collect enough donations to make ends meet. But when you're homeless, you must be able to roll with the punches, improvise often and never give up on creating awareness in the community about homelessness. So with that being said, I am still determined to stage this first official event come hell or high water. 

So I would like to invite one and all to the 1st annual "Sleep in your Car " event on Friday night, September 24. It still should be very mild at that time so no one will freeze and it will give everyone a good idea of just how difficult it is to live and sleep in a car as hundreds of people in the Twin Cities do every night. Joe Mauer and Brett Favre will be there (just kidding) but please don't let that stop you from attending. Hopefully, there will be a nice group of people that will want to experience what I have gone through on a regular basis and then spread awareness about this national problem. A donation of $20 will go directly to funding the costs associated with becoming a full 501 c3 non-profit and provide more support in the future. A donation of a 3-pack of white socks would also be greatly appreciated and would go to a local homeless shelter because that is the number one need for people. 

The great thing about staging this event is simple, whether anyone decides to participate or not, I will still be sleeping in my car so nothing will change for me. That's ironic, but not very funny. I would love to have company for just one night so please email me with your interest and if I get at least fifteen people interested in participating, I will then look for a nice quiet parking lot.....maybe of a business or church that would like to be accommodating to our needs. The truth is, homelessness isn't a glamorous topic or cause, but that doesn't mean it's not important. Community support is what makes change happen, let's start now. 

Date: Friday, September 24 until Saturday morning at 6am

Time: From Friday 11pm to Saturday 6am, with check in from 10pm to 11pm

Donation: $20 and a 3-pack of white socks which will be donated to a local shelter

What to Bring: Just your car, food and a good sense of humor!

To sign up email me at: TCManWalking@gmail.com 

Thank you!

Looking forward to picking up another donation of reuseable wattles bottles on Wednesday.

Thank you very much!

Being homeless is worst than you can possibly imagine.

It affects you mentally, physically and spiritually.

It gives you no confidence when you once had all the confidence in the world.

It plays with your emotions and toys with your psyche.

It makes you constantly think about the next few hours of your life instead of the next few years.

It makes your goals always the same; find food, shelter and stay safe.

Volunteers are the backbone of a successful organization and non profit.

The world will always need random acts of kindness, but what's needed more is deliberate acts of compassion as a lifestyle.

Help however you want, through your church, your employer or even with a local celebrity.

There are NO problems we can't solve together, but very few we can solve by ourselves.....L.B.J.

Special Thanks to:

Sara and Dave, for always offering to help me long before I would ever consider asking.

Bobbi, for knowing me well enough to know that I won't ask her for anything, so she just does it for me anyways.

Monika, by being like a sister to me....which means a great deal to me.

Wendy, for being the super human dynamo she is and kick-starting the campaign. Hope to work with you again!

Julia, for helping me understand all aspects of homelessness and poverty and laughing with me.

Jay, for being a good friend...always willing to help.

And last but certainly not least, Kathy, for making it so hard for me to feel guilty about sleeping in her house. You have given me the chance to recuperate these old bones and I won't forget it.

And thanks as well to: Coborns Delivers, Keith, Marge, Tina, Missy, Tim, and all others who helped this campaign become a success.

If this country ever does decide to clone human beings, the people I mentioned above would be an excellent group to start with. First class all the way.   

This is Dominic, the operations director at Salvation Army's Harbor Lights location. I told him that he will be seeing a lot of me in the future.....Now I just need to back that up. He's a good man and was very appreciative of our donation. 

Just by shear luck, Ryan who offered to shoot the video of our day happened to drive his truck, which gave us a second vehicle to load so we didn't have to make two or maybe three trips to downtown Minneapolis. 

I have driven by this building in downtown St. Paul a million times in my life but never imagined how big it was inside. It's huge! (sorry for the blurriness)

He is ready to unload our truck load of water for the Dorothy Day Center/Catholic Charities in downtown St. Paul.

Wow, today is September 1st already, it's amazing how quickly time marches on......even when you're homeless. I must admit that during the month of August, I have started to feel like a new man and look like one too. Once I got past the recuperation process from sleeping (or not sleeping) in my car for almost 4 months and getting my body back to normal, I started a rigorous conditioning program. And although I will never stop exercising, I have lost weight and feel more like my self again and it's only going to get better. I learned so many things from the homeless people that I talked with over these last six months, but one thing always stood out and it came from a man I had met at a rest stop where he spent each night during the winter months.....if you don't dig yourself out of being homeless quickly, it will swallow you up and turn you into a zombie in less than a year. And once that happens, the chances of you getting back to a normal life fall dramatically. I'll never forget looking at him with those lifeless eyes.....it was my first real wake up call.

Ever since that experience I knew that I needed to stay focused and committed to getting out of this hole I dug for myself or more appropriately, the hole that was dug for me by the bad economy. As people who now know me will attest to, I like to do things on my own, but even an old dog can learn a few new things once in a while and when I finally started letting a few people help me a little bit, then my life started to change for the better. In this past month I have also decided that I need to create my own success without waiting for the economy to pick up and companies to start hiring again, so I'm focusing on my old advertising/consulting business and adding a few new areas of interest that should work well for the future. I have a small window of opportunity and I'm going to make every second count....that's why I don't have time to write many blog posts anymore or connect with people like in past months because I have to concentrate on building a new life.

Although I have a very long way to go, things have sure changed for the better considering where I was in my life just six months ago. I remember vividly the day I moved all of my personal belongings into my second storage space which was filled mainly of chairs, tables, dressers, desks, kitchen things, clothes and some smaller pieces of furniture. I have another storage space next door to that which I rented when I originally moved from a house and that has all my larger pieces of furniture, garage items, tools and office items. But the second space was leased early this year and to be very honest.....I was there today to try and get some autumn/winter clothes and I couldn't get to them. At the time that I moved that stuff in there, I was so distraught thinking that I wasn't going to last very long as a homeless person so I took all of my winter clothes and all of my very nice winter coats, suits, wool pants, cords, sweaters and buried them in the very back of the storage space on my bed.......thinking that I would never need to wear them again. It was a very emotional day for me and one that I will never forget. 

So now I don't have a clue as to what I should do to get all of those winter clothes. If I try to pull everything out, I will never get it all back in there again because it's crammed to the rafters and I certainly can't afford to buy anything else. Well, one bridge crossed and another one is in full view to deal with. That's what life is all about, but I'm not complaining because I've come along way in just six months and I'm not finished yet.       

Yes it's true, timing is everything. I've said it all my life and I've had good timing and bad timing over the years and so does everyone else. So what can you do about it? You deal with it because it's a part of life both good and bad, but for me, I'm looking forward to some much better timing from now on. I'm getting my act together and am not going to be afraid of having people know who I am or what I've been through. And I'm definitely not going to be shy about spreading awareness about homelessness. Because if you don't have a passion in life, what's the purpose of even being here?

I'm starting to resurrect my old professional life, but mix in all the new and important things I've learned this year during my struggles, which will make me a much better person. And isn't that what we all should strive to do?  :)

Friday August the 13th was not an unlucky day for me, in fact it was one of the best days I've had in a long time. It was the first day maybe this entire year where I put off the stress of being homeless, put off the frustration of being unemployed, put off the indignity of being poor and just spent the day enjoying myself. Yes, I was reminded yesterday just how good it feels to be normal.....if only for a day. I had the privilege of having lunch with three nice guys that I met through Twitter, which was long overdue and then was lucky enough to go to my very first Twins game at Target field with tickets I won from 1500 KSTP radio on Twitter just two days before.

Do you see a trend (or trending topic) in that first paragraph? I now could revert back to my last blog and subsequent blogs where I've spoken highly of Twitter, but I won't. I think it's important to add on to what I've already shared and mention the clear and rewarding value that social networking can play in anyone's life......including mine. In fact I don't mind saying that I don"t know where I'd be today had it not been for some great people I've connected with on Twitter and I think it should be exposed more through the media because it definitely is relevant to our world today. When I think about some of the great people I've met through Twitter already and then think about how I could have very easily not met them....it becomes astounding. 

The day before Friday was quite a very different story for me and much more typical of what I've had to deal with over the last couple of weeks. I've only made mention of this to a few close friends but it had become necessary for me to panhandle in certain locations to get enough money just to pay for gas and purchase other essentials in order to survive. Quite a turnaround for a guy that has owned an expensive Lexus and two BMW's just a short time ago, but that's how quickly one's life can change nowadays. On Friday.....knowing full well that I needed money in order to attend the game that I had just won tickets for, I made my way to an undisclosed location where I've planted myself a few times before in the past two weeks. And like those other times, it was very, very warm. But the heat was nothing compared to the indignity and embarrassment that goes with this sub-human act of survival. I would challenge anyone to create their own little sign that reads "Desperately Need Money for Food and Gas" and make a day of it out in the hot sun not knowing what to expect from people as they pass by you. When someone from now on asks me what is the lowest point I've had to endure in being homeless, I will drive them to a busy street corner and show them personally what my answer is. When people in the past have asked me what is the hardest part of being homeless, I've always said it's sleeping in my car. But I stand corrected because at least no one can see me in my car as they can standing out on that street corner.

As my one normal day was quickly coming to a close, I decided to leave the game in the seventh inning and fulfill a promise I had made to myself the day before. I only spent $5 at the ballgame to have a brat that my mouth was watering for all afternoon. I had brought in two bottles of water which a friend had reminded me was okay to do, so that left me with $9 that I had collected the day before. I walked out the opposite exit of the ballpark from where my car was located because I wanted to find any homeless friends that I could connect with. It wasn't long before I met a few guys by an open parking lot and one of those men specifically who's name was Sam. He wasn't open to speaking much or letting me take his picture, but he wasn't shy about asking for money. And I said brother, you can have everything I've got which is $9 and I don't care what you do with it as long as it makes you happy. He didn't have a clue as to what I was talking about, all he cared about was that someone was giving him $9 and he had a big smile on his face. And his smile now matched the smile I had on my face for the whole day.