Journal entry, Stardate 1.29.2010:

It's about quarter after noon and it's already been a good day.

My road dog nick and I have been sitting here in the parking lot at Jack 'n The Box, on the corner of Mitchel and Hatch (on the border between Modesto and Ceres, CA) for about forty minutes. He's been reading, I was drawing until a few minutes ago, and we have already made about $12.75 by taking turns asking departing Jack's customers if they can spare forty-two cents towards lunch. Also, the sun is shining down out of a baby blue sky spotted with fluffy white clouds like a psychedelic dalmatian for the third day in a row after more than a month of gray skies and rain.

Yes, we are asking people for money. We have become professional panhandlers from necessity. Neither one of us likes it much, hell, I did not go to college for eight years and get a MA in English so I could beg for a living, but living in a tent down by the river has its compensations.

How I got here from there is a rather long story, and I will tell it to you, but for now let's just say that it included relationships, fires, the economy at this particular time in American history, and various other factors. Now that we got rid of the evil bastards Bush and Cheney, maybe O'bama will start improving things (though I'm not holding my breath), but for now I am stuck outside.

Yesterday was great, Susanne (a friend from college who has been a big support, and is a wonderful person and an inspiration as an artist) came to our camp early in the morning and woke us up to invite us over to take showers. Hot showers are a beautiful thing when you spend most of your time out in the cold and wet), so we went to her house, got showered up and made breakfast of eggs, oatmeal and leftovers.

Then she dropped us off to take care of our business while she took care of hers. Panhandling sucked yesterday, but we made enough for cigarettes and new lighters, we have food, and since we quit drinking a week ago, life has gotten cheaper. We spent the afternoon walking in the sun, reading, and hanging out. Then, about three-thirty we met Susanne at her house and took a road-trip to Fresno to keep her company and get out of town for an evening. There was an information session for an MA in education/credentialing program that Susanne had heard about and I would qualify for as well. I went to session with Susanne and Nick went across street to mall. He found himself disgusted by all the fashion victims, so, after checking email at Apple store, he came back and read in lobby until we were done. The program sounds great, with up to fifty-thousand in grants on a thirty-six-thousand dollar, one year intensive MA program. Susanne is going to apply, I won't be able to get everything together by the deadline, and I don't really want to teach high-school anyway, but I was tempted.
After the session, we went to this huge Chinese/Japanese Buffet that had an enormous selection of great food. We pigged out on seafood, veggies, bbq pork, broccoli beef, sushi rolls, soup salad, stuffed mushrooms, sauteed mushrooms, fruit, spring rolls, rice, chow mien, ice cream, pudding, cake and more, all washed down with Jasmine tea and water. Yes, Water. Nick and I quit drinking last Sunday after church, and Susanne rarely drinks at all.
After dinner, we drove back to Modesto and she dropped us off near our camp on her way home. We walked down to the river and got set up. No one had messed with our stuff, which is always a worry (this is my fourth tent in seven months), we read for awhile, then crashed and slept like logs, or road dogs.