Happy Mother's Day

I don't even think she'll read this, but I thought I'd do a sappy happy mom day scribe.

My early childhood, as far as I remember, was happy.  I see so many kids these days who are constantly getting yelled at or threatened by the people they thought were there to care for them.

My childhood was filled with laughter. My mom definitely comes alive around kids. Laughter is the greatest gift any adult can give to a child. 

My perspective as a non-parent observing parents is that their stress gets transferred onto the kids. In the absence of laughter is a scowl and stress and uncertainty.

Looking back there should've been much more to stress about. We hastily left lifelong family friends we were staying with in North Carolina. We moved numerous times. We were in a station wagon on the way to Kroger in the middle of what we later learned was a tornado.

It was my mom's demeanor that let me know it would be ok. There was rarely a scowl on her face. We played together. We laughed. I was never in tears thinking about money or where I would live and I was never walking on eggshells around her, afraid of being hit because I forgot a chore or I embarrassed her somehow.

I'm an adult now and I have had to worry about where I was going to live and I have wept while worrying about money. I've been to many funerals and  lost friends due to death or distance...

And through all of those hard times, I find comfort and security in memories of laughter with my mom and my sister, playing outside.

Still Poor.

In case any of you were wondering...

I'm still poor.

God dammit. 

This isn't alimony, because I have no kids. This isn't delinquent taxes, either. This a credit card company and the debt collector they sold my debt to, wringing out interest charges and court costs. It's  squeezing blood from a rock.

P.S.

I got this in the mail a few days later...

1 Month Of Not Being Homeless - An Update.

Originally posted to my gofundme page...

I've been in my apartment for just over a month, so I thought I would post this update.  The apartment wasn't ready until 11/5 and I'm still not all the way moved in yet.  My cat is still staying at my friend's house with him and his girlfriend's 4 other cats.  I'm hoping to go down and get her this weekend(Ms. Teschmacher, not my friend's gf). 

My cooktop doesn't work, so I eat out too much or eat cold cuts. I just worked 122.25 hrs for the last two week pay period, so my check this Friday should be huge.

I'm still poor though...

My gas tank has some weird issue where it has to be filled really slowly or it shuts off when filling.  I used most of my last check for rent and cell phone and various other bills, so I'm not saving yet.

I'm still a non-running car away from losing this job.

I'll always have that anxiety, at least as long as I have a beater, emergency car and only make $11/hr.  I'm going to start looking around for Columbus, OH based food industry work. In the meantime, I have a pretty decent non-professional job, so I'm in an ok place. My apartment is smaller than I realized, but it's relatively cheap.  If the car croaks, I'm on the bus line and can hopefully find a walkable/busable job.  I originally set this gofundme campaign for $2000, not really knowing what amount to set.  If you want to give more, it won't be wasted, but I'm done campaigning for dollars online.

A sincere thanks to those who gave, and to many people who gave multiple times. You helped me not be homeless. This is the start. I still need to show up every day and fight for better pay or better, more relevant work.  

I'll never settle. 

Thanks again.

Homed.

In college, one of my friends dated a girl named Toria. Toria had a friend named Laura, and Laura could have a bit of a prickly demeanor. There was an epic argument that stemmed from a comment I made to my friend about a pic. I meant no harm, but my friend's girlfriend's prickly friend's protective instincts kicked in and she let loose with a barrage of insults, including this one:

"You should get a cat, so you'd at least have one friend."

A couple years later, I was down and out, staying with my parents in their poor person apartment. It was a bitter cold winter in 2010. One day, I was getting something out of my car, and this cat appeared:

She then jumped in my open car door:

It was pretty cold and I think, more than anything, she was trying to warm up. This cat was homeless. I wasn't doing much better, living with my poor parents. Eventually, my mom held the door open for way too long while bringing in groceries, and walla... we have a cat.

Eventually, my mom pretended the cat was my idea and the responsibility fell on me to look after her.

She's been staying with a friend since June, when I became homeless.  I miss her.

The good news is I got an apartment!  The less good news is that it isn't ready to move in until 11/3.

I'm still about $600 short of my goal over at gofundme.com/samvance 

While I did get the apartment, I still need money for apartment supplies, food, and costs associated with getting all of my things to Columbus from Cincinnati.

I can't wait to move into my apartment, even though it's nerve wrecking because it was supposed to be 11/1, but got pushed back...

And I miss my cat.

The apartment ad:

https://columbus.craigslist.org/apa/5283052742.html

No Goal.

The following was posted as an update to my GoFundMe campaign:

I've learned some interesting and hard truths about humanity after I started this GoFundMe campaign.

If you profess yourself as homeless and in need of help, many people won't believe you.

This is similar to the responses I've gotten to Poor Blog by people I call, 'bootstrappers' - those who find something, anything wrong  that you've done and use that as an excuse to place the full blame on you; typically resulting in the clichéd call to pull yourself up by your boot straps.

It boils down to a lack of empathy. I'd like to think this cold hearted reaction is something of a defense mechanism. If everybody who is poor or homeless, is poor or homeless because of their own actions, then you don't have to worry about becoming poor or homeless, in part, because of circumstances beyond your control.

Worse than not believing me, is people ignoring me altogether.

This is the largest response to my campaign, which is nothing... literally.

Don't get me wrong, I have had some donors, who I appreciate immensely. When the GoFundMe  campaign launched, I was quickly on pace to reach my goal in less than 2 days, but it quickly died.  I have received many RT's, my retweet reach has been in the hundreds of thousands, yet the donations slowed to a trickle.

The retweets I get now are from just a couple people, who themselves are ostracized from their peers - so the impact of those RT's is pretty low.

I have learned that for some, political issues trumps the well being of people they would claim to care about.  The people that picked up my homeless tweets are anti #GMO. For the record, I support #GMO, but I was in no position to turn down help, especially since I have resorted to what the bootstrappers call 'online begging'.

What I noticed was that the dedication of the much maligned anti-GMO tweeters far outpaced that of my own friends on the  GMO side.  Part of the reason is that the anti-GMO tweeter's RT's weren't seen by the  GMO tweeters who already blocked them.

But that doesn't really explain it. I tweeted plenty about being homeless & will often tag my tweets with #GMO... and no response.  

I'm $1,070 short of my goal. The reason I need to raise this money is that my job pays just enough to cover rent, but not the deposit, cost of turning on utilities, food and sundry items for the apartment, and costs associated with getting my things(and cat) from Cincinnati up to Columbus.

The longer I have to wait to save up the money, the less likely I am to find an affordable apartment.

What I need from you is 1. money.., not gonna lie and 2. promotion.  I need people who don't follow me to see my homeless tweets or your tweet about my homelessness with the GoFundMe link.  To get 10 donors, I need thousands of tweets/shares/etc.

Please help.

gofundme.com/samvance

p.s.

You can still donate to my PayPal by using the link on my Twitter profile.

Less Bad Is Not Good

Things are not as bad as they were a month ago. I now have a job that I'm training for. My car has a new battery, a new right outer tie rod, and via a Hyundai recall, a new subframe.

So things certainly aren't as dire.

Through an uncomfortable amount of solicitation, I was fortunate enough to raise gas money to get me to work until I get paid. I also found out on day one, that HR was wrong and my 1st pay will be on October 9th, not October 16th. I also learned that I get an attendance bonus, paid quarterly.

So that's certainly not a bad thing.  Yes, things are better, but they aren't good.

Currently, I commute about 73 miles a day for work, which is too much gas and too much wear and tear on an already worn car. My brakes are fading. I have no savings.

I really want to get an apartment. I'm homeless still, but couch surfing in my sister's basement, so it could be worse...

And this is the frustration. Some people stepped up big and donated so I could have gas money to get to work, but when I tried to raise some money to be able to get an apartment sooner rather than later, it has been virtual crickets with a couple exceptions.

Things are better, but they aren't good.

I'm still in training for a few more weeks. After the training period is over, I'll be eligible to work overtime. Overtime is what I really need, and it would be great if I had an apartment to come home to with a shorter commute to make all the overtime of a peak season for this job(call center) more bearable. Also, if I have an apartment by the time training is done, I'll have more time to work more overtime.

I would love to get some donations toward getting an apartment, which I would combine with my 1st check.

If you wish to help me get a place to live sooner rather than later, just click the link on my Twitter profile or click here: http://paypal.me/poorblog I promise you I'm not some scammer, just a guy trying to climb out of the cellar, find a place to live, and reunite with my cat, Ms. Teschmacher. 

Fear The Walking Zombie Debt.

Any Ohio licensed JD's able to help out with something?  

I'm dealing with Zombie Debt & the creditor handling the summary judgement, National Check Bureau c/o David Bader, is draining my bank account slowly and sporadically, allowing interest and whatever fees he can dream up, to accumulate.

In 2010, this creditor(person who bought my debt) started taking money out of my bank account.  I was able to talk to them and explain that I was in a pretty bad shape, financially, and asked if they could  give some breathing room. I may have agreed to make payments, which never happened, either because I didn't have it or because it slipped my mind completely.

Obviously, I bare some responsibility here, much in the same way that the guy trying to talk the meter maid into 'letting it slide' failed to get back to his car on time. Except, I will say that this firm bought bad debt, they weren't trying to collect money they lent me personally. Inherently, there is a touch of douchebaggery baked into their business model, that is, to exploit the financial shortcomings of others while charging interest and fees.

They probably bought my debt for a few hundred dollars at most, but attempted to collect the full amount of the original debt. I guess, it's lucrative work if you lack all empathy and soul.

In early June(5 years later, I checked my bank account and discovered that $102.55 had been withdrawn by this lawyer and National Check Bureau. It was his bank garnishment in June that led me to leave my apartment. I no longer had the rent.  I'm starting a new job and will be saving to get a place to live, and I'm afraid that he'll swoop in just when I have enough money saved and drain my account. Every time he does this, the court charges $50, which gets added to the 'fees' I have to pay.  I barely have the gas money I need to commute until I get my first check. Imagine if the gas/food money I sorely need is stripped away?

If anyone can, please donate. That money is safe in my PayPal until I need to withdraw it.  If anyone is or knows a lawyer licensed in Ohio that is willing to contact these guys on my behalf and get them to back off or set up some other arrangements, it would be greatly appreciated.

PayPal link: http://paypal.me/poorblog