From God help me? to God Helped Me!

From God help me? to God Helped Me!, my life went from crazy insane, looking very bad & grim. To Crazy Insane laughing & loving it. lol. And no I didn't go back to drugs. So here's the update:

Last I posted I was homeless, in a shelter in Saskatoon, getting cut off on shelter allowance from disability on the 15th of June.. :( with only 3 days to find a place to move or back onto the streets.. (I love our system, you tell them your place you were living is being renovated so they cut you off & leave you with nothing, so you find a homeless shelter & figure hey your on disability & under no work order, social assistance should pay for you to have a room not just be in the dorm, after all I was on disability for sever depression, perfectionism & social anxiety to the point that I didn't come out to eat till after people were done) anyways. not so lucky but mixed blessings

So I talk to assistance & am told I have a room till the end of the month. I goto the shelter, get there & find out, nope my worker lied I only have a bed in the shelter till the 15th.. (I showed up on the 1st) OK, so keep looking for a place. Saskatoon is in a housing crisis. so no luck finding a place by the 15th.

So here's the good news, 2 days before the 15th, Im just sitting there in the lobby can't sleep due to drunks downstairs, kinda in anxiety attack & kinda just relaxing trying to calm down so I can go back downstairs. And the phone rings, security is in a bind, the cook called & can't come to work.. and no one else is around. So, I step up to the challenge, figure fuck it I have nothing to lose I'm out on the streets homeless on the 15th thanks to our governments lack of concern about those on assistance & the social workers not caring to meet face to face & help me find a solution. so I toss out the idea that I could help out if they need it. I've never worked in a kitchen but what the hell I like a challenge & am willing to learn.

I spent the next 3 weeks working in the kitchen pretty much full time 6am, till 6pm cooking & cleaning for everyone that lives / works at the shelter. And surprisingly loving it. I realized my depression was from not having any purpose in my life & not having anything to do. just day in day out, fear that life wouldn't get better, and anxiety stopping me from even going out & trying. What a huge change, I'm laughing, joking, smiling (which is/was a rare thing with me) and doing something I know not a thing about (cooking & serving for 46+ people who are all hard to handle homeless people, alcoholics, drug addicts & people with mental & physical disabilities)

So I did that for 3 weeks to trade some work for them keeping me there & feeding me. Then things get better yet. A girl from my church is looking at a house. I happen to be sitting outside the shelter as she's going to look at it with her son. So I offer to tag along & look the place over. Figure she's a single mom, & doesn't know much about houses & I've worked maintenance before so I know a little bit. Looks like a shack outside, but nice on the inside, no immediate problems, ask the land lord jokingly if he has any other places that are 1 bedroom or batch suite.. he laughs ya right down stairs. Go look downstairs & wow, gorgeous brand new legal basement suite with hard wood & stone tile. the price, exactly at the max of my spending. I can afford rent by no food. :S

Talk to the girl from the church & she likes the place but doesn't want to take it because of the basement suite.. worried about drunks or druggies. So I toss out what would you think if I rented the basement, would she take the upstairs. Its done, yes. lol so back to the shelter to wait till the 1st & see what assistance will do. (keep in mind I've been looking for a place for almost an entire month calling 15+ places every day & not finding 1 in my price thats not already rented) Get back to the shelter to sleep & do breakfast the next day, and the owner & manager approach me. Guess they really like having me there, I get along well with all the other tenants, I'm always offering to help out however I can & don't expect anything in return (though I'm hoping that they will let me stay by helping out..)

Hey we would like to talk to you.. come in the office.. uh oh, not good, only people who were in the office were either tenants being evicted, or people being detained while the police show up. :S

And more blessings from god, they really like having me there, so they offer me a full time, paid position working there.

:P so things are looking up. I'll post again another day, when I have more time & can get into the details of what I'm doing. And I also have a bunch of notes written about homeless resources for Saskatoon.. phone numbers, shelters, places to go, social assistance, rental lists for all the main property management firms in Saskatoon. As well as a list of where to go to get free food, & places where other homeless people hang out if your looking for other people in the same situation. Its pretty sad that we pay taxes to a government that will let its own people through 1 round of bad luck & stupid choices wind up in the streets & not even take the time to ask them what went wrong & how can he help. Its just good luck with that.