Day One… and so it begins

 I woke up this morning, snug as a bug in my bed at home, with the alarm reminding me that today was going to be an unusual day. I took an extra long shower, gave my hair an extra good wash. I had breakfast, two packages oatmeal, because I wasn’t sure when I was going to be eating next and then Armand and I hopped in the car and drove to Beamsville.

I was very anxious, very nervous about how everything was going to happen, and whether I would get the tent set up in time for the end of the church service. As I was working away on the tent, a truck turned onto William Street from King and yelled something out the window about the welfare state, I choose to think he was saying positive things about me and negative things about the state of the welfare of everyone.

When I was pretty much all set up and just tweaking things, CHCH pulled up. The church service was still going on. I was listening to it on my earbuds. The original plan was that Rev. Jane Capstick would be the person doing all the interviews, and I realized that’s not going to happen, as she was in the church leading the service!  I think I held my own and did a pretty good interview, and the videographer took lots of extra shots of the tent on the property.

I’ve had a lot of people slow down as they drive-by. Some people walking on the sidewalk looking at me others come up for a conversation. A car stopped on William Street and a woman came over to chat, she used to be a social worker in Hamilton, she signed the petition, which was awesome! I was visited by two newcomers to Canada, we had a wonderful conversation about how people need to do positive things and live in a positive way and lift each other up instead of constantly trampling each other down. 

The afternoon wore on, slowly, with me sitting in my chair just outside of the tent-tarp, and I watched cars, trucks, motorcycles and walkers go by.  Some people slowed their vehicles down to see what was going on, some walkers made eye contact, others just lowered their heads and pushed on by.

When the boredom was too much, and i was too cold to sit still anymore, I gathered up my backpack, put my chair blankets in the tent and got ready to go to the Fleming Centre to use the facilities and charge my devices (social media takes up sooooo much battery power!).  Jim showed up just then and we worked on installing the spotlight on the tent site to illuminate the tent and the little white sign outside.  

Once that was done, I set off on my journey to the arena.  Once I used the facilities I wandered around looking for electrical outlets near a seating area so I could keep an eye on my phone as it charged… ended upstairs in the areana, sitting on a cold concrete bench in front of a plug that I could use.  The areas was a different kind of cold, but cold no the less.  I tried to make eye contact with people walking by and smiling but rarely did that happen.  People were either really busy, taking care of kids or just not interested in exchanging smiles.  Made the space feel even colder.  Once my phone was back up to 90% power I left and started walking to Tim Hortons.

The Tim’s on the corner of John Street and Ontario  has always had a sign in the entranceway saying that only small back packs were allowed and of course, the usual 20 minute stay.  My back pack is fairly big, but proloby not big enough to challenge their sign, so a longer sitting time would be in order.  Each of their seating areas had electrical and usb chargers built into them, so i took advantage and got my phone and my watch up to 100%.  I need both for security, blogging, texting my loved ones and social media.  No one was making a fuss about me being th3ere so I read, answered texts, took a phone call, read som more, surfed socials and then feeling that my bum was numb, decided to walk back to the church.  

The phone call I received at Tim’s was Jim telling me a close friend had dropped of soup and coffee for me so I asked him to put it just inside the church door and I would be right there for it.  It was more than just soup and coffee, there was a sandwich too, and everything was delicious!  When I finished eating, I was cleaning up the area and putting chairs away and I found $10 on the ground, still not sure where that came from, but am very happy to have it.

Well, the rest of today will be getting the tent in order.  All I’ve done so far is shove everything in there!  I have cardboard I need to put down to keep me up off the cold ground, and a bed to make, and some stuff to sort out.  I am a little nervous, but I keep reminding myself that all will be well, most people haven’t really understood why the tent is on the lawn of the church and rpoloby don’t even know someone is sleeping in there!

Good Night everyone, chat with you again tomorrow.  Every do will be another step on this social justice journey, thank you for being on it with me.