Cas's Crazy Thoughts: December 2011

Well, after all my moaning last year, this year I did it. I raised my money and I did Homeless for a night. This is a fundraiser put on by the Fuller Center. The Fuller Center was started by the same man that started Habitat for Humanity. It’s a pretty awesome charity, and they’re doing big things in my area. I decided to help everyone see what was happening during the night I’d start a twitter hashtag and tweet all through the night. If you want to search for all my tweets, you can visit my twitter feed, or search for #homelessforanight in twitter. Guys this event was so awesome to be a part of. It’s really eye opening. Sure it was cold being out there with the frost and all, but I knew that this was just for a few hours. I knew that at 7:00 they were sending us all home, after donuts and chocolate, and I could go get in my nice warm bed and curl up with my sleeping bride. Speaking of my bride, before she left me for the night, I asked her for her socks. I already had on two pair and my toes were frozen solid. So she was nice enough to loan me the thick fuzzy socks that I let her wear out of my drawer before we left the house.
In total we all raised just over 29,000 dollars! That’s just over half of the cost to build a deserving family a home.
At the start of the night I figured I’d stay awake through the whole thing, but around 3:00 I decided that standing around a fire barrel wasn’t going to give me the full experience. I walked way away from the warmth of the barrels and climbed into my home for the night. Two cardboard boxes that I taped together to make one home big enough for my long body. I was surprised at how well the boxes kept in the heat once I was inside and closed off all the openings. Granted, this is not the ideal sleeping arrangement, but for one night, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I couldn’t imagine having to do this every night though.
To start the night we had local bands playing, some kids playing football, and a soup kitchen making potato soup. The rest of us were setting up our homes and decorating. Everyone kept it a secret from my Bride that there was a contest for the best decorated box. The prize was an iPad2. They all knew if my Bride knew there was a decorating contest they didn’t stand a chance so they cheated and left that little piece of info out. She would have had me a two story cardboard house with a dinning room and seating for eight. I would have had a working fireplace, a chandelier, DirecTV, and a white picket fence. My bride is crafty yo! But alas, no one told us so we had one sad little pumpkin that I had taken from our put away fall decorations and placed him in front of my boxes. Below are some of my tweets, in my sleep deprived mind these were twitter gold.

My home for the night. #homelessforanight

Hands are frozen, hard to type on the iPhone. #homelessforanight
Made my bride @howardsmithhome surrender her socks before she left for our nice warm house tonight. #homelessforanight
All these extra layers are making using the restroom a challenge. #homelessforanight
Getting a little frosty #homelessforanight

Someone apparently didn't check the weather before coming to #homelessforanight

Someones cardboard box just got jacked. It's hard out here on the streets. #homelessforanight cold blooded.
Cardboard box is very ineffective at dampening train noise. I think it's coming right at me. #homelessforanight
Now that I'm settled I really have to pee. Getting up would destroy my house. I'll have to hold it. #homelessforanight
As a grown man of 32 years I'm very disappointed in myself for not going to the bathroom before getting in my box. #homelessforanight
I can hold it no longer I will risk destroying my house in an effort for the comfort of an empty bladder. #homelessforanight
I'm all hopped up on mountain dew so sleep evades me. Standing by the fire it is. #homelessforanight
5:30 temp update. #homelessforanight the thick sheet of ice on my windshield tells me it's cooler than advertised.