7:00 a.m. I woke up with my guest, I had to shut the tent warmer off in the night for safety reasons. The tent is cold, I take my pills, and I drink a Celsius energy drink. Once I get some energy I get dressed to keep me warm. I turn the tent warmer on again, so my guest does not have to get ready in the cold. Once I’m up and moving, I’m working to get my guest motivated because she has to go to work. She takes her time getting her things together and putting on her makeup.
8:10 a.m. We zip up the tent, and begin to hike out of the woods. I drive my date back to her car and then I go park my truck in a safe location. I walked back over to my little car and I drove to the Salem library. There’s a bad tick bite on my belly. I have to do some research on Lyme tick disease and call my provider to see if I can get medication.
9:00 a.m. I head into the library and I start to do some research on Lyme disease. It’s important to catch it early, and the bite I have looks like the Lyme bites I see online. I call my provider and and I get a prescription for antibiotics to be picked up at CVS in Salem.
11:30 a.m. I walk over to CVS to see if my prescription is ready. When I get to CVS the pharmacist says that I have to come back after 2:30, since the prescription isn’t filled yet. I walk over to Lifebridge to eat lunch. One thing I love about Salem is everything is close together, which makes travel easy. I enter the shelter building of Lifebridge, where the meals are served, and I see some of my new friends like Mike and the Devil of Salem. I sit with them. While I’m eating my lunch a shelter worker approaches me and tells me I have to leave. I say, “why?” He says, “you just have to leave.” I say, “I’m eating and if you don’t have a reason why I have to leave I’m going to finish my meal.” The shelter worker said, “I just got into work, and she, referring to the woman at the front desk, told me you have to leave.” I was pulling my phone out, and was preparing to film this blatant violation, when one of the people I was sitting with said, “only people who are staying in the shelter can eat in the shelter, everyone else eats in the day center.” The shelter worker agreed, and this gave me a reason, so I took my food and left. This really got me thinking, it seemed like the shelter worker thought he could command me to do something, without giving me a reason why I had to do it. This is unacceptable, I only take commands when I understand the reasoning. Is this how homeless people are talked to?given orders without a reason why they should comply. I will be looking out for this type of treatment in the future.
12:30 p.m. I have some time to kill so I head back to the library to continue working on social media stuff, and writing the blogs.
2:30 p.m. I walk back over to CVS and get my 28 day supply of Doxycycline. I record a couple more videos to highlight the possible Lyme disease I contracted, and the medication I promptly got to solve the problem. I walk over to the tent city next to Wendy’s. Nobody’s there that I can see, and the wind is blowing ferociously. I took a quick video to highlight the eerie atmosphere. I start walking back towards the library, I had plans to have dinner with a friend of mine and her son. I decided to sit in my car which was parked out front the library, and just voice-to-text blogs.
6:00 p.m. My friend calls me to arrange that we meet at a seafood restaurant. It’s a nice dinner with my friend and her son. I always enjoy spending time with them.
8:30 p.m. I drove back over to my friend’s place. She lets me spend the night on the couch, and I’m grateful because it would have been a long drive back to my campsite, not to mention the hike in the woods.