Monthly Archives: February 2024

Olivia Could Read My Mind, That Was Cool until I Got Busted

Posted on by under Dating and Relationships., Homelessness

You can’t get over on them, don’t try

Photo by ELEVATE: https://www.pexels.com/photo/four-women-sitting-on-benches-outside-building-1267708/

After spending three months upstairs at the shelter, in a room with ten other guys I got my room. I was living in a transitional housing facility.

I had my room, but there was no water in the room, and a fridge and stove were not allowed. The last summer I was there I started to get bored with being there.

You would say it was an error in judgment, and you would be right

I began hanging out in the park by the building. The shelter owned the park. It wasn’t long before I was drinking with my neighbors. I never had a drinking problem.

I had promised myself that I wouldn’t drink while I was on the street, but I let my guard down. I never got drunk. I never caused a problem.

I was feeling good and having fun

One evening, I went to the park. it was a nice night, and the tables and benches were full. There was a spot left at a table. I sat down at a table full of women.

I said, “ Hey,” they all said, “Hey,” then one of them passed me a can of soda. That contained a little soda and a lot of vodka. We were having a good time until Olivia called.

How did she know?

I don’t know how Olivia does it, but she can read my mind. She knows when I’m trying to get over, and I get busted every time. It’s like she smelled my breath through the phone.

We had a chilly, and short conversation. I went back to my room, and she called me back. She wasn’t happy. She wasn’t so mad about the drinking.

I got chewed out, she was unhappy, for some reason

She was pissed because I was drinking with women. I apologized and said I would never do it again. I kept my word. I would have a drink with the guys, but I never sat and drank with the women after that night.

I shouldn’t have been drinking in the first place. I had promised myself that I wouldn’t drink while I was homeless. I had my own room, so I guess I became too comfortable.

Boredom and loneliness will get you in trouble

Anyway, I never sat and drank with women again. The only reason I did that night, was it was the only place to sit. I was also bored and lonely.

Olivia didn’t worry about me drinking with the guys, she didn’t approve, but she could deal with it. She wasn’t down with me drinking with the women.

Women have radar:

My advice is never to try to get something past the woman in your life. They know you better than you think, and you will get busted.

Lost in Minneapolis: Table of contents
lawsonwallace.medium.com

Illumination Book Chapters

Posted on by under Writing and creativity

The New Shelter

Lost in Minneapolis Chapter Three: Olivia Sends me a Cellphone

Photo by Michael Burrows from Pexels

On my last day at the shelter, I went downstairs and ate breakfast, then I went upstairs and packed. I sat and waited for the caseworker to come upstairs and take me to transitional housing.

It was an ugly building, but I didn’t care

My new home was an ugly eight-story building in downtown Minneapolis. I got my stuff out of the back of the caseworker’s car, I needed to get a cart to haul all my crap. I entered the building, there was a window just inside the entrance where a black woman sat at a desk.
 She introduced herself and led me to a table, we sat down and she pulled papers from a folder. I spent several minutes signing papers and listening as she laid down the rules.

There are always rules

With that done, I was given a tour of the building, then another resident lead me to the laundry area on my floor, all my clothes had to run through the dryer in a futile effort to kill the bedbugs.

It was the first time that I was alone in months

I spent the rest of the day in my room napping. There was no WIFI or running water and having food and cooking in the rooms was against the rules. I slept until near lunchtime, then I headed downstairs to the dining room.
 “The food is better here.” I thought as I ate my lunch. I finished eating and went back to my room. That first night alone in my room, I couldn’t sleep. The sores from the bedbug bites I sustained at the other shelter were itching and driving me nuts.

Too excited to sleep, or it was probably the long nap

The bedbugs and excitement about being in a new place kept me awake most of the night.
“The food is better.” I thought as I ate lunch. During the week, there was a cold breakfast, a choice of cereal or toast, and bagels. Lunch and dinner were hot meals, but there was a hot breakfast on weekends.

I spent a lot of time in the computer room

I ate breakfast, then I decided to check out the computer room. I had to sign in and give the employee at the desk my driver’s license, then she led me to the computer room and logged me into a computer.
 
Several computers were in use, folks streaming videos, or on Facebook. I checked my email, then I logged on to Facebook and talked to Olivia for an hour or so. I was still beat down from the shelter, but I needed to get out and explore the area and get things done.

I got out and explored Minneapolis

The third day, I felt a lot better, I found out where the transit office was, I bought a bus pass, I then headed back to the post office to check my mail. Olivia sent me a DVD. I watched the movie and went to bed early.
 My room was small, with no running water and an awful bed, but it did have a small desk and the most uncomfortable chair on earth, made from plastic. I didn’t care, I wrote almost every day.

I worked on the novel I will never finish

The next day, I met with a caseworker and a nurse to discuss my medications and my health. I spent the rest of the day on Facebook and in my room writing.
 After about five days, people started to introduce themselves and the seeds of friendships were planted.

The Staff took care of me

My caseworker arranged for the shelter to buy me some much-needed glasses. I started to get out and explore the area. I quickly fell in love with downtown Minneapolis.
The shelter was close to the library, and a Barnes and Noble’s was closer still. My book collection grew. Everything was great, but not having a phone was a pain in the ass.

We had never met in person, but she sent me a phone

“How would you like me to send you a phone?” Olivia asked me one day. I wasn’t surprised, she had been sending me money for months. I told her having a phone would be awesome.
 I walked across town to the post office by the other shelter to get it. I walked back to the shelter and spent the rest of the day syncing music, I loved that phone. I spent the next few days going from WIFI hotspot to WIFI hotspot downloading free music and posting on social media.

My first case manager was useless

I was assigned a case manager, I was supposed to see him forty-eight hours after I moved into the shelter. I think I met him a month later. I discovered quickly how big a piece of shit he was, but he was worse than I knew.
 My case manager did the little things to pad his reports, He first took me to get a replacement for my worn and tattered Social Security card, the next day he took me to the DMV to get my State Identification card.
 The people at the DMV wanted to see my Birth Certificate, but I didn’t have it with me. Kenny took me back a week later after I found the Birth Certificate in my overnight bag.

The Skyways fascinated me

When the Caseworker left me alone, I spent my days either in my room or exploring the Skyways. I would also take a short walk to the library. The library was fun to go to. It was a better experience being there and not having to worry about dozing off.
 We received our General Assistance money on the first. Most of my neighbors spent their money on booze and drugs. The Park next to the shelter would be a party zone for a few days, then it would die down as the money ran out.
 
I would get necessities, snacks, laundry detergent, and clothing. I always had money left over. I also spent a lot of time at the Book store. I always managed to stop by the coffee shop and buy a Mocha or Latte.

Two years after we starting talking, we finally met

Time went by, Olivia and I had been talking for two years. One day Olivia called me, “Hey babe, how would you like for me to come to Minneapolis for a few days?” The smile I had when I heard those words damned near split my skull in half.
 We talked some more, then we both got busy. I couldn’t just leave the shelter for the weekend. I had to get a pass from my case manager, while Olivia booked a hotel room.
 I was so excited; I was ready to explode. The funny thing was, I wasn’t nervous at all. I packed my overnight bag the night before I left. The next morning, I walked the few blocks to the light-rail station heading to the Airport.

The Next Chapter:

We finally meet in person.

Life after Minneapolis

Lawson lives in South Carolina with his wife Olivia. It has been four years since he left Minneapolis. His life is a lot better now.

The Room Upstairs and a Big Mistake

Posted on by under Writing and creativity

Lost in Minneapolis Chapter two: She forgave me for being an Idiot

Photo by MART PRODUCTION from Pexels

My name’s Lawson Wallace. I live in South Carolina with my wife Olivia. My wife has been after me to write a book about when I was homeless and how we met. I decided to publish the book here on Illumination Book Chapters.

The story is true as best as I can remember it. Some things though were blocked out. I have included background from when I was younger for context.

In this chapter: I get a bed upstairs and Olivia and I get to know each other

The Room upstairs

At the time, I had an iPhone. The carrier had discontinued service because they wanted me to pay my bill for some reason. There was a payphone on the floor; Olivia had texted me her cellphone number; one afternoon, I called her.

It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I stopped in front of the phone and picked up the receiver, and started dropping quarters into the slot. We talked until I ran out of quarters.

WIFI is a beautiful thing

“Wait a minute.” I was sitting on the bunk and in front of my laptop; when Olivia messaged me. “You have an iPhone, and you have WIFI, right?” I confirmed that I did have both of those.

“We can talk on our phones over WIFI.” I shook my head and smiled ruefully. I gave her my number, and she called me.

Why didn’t I think of that?

Once we started talking, we talked all the time. The only problem I had was finding an outlet to keep my phone charged. After a few weeks of talking on the phone, Olivia started sending me money.

Olivia was concerned about me

I was supposed to be receiving GA and food stamps, but somehow that didn’t happen. Olivia was concerned, that’s why she started sending me money that somehow rarely made it past the shelter mailbox.

“There’s a post office around the block from the shelter,” I told her one day. She asked me for the address and phone number. She wanted to know how much a post office box cost.

I soon had a post box to receive money and whatever else she wanted to send me. I sent her a picture, and she decided I needed a haircut. This led to an embarrassing incident, or as I like to call a bone-head move.

For a smart guy, I do incredibly dumb things

I was staying with these people, it was an uncomfortable situation, so I stayed in the basement as much as possible. I spent a lot of time on my laptop. It was around this time that someone had hacked some celebrity computers.

Thousands of hours of sex videos and nude pictures of these celebrities were online for the world to see. I couldn’t resist the chance to see Kate Upton and other attractive stars naked.

I was proud of my first haircut in months

What I didn’t realize was, the MacBook saved all those pictures to my hard drive. While I was upstairs, Olivia sent me the money to get a haircut. One of my roommates took me to a haircutting place in Nicollet Mall.

I heard about the skyway, but I never thought about exploring it. My roommate led me through it to the mall. The skyway is an interlinked closed pedestrian footbridge that connects nine and a half miles of Downtown Minneapolis.

To say that Olivia was pissed is an understatement

I got my haircut and excitedly headed back to the shelter, I wanted to show Olivia my new haircut. I sat on the bed and powered up the MacBook and used the camera and took a selfie, then I sent a photo.

I realized a second too late, that I sent the nude photo of Kate Upton. “Fuck, Shit, no, no,” I repeated aloud as I frantically pounded on the keys of the MacBook. It was no use. I waited with my blood pressure escalating for the call that came seconds later.

She forgave me, Thank God

“I’m so sorry Olivia, please, I’m so sorry.” I waited for her response, silently pleading that she wouldn’t dump me. She started to talk, she was calm, but her voice could have frozen the Lake of Fire.

“I don’t know why you sent that to me, but I forgive you.” I calmed down a bit, but I wondered what she would say next. “Forget about it.” She said, her voice thawing a little.

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” She said. We talked a few more minutes, when we finished the call, I went through the MacBook and deleted everything that was remotely objectionable.

We laugh about it now

We still talk about the picture incident, but she doesn’t find it as funny as I do now. At the time it wasn’t funny at all. There were other incidents where we had words, but the picture incident was the worst.

The Housing people found me a place to live

I spent Christmas and New Year’s upstairs, I didn’t know it at the time, but the next stage of my life as a homeless person was about to begin.

The housing Lady had sent me to three or four places to see if they would accept me, the last place she sent me accepted my application.

I Was in My Fifties When I Took My First Solo Road Trip

Posted on by under Dyslexia, Homelessness

Mom and Dad would have been proud of me.

Photo by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-wearing-blue-jacket-sitting-inside-car-while-driving-376729/

The Beginning

That morning I was lying on my sofa, I was scheduled to work that night. There was a knock at my door.

I accepted the eviction notice and called off for the night.

I stayed with a woman I met online for a month until she decided to go back to her husband. I tried to sleep in my truck during the day, where I worked as a security guard.

It lasted two nights, and then I had enough.

After two nights of trying to sleep in my truck in early September Florida, I snapped. With no sleep and barely enough money for gas, I left the State.

I arrived in South Carolina early the next morning, but that didn’t work out. Two days later, I was on the road again, this time to Minneapolis Minnesota.

What makes this story interesting is, that I have no sense of direction at all. I started working as a security guard before GPS and smartphones.

I get lost too easily.

I was notorious for getting lost and being late for duty. I even had trouble with GPS. I’m dyslexic, so I read things wrong if I’m not careful.

“ I wonder what Mom and Dad would think of this?” I asked myself while I tried to stay awake on the road. The first year in Florida, I bought a 1985 Volkswagon Golf from a “ We finance” car lot.

My Supervisor wanted me to drive to Clearwater to work at the company headquarters for a day.

I was fine after the first time.

Mom and Dad were not pleased. They knew I was going to get lost, and they were sure that I would get lost and act like a blubbering fool.

I drove across the Courtney Campbell Causeway and promptly got lost. I didn’t panic, I didn’t cry like a baby, and I didn’t ask for directions, because I’m a guy.

I was proud of myself.

On my cross-country trip, I had the help of an iPhone and GPS. I bet I could do the trip without it, by using an old-school paper map.

The point is, that you don’t know what you’re capable of unless you’re challenged.

I could have listened to my mom, not driven across the causeway, and stayed in my comfort zone. I would have never driven to the beach by myself, or gone to concerts in St. Petersburg or anything else.

Challenge yourself, don’t live with regret.

I would have been miserable. Don’t be miserable, get out of that comfort zone. That comfortable will stunt your growth.

One more for the road

Go for it, because you only live once.