I'm still living in a basement room in Nathan's friend's house, in Nanaimo. We don't pay rent, and we don't contribute much, aside from whatever household cleaning I pitch in with, and I buy groceries and cook once in a while as well. I qualify this behaviour as freeloading, and I'm not entirely comfortable with it, although I am very very grateful for Jenny and Aaron's hospitality and generosity. I want to find a way to pay them back (It will probably have to be with art.) Am I technically homeless, since I don't have a real home or my own address? I don't think so. I don't think this compares to sleeping under an overpass or anything. But I still feel bad when I meet homeless people, and they ask for help... because I still want to help.

I met a homeless guy today in the parking lot of the Shopper's Drugmart-- and actually I met him yesterday, too. He asked for spare change, and I pretty much don't carry cash anymore... using my debit card is just too easy. Anyway, I felt bad for not having anything to give him (giving him the 13cents in my pocket probably would have just been insulting), so I picked up some groceries while I was in the store-- soup, granola bars, and a fancy iced tea (because everyone likes fancy iced tea, right?)-- and when I went out to the lot to give him the groceries, he had moved on. So. I didn't quite know what to do... keep the groceries? Find an alternative homeless person? Foodbank? But I really just want to help this guy. I left the groceries in the car, in case I bump into him again.