Background

As you can guess from the title of this blog I am educated and homeless.

Educated: I have my Bachelor's of Science in Mechanical Engineering.

So why am I homeless? The majority of my professional career I have worked as a Product Development Engineer but I was laid off with a third of the company in April.I am on unemployment but after I pay Child Support I have $800 a month. I need to be able to be contacted by phone and email to get a job and have web access to search for a job. I get that with my BlackBerry. I pay for both mine and my girlfriend's which is $150 a month. I need a car so that I can get to work when I get a job. I own my car so I do not have car payments but insurance, gas, and maintenance costs $200 a month. I need to eat occasionally and spend $150 a month on food. The remaining $300 is not enough for a place to live but the $75 a week is enough to take my girlfriend out occasionally, take my kids out, and hang out with my friends. Oh yeah cigarettes cost some money too.

My girlfriend, my friends, and my family do not know I am homeless. They all assume I stay with one of the others. When I have my kids I do stay with my parents and I crash at the others when I can. Most of the time I live in my car with my dog. I park at rest areas at night because there are bathrooms and security.

So why blog about it? First, I have time to kill. Second, I'm not the only one that does this but most people have no clue people live like this. Third, this is part of my life that I will always remember and hopefully grow from. Last of all, I like to tell stories and I have stories to tell about it.