The van at the Dollar Tree and more "Staying Stealth" stories

Last night, I was at the Dollar Tree and there was a van with all this stuff piled in the middle and back seats.

Previously, I wouldn’t have thought anything about it, but this time I wondered, “Are they living out of their car, too?” I thought about Mama’s van, which has looked like that in the past (and probably still does), and I thought, But she’s not homeless. Actually, she is. That’s why her van and often my car look sometimes like this van in the Dollar Tree parking lot.

I notice people more and wonder if they’re homeless, too. I see that other people online who have been homeless often become advocates for the homeless. I don't know if I'll do that, but I definitely need to do something when I reach the winning side (post-homelessness, goals achieved) to encourage those who are still on the journey.

 On another note: Here's more of me trying to avoid looking homeless.

Andrea, the educational specialist at my school, came in last week to ask me something, but I was still teaching. So she went to the back of the room and waited. While there, she looked around. I’m sure she saw the electric skillet. After that, I decided to start keeping the electric skillet in the box with the toaster oven. The box under my desk that holds the toaster oven is large, but you can’t see the toaster oven unless you really make an effort to see what’s in the box.
 
Yesterday, Andrea came in to meet with me and brought her lunch. She asked, “Do you have a microwave?” I said, “No." She said, “You don’t have a microwave in here?” I said no again. She said, "OK, I’m going to go heat up my lunch." I thought it was strange that she asked that question twice, so I think she saw the toaster oven under my desk one day. One day, I’ll really have to tell her all that was going on so she won’t think I’m a total oddball. I hope she doesn’t think I was being rude and not wanting to share my “microwave,” but it’s much stranger to say that I have a toaster oven under my desk.

I chatted with one of the personal trainers at the gym this morning. He noticed that I only “come in and do two push-ups.” However, he also noticed that I build muscle easily. He was surprised that I’ve only been coming for two months, since my body looks like I've been working out much longer than that.

So, I can balance out the fact that I don't work out much by saying, "I'm just here to stay in shape and stay toned - not to be muscular or even to lose weight." That’s my excuse for not working out harder. However, I did sign up for the free boot camp class next week since he is the teacher and he said he focuses on abs. I would like to flatten the abs.