This selfie was taken during the steep learning curve months at the start of my homeless adventure. Here I'm doing my morning routine in a Burger King bathroom a few blocks from where my truck is parked. My dog and I were living in my truck then.

Here's the basic backstory:

I left a bad domestic situation in a hurry, under police escort, grabbing a few clothes, my dog and my tent.  It was Feb. 2, 2014. Superbowl Sunday. I went camping just as predictions of snow became earnest. The second day it snowed a foot in a couple of hours. Then another foot of snow came down every day or two for the next month. This is just a typical winter in Portland, Maine.

Here's the longer explanation:

Over the past 16 months, I have learned a LOT.

 I have learned to sort out "need" from "want." I received a very quick and razor-like sorting of 'real friends' vs 'others'.  I experienced swift and dramatic changes (mostly unpleasant) in my relationships with my adult children. There was a lot to learn in a hurry, and it was very, very cold.

I gained a deep respect for the regular everyday people, chance-met, who simply responded to the state of our condition from their hearts! They  often made the difference between my 'enjoying a daring adventure' and 'complete despair.'

My thanks to the city workers plowing snow, who took the time and care to send me in a taxi to my church to hopefully find a crashpad. Much gratitude to the 3 people who did their best to give me temporary shelter through the storms.

Respect and thanks to every Police Officer who performed the necessary duty of rousting me, but with every kindness, and concern. They were exceedingly helpful!!

In late March, a Very Dear Friend sent me most of the cash I needed to buy an elderly used truck. My new Home!! That worked well for 5 months, then the transmission died. Another friend helped me get my truck towed and parked legally-ish. My dog and I continued to live in the truck right up until the week of Thanksgiving.

[We left that dear truck Nov 20th. Yet another friend gave me a ride to Boston where I am now staying on the couch of a person willing to take me in for awhile, but not a very long while.]

Seven months into living rough, I was introduced to local homeless services: Preble St. Resource Center, with free hot meals, bathrooms, a message board, phones to use, too.

Still, I could not avail myself of local shelters at night or the public library by day like many of the local homeless population because I was not willing to give up my dog.

Even though there are kind kennels that will take in pets for homeless folks for free, I would not be separated from the only constant companion I had. My sweet Bagheera ("Baggy") was the difference between having a loving and loyal companion vs. being more alone than humans are meant to be. I simply would not part with him. He was more important to me than a roof or a place to sit out of the cold. That was a choice I made. I am content with that choice.

Through Preble St. I met my new colleagues and peers, "The Homeless." I learned what it is to give the shirt off your back. To share all that you possess. To be kind and generous when it means living with less, to the point of going hungry that others might eat. I found mentors and advisors and Good Friends!! Some, though troubled and certainly odd, were the best and most honorable people I've ever met!

From them, I got a lot of advice that led me into the Dance with the System. In theory, one could obtain Federal and State Aid and/or housing. Learning that dance was a whole nother education in itself!!

Eventually, though pretty darn quick by current standards, I was granted disabled status and received my first SSDI and SSI checks almost exactly one year on from the first night I spent under the stars, huddled in a tent with my puppy.

Let me assure you this was a minor miracle. The average wait between seeking aid and getting it is generally 16 months to 3 years.  And yes, you get to be homeless and possibly shelter fed and housed (at night only) while you wait.

I was fast-tracked for these reasons: I am female, over 50, diabetic, bi-polar, and I was living rough.  (A young social worker 'documented' my homelessness by taking pictures of the shopping cart I was pushing at the time. He also documented my daughter's back yard becasue sometimes I rolled myself up in a tarp to sleep there.)

It helped a Whole Bunch that a family member (who filled out a good bit of paperwork explaining what was 'disabled' about me) happened to be a professional in the wide world of social work. She knew how to speak the speak and jarg the jargon of the System. My psychiatrist praised her work on several occasions!

Most homeless folks don't have a social services professional and a good writer in their family to make their case. I lucked out big-time!! Especially since I was my own worst enemy through the process. I didn't think I was qualified for aid. I knew SO many people so much worse off than I!! There were guys at the resource center in various stages of cancer, with debilitating addictions and worse past history than I can imagine! Why should I get help before some of them?!! 

[Answer: The ration of men to women in homeless shelters is about 10:1. NOT because women have fewer problems than men in this society, but because homeless women don't last long. They are soft and squishy and usually not great fighters. They are commonly abused, raped, beaten, and left for dead. The average shelf life of a homeless woman alone is around 3 - 5 years. They get priority in the system so that they move into apartments instead of being found dead on the streets. It's better for a city's statistics to avoid too much gutter death.]

The fact that I was treated well every single day of my living rough speaks to my age/unattractiveness, and the happy coincidence that I will NOT do anything to get drink or drugs because I have no need or desire for these things. Also, I tend to have a cheerful demeanor and befriend strangers easily. I am not angry, hostile or compulsively violent. That's due to luck, mostly. 

I was smiling and alert every morning. I was in a position to help other homeless people with food and lodging. I could easily cook outside and had a tent or truck to share with those who could not manage to find a place to doss for the night. I had truckmates from the first week I had the truck!! Some of the people I helped worked full-time jobs but could not accumulate enough money for an initial security deposit for an apartment.

Here's the amazing reveal:

Surprisingly, about 2 weeks into this whole thing, while camping, gathering wood, and boiling water for oatmeal as snow piled up on our heads, I made a Significant Discovery: I was MUCH HAPPIER camping in a park in the snow than I had Ever been while holding down any given job and keeping a room in a shared apartment!

That's one heck of an epiphany at age 51. I had 3 adult children and a history of rather sad relationships (including the marriage that did yield the awesome kids). Over my lifetime I had also managed to build up a rather pathetic resume of entry level temp office work and some baking and cooking, culminating in 5 years of call center work.

Now in the possession of nothing but one adorable puppy and some camping gear, I found my Bliss! I was camping! One of my very favorite activities! FUN!!! Yes, it was also cold. I lost 80 pounds that winter/spring just staying warm and walking around outdoors for 10 hours or so every day. For the first 7 months, food came from only from generous strangers and kind convenience store employees and managers.

Lessons Learned:

I learned that 30 degrees is do-able and only when it's under 20 degrees does the pain of cold overwhelm the warmth of a good puppy and much bedding. I learned that finding food and clothing is pretty easy. Laundry and showers are the hard part. As hygeine is compromised, a long litany of skin problems, foot fungus, infection and various ailments become common and unavoidable. Close living with other folks in the same situation means that lice, fleas, cold, flu and a lot of itching, discomfort, and scabby skin become the norm.

And now.....:

So now I'm 52 years old and my skills are these: I can camp, cook, bake, sew, read Tarot and tea leaves, I know a bit about archery, calligraphy, graphic design, editing newsletters and event planning.

Deeper history:

You see, before this whole homeless thing, my mother raised me first among hippies -- I was born in '62, Mom and Dad were activists and college students. Then, when she moved to Boston when I was 9, she discovered HER bliss - a little organization called the Society for Creative Anachronism - in short, weekend Medievalists. 

From age 10 to age 20, I spent a LOT of time helping my mother as she learned as many medieval arts & sciences as she could! She often ran monthly events which included renting a church hall and dancing and feasting with 50 - 300 like-minded folks. So just about every month, I was cooking, serving, and cleaning in the kitchen at these events. We had to sew costumes for this hobby, too.

In the summer, we even made our own pavillion for the annual Medievalist Hootenanny called the Pennsic War. My mom ran a cookshop at the War for several years which meant that I worked from dawn to dusk tending fires, turning spits of chickens and roasts, running the baking schedule for the brick bread ovens and helping our thousands of potential customers for two weeks every summer from age 16  to 19.

I was also a street entertainer and puppeteer in my youth, so singing for my supper is like coming home again!! 

Oh yeah, the GoFundMe campaign:

Now, getting to the point at last, I am launching this GoFundMe campaign to raise money for our next living situation. What I really, really want is a vehicle that runs, that can be fitted out with storage and sleeping room for 1 middle-aged woman and 1 very sweet dog.

A Famous pallindrome: A Man, A Plan, A canal, Panama!
My version,  a Haiku:

A woman with dog,
Gyspy Living on The Road!!
A Dream, a Van - BLISS!

The Stirring Speech that Gets the Crowd(sourcing) All Stirred Up:

I want to live as a modern gypsy, going to fairs and festivals in the following arenas: Medieval, Renaissance, Pirate, Victorian and Steampunk. I plan to do some cooking, puppetry, singing, Tarot reading. I will use whatever skills of mine suit the occasion. I envision a circuit that allows me to live in my ride with my dog and take in maybe 6 to 10 events per year.

With all the cook-ahead, craft-ahead and travel time, this will keep me about as busy as I can manage. After all, I'm 52 and also learning to deal with having diabetes, weaker eyes and all the usual insults of middle age. I am slowing downhill in all the usual ways, and I find myself constantly adjusting to new limitations.

But I figure I've got another good decade in me, maybe two, and I REALLY WANT to DO this!! This is happiest and oddly, the most secure and safe I have ever felt in my weird and wacky eccentric life! I can sing and play guitar, I have just this past winter created a new set of glove puppets and written and performed at a Puppet Slam. I've sung at an SCA event after a month or so of weekly practices with the Carolingian Quire.

Now I'm planning for running my own cookshop "Solivagi's Public House" at the sweet little July war held in Hebron, Maine July 9th - 12th. I'm already well into menu-planning, prepping, and cooking. I've got camp gear and garb fabric. All aspects of prep and planning are well underway. However, I need a way to get there! If I must, I will end up renting a U-haul van, but that would spend down all the funds I can manage to save and I'd be at zero for getting my own wheels.

So I imlore you, Please help a gypsy out, and Put Me in a Home!!!

The dream is this: a travelling home that may be van-like (in which case I create some sort of 'gypsy caravan costume' for it) or a pick-up truck or van towing a trailer that then converts to a gyspy-caravan-style tiny house/fair booth/shop. Something in that sort of range.

I have been advised to get my butt to Florida and shop around for a small RV or conversion van or other solution because there is a huge supply of gently used travel-mobiles available for very little money and not ruined by salt, snow and rust to be found there.

So here it is,  mid-May and Great Northeastern War is coming in July. 

Is there any chance I could manage to get my own wheels/home/independent life between now and then? I am hoping that with your help, this lovely dream, this best of all possible lifeplans for this particular person and her dog, is indeed possible!

The Begging:

Please help a dream come true and pitch in a donation to fund a vehicle/home for Lady Gillian Greenwoods, aka Solivagi, a gypsy mostly of Malagentia nee Carolingia, and her charming catering dog, Bagheera.

We already have what goes in the van/trailer. I am fully prepared for outstanding food service and fun at Solivagi's Public House. I have plans in store for Victorian Teas, community events and other great stuff. 

I can do this! I just need a bunch of awesome people like you to contribute and give me a boost in funding the purchase of a live-in car, a traveling home, and a food business on wheels, all in one.

It's going to be the most simple, straight-forward and elegant solution I can devise. What I desperately need is down payment money and an opportunity to shop around in the best place to find affordable live-aboard highway-safe, good condition, lightly used, small travelling set-ups, be it small tag-along, trailer or pop-up behind a van or small truck or just a van that can do the job, probably the latter.

Bagheera and I look forward to meeting you in our travels and seeing you at events, showing off the fantastic home on wheels that you helped us to create!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

Check out our style through Facebook: Gillian Solivagi and my blog: solivagi.wordpress.com or by blog name: "As the Distracted Crow Flies" or by Facebook page: Celebrate Rite!

Thanks again for reading this, thanks for all your help and kindness, thanks for supporting this endeavor. Thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU!!

P.S.  If you are interested in a "perk" such as pre-paying your meals at GNE or booking me to throw a Victorian Tea, or provide a gift basket, or plan a family or community event, or give a puppet show or have a Tarot reading, please contact me through email or Facebook and we'll work out an awesome barter/trade/swap deal.

Safe travels!!