Life got very interesting when I quit my job. They refused to give me more hours because I needed extra training (according to them) which I could not pay for since I had no bank balance and which they would not pay for because they were miserable douchebags. I was averaging less than nine hours a week and unable to survive. I refused to go back on welfare given what an unnavigable and frightening maze our social assistance programs had turned into. I decided to live by faith. Help did come in but I had to ask for it. I didn't know where to look for employment. I was generally turned down for service industry jobs and I wasn't sure where else to look. Home support was no longer feasible with my lack of extra credentials and the unstable hours that this occupation had been slashed down to.
I was at times frightened but this seemed to be the next direction for me to take. My connection with people (usually the rebels) at the Green House intensified. I became involved again in social activism, this time against the APEC summit meeting here in Vancouver November 1997. I wasn't sleeping well and noisy neighbours didn't help. One individual was downright hostile and violent. When I politely addressed with him the noise he was making (he lived upstairs) he retaliated by spitting every night on my window and yelling threats at me. Fortunately he was soon evicted.
I had an art opening in my friend's home and photo studio downtown, I didn't sell anything. Within a month I was homeless.
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