You are visitor to John Balderson's Homelessness Diary web page.

Thank you for visiting this section of my web site.

I am chronicling my experiences for those interested in learning about "breaking the cycle of homelessness", a quote I like from the resource development director of the HAC, Ezra Krieg.

Below is a diary of my activities.

I had the opportunity to talk with the case manager supervisor from the HAC at St Andrews church Thursday night, and she explained to me why I could not return there. I was not given the whole story by 524-BEDS and now that I have a clearer explanation, I am not so mad now about not being able to get back in.

She offered to make some calls on my behalf for services that would probably solve some of the recent dilemmas I have been getting myself into, but as I have a pending job opportunity at the new Target store at Coral Ridge Mall (I took the pre-employment drug/urine screen Friday) I declined the offer until I see whether I actually am offered a position, as they said it was contingent on the drug screen and my previous record from the Sawgrass Mills store where I worked over the Christmas season in 1997.

As Microsoft has announced the release of Windows 2000 on February 17, 2000 there are a multitude of seminars in the area this month on this subject, so I will be busy attending them in addition to my hopeful work schedule.

Well, another week has passed, but at least I managed to find another job. I began the orientation process yesterday at the new Target store in Coral Ridge Mall. I also did a computer-assisted training course today on safety,hazardous chemicals,and blood pathinogens. I will be attending another session tomorrow on loss prevention and actually start my work shift at 9:30 PM Wednesday night and work until 6AM. I will also be working Thursday and Friday.

My regular schedule will probably be Sunday,Monday,Wednesday,Thursday,Friday but I have not been given the official information yet. I will be doing overnight stock just like I did when I worked at the Sawgrass Mills Target 2 years ago at Christmastime. I hope to have better success with this job compared to the events leading to my demise at Motorola.

As developments with the new job come forward, I will document them here.

I have been at Target Coral Ridge for about 2 weeks now, and this week I am finishing is my first full work week not involving orientations. As a result of the Christmas holiday season, there are 2 trucks a day coming in now, and a big inspection by management from the district office cam eby the store yesterday, so I have been scheduled from 7:30PM-6AM all this week, except for Tuesday, when I came in at 10PM. I have been leaving arounf 7:30AM each morning so I will have a nice chunk of overtime this week.

After my previous failures with handling money, and my occasional weekend beer binges, I must be extremely careful to maks sure that I don't lose this job too because of my stupidity.

I will probably spend part of Saturday with my friend Jim at the Muvico in Pompano Beach, seeing The World is Not Enough (James Bond),Sleepy Hollow,Dogma,Messenger:Joan of Arc, and of course America's favorite, Pokemon

A follow-up report on how I finished my week up, and spent my first paycheck since Motorola, will be here on Monday.