John's Sleep Out

On Saturday night, about twenty people gathered in a vacant lot in the middle of Iowa City to camp out in the cold. Erika and I joined the group to participate in the first annual "John's Sleep Out," a benefit to raise awareness about homelessness in Iowa and to raise money in support of programs for homeless children in our county.

It was COLD. Temperatures dipped down into the low 20s, and believe me, we felt it. Even in our multiple layers of warm clothing, our high-end tent (thanks, Ted!) and sleeping bags of reasonably high quality, Erika and I shivered through the night and woke up cranky and stiff.

It just made me realize just how fortunate I am to have gone right back to my warm Sealy PosturePedic bed the very next night, and to have the luxury of whining the day away in front of my very own gas fireplace in my very own living room with a vaulted ceiling and a south-facing window filled with plants. Sometimes I feel like we're struggling financially, but seriously. Poor us, we had to make the decision to spend hundreds of dollars on new furniture for our living room instead of buying unnecessary Christmas presents for each other. No one needs to feel sorry for me--including me.

We made the local news-- click here to see the story, which includes a link to a video: http://www.kcrg.com/news/links/4690041.html. (Yeah, you can see me in the footage.)

I'll upload some more pictures to flickr when I am on a faster connection. Today I am at home on the dial-up, and it's driving me batty. Check back in a few days!