{"id":333,"date":"2013-09-18T18:30:11","date_gmt":"2013-09-18T22:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anthonyandme.com\/?p=333"},"modified":"2013-10-29T14:56:11","modified_gmt":"2013-10-29T18:56:11","slug":"change-in-the-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anthonyandme.com\/?p=333","title":{"rendered":"Change in the air"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s been an autumn chill in the air recently in DC. Normally that brings with it mixed emotions. While I enjoy the fall very much, it serves as a reminder that colder weather is coming and that my friends who sleep on the streets will begin preparing themselves to endure the elements.<\/p>\n

Thanks to his new apartment, I will not worry so much about Anthony when it drops below freezing. Sure, he still spends exponentially more time outdoors than I do since he sells the newspaper on the street corner, but at night he will escape the misery of being wet and the loss of sensation in the exposed parts of his skin. I do want to get him a heavy winter coat \u2013 one that is made well and will keep him dry and warm.<\/p>\n

We usually meet on Tuesdays. Yesterday I had to travel though and I didn\u2019t get to see him. Last week we met for lunch. He was upset that Street Sense<\/a> was charging the vendors 50% more for the paper \u2013 at least until the end of the year he said. While that increase will certainly help the organization, it directly impacts Anthony and the other vendors as well. \u201cI guess there\u2019s nothing I can do about it though,\u201d he said, \u201cIt better go back down at the first of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t eat all of his quesadillas. Something I\u2019ve noticed about him on other occasions. He\u2019ll often leave about half of his food for later. When money is scarce in your pocket you reserve a little bit for a later time. And he takes lots of napkins. Often times I go into small family owned delis here in DC and the owners keep the napkins carefully guarded behind the counter and only give you one or two. Anthony grabbed a wad of probably 50 or so. Maybe another habit from when he was living outside, because he only used a couple and left the rest on the table when we were done. We talked about budgeting and discussed how he was managing his income and expenses. So far he seems to be doing a good job. Although nothing is saved at the end of the month \u2013 something that concerns me.<\/p>\n

The book is coming along slowly. A friend of mine recently finished writing a nonfiction book. She took more than a year off of work to finish it. I often think that maybe that\u2019s what I should do \u2013 take a leave of absence from work to focus 100% on the book. As it is now, I\u2019m not focusing fully on the book or job. On top of this, I\u2019m exhausted. Not an excuse, but it\u2019s the truth. I just don\u2019t seem to have enough energy to do everything I would like to do. The disturbing part is that I believe that I had this energy 5-10 years ago.<\/p>\n

As autumn greets us and we say goodbye to the long sun-drenched days, I focus on the big picture and try to sooth my frustrations from not getting enough done. It’s about attitude.<\/p>\n

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. – Thomas Jefferson<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s been an autumn chill in the air recently in DC. Normally that brings with it mixed emotions. While I enjoy the fall very much, it serves as a reminder that colder weather is coming and that my friends who sleep on the streets will begin preparing themselves to endure the elements. Thanks to his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,38],"tags":[90,6,7,106,107,19,32],"class_list":["post-333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates-on-anthony","category-updates-on-reed","tag-books","tag-homeless","tag-homelessness","tag-jobs","tag-quotes","tag-washington-dc","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonyandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonyandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonyandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonyandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonyandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/anthonyandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359,"href":"https:\/\/anthonyandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions\/359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonyandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonyandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonyandme.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}