If you're sitting there wondering "how much worse could it get?" - well, hang on for a moment and I'll tell you. I recently moved to Florida, a place most would call paradise, but it hasn't been as much for me. You see, a glitch and a misunderstading happened on my trip down, and I arrived without a dime to my name.

For the last 5 days I and my significant other have been homeless. Thanks to the "help" you get here, we haven't managed to accomplish much, and we have slept outside every night - including the last two nights, which happened to set new records for the coldest nights in Florida to date.

However, now I understand why the homeless tend to stay homeless for several years. Most of them I have no sympathy for - the ones who choose to spend their money on booze and drugs probably should keep sleeping on the streets. Unfortunately, most people broadly categorize all homeless people as something like the drunk and high thief type, and treat you as such, when it simply isn't true.

You would be surprised how many have a college education and really valuable skills. They just can't market these skills with any weight because it really does take all day just to survive. Some places only serve some meals on some days. In other words, five miles west is breakfast, ten miles the other way is lunch, and two miles south is dinner - but only on Thursday. The only meal on Fridays is breakfast, five miles west of where you started the day before.

Another day, another set of meals at a another set of places. Whatever meal isn't available is spent panhandling for money to buy it, and when there are no more meals to chase, it's time to find a place to sleep. Somewhere the cops won't kick you out, neighbors won't complain - nobody can see you, and preferrably close to a restroom. Of course, that is only if you can't stay in a shelter, which is another story, for another time.