Personally I’d kill myself. I don’t see a way of getting back to any sort of normal life.

I wouldn’t bother with the bar contests but hit up the day labor places like manpower or labor ready. If you’re unskilled the only requirements are usually some steel toed boots and a desire to work. Do the internet cafe thing in the evenings instead of the bars. Internet cafe’s only charge a couple bucks an hour or something for internet access. They’re also famous for key loggers an all kinds of nasty computer stuff so don’t do anything too personal. Once you can get a cheap used netbook or something then just hit the coffee shops with wifi.

If you’re lucky enough to find yourself in Michigan bottle return is .10 a piece, Lots of people leave bags of bottles to be returned in their garages, back of trucks. All over the place. Scope out a residential area an come back at night and be quick about it. The last thing you want is to be arrested for stealing pop bottles. Really its more of a last resort move but its served me well when i needed that extra $5-10 for booze so i could forget for a night about what the hell I was doing lol.

Oh an if you’re in a shelter, befriend the guy working the front desk. Because you’re newly homeless he’ll be more likely to see a guy down on his luck instead of the system abusing cattle that pass through the place daily. Sometimes people call shelters if they need a couple guys for a day long job, moving furniture or something like that. You’ll get first dibs before everyone else. He’ll also be able to get you extra food or a late night pass, as most shelters have a curfew, 8-9pm something like that.

I didn’t mean to write a whole story but reading the post really got me thinking about the year I spent living like that.