Well, There’s WiFi on the Eighth Floor Tonight

Yes, the YWCA is wired for WiFi. Residents, break out your laptops and desktop clunkers (Courtesy: CafeAlantro.com)

Why haven’t you heard from me in a short while? Well, I’m applying for seasonal jobs for the holidays, which takes a lot of Madison Metro time, and I had to pack up and begin the move back to the eighth floor of the YWCA. I’m still moving, although the majority of my stuff is back up here. I don’t anticipate completion until early tomorrow morning. Already, I’m enjoying my view of the Lake (Mendota), the turning of the leaves at the tops of the trees, and seeing what’s new on the roof of the Madison Children’s Museum.

However, I have had to pop Motrin every four hours; my lower back pain is kicking up big time. I’m going to have to ice my shoulders and lower back tonight to get some more relief. And I am wary of the new bathtub I’ll have to share. It looks too small and narrow for my hips, and while stepping in and out of it, could cause someone an accident if they’re not able to watch themselves.

But yes, there is WiFi on the eighth floor, thanks to the Y management and Sisco Systems, and now I don’t have to run down to Michelangelo’s Coffeehouse on State Street or the Central Public Library to job hunt and blog. There are good things to enjoy about my new old room: new paint, new carpet, new windows, new bed.

I’ve already missed the Farmers’ Market today, so I’ll have to wait until next Wednesday for some Chinese broccoli. Luckily, there was a food donation from a local supermarket, so I have something, along with the veggies from this past Wednesday and the last of my EBT allotment for the month to tide me over during the weekend.

So, I’m busy, folks. Not that I’m not thinking of you all, but I have to get through these boxes and see whether a desk provided for me will indeed fit here. I could use one, to say the least, since I am also thinking of going back to school soon to pick up a certificate in web design.

The times demand it; I can’t keep going on with this state of affairs much longer, and anyone going after a career in writing and editing is going to have to possess even the rudiments of the Web as well. It reminds me of the first few weeks when the secretaries were introduced to the first word processing computers in the early 1980s. Many, especially the older women, flipped out. They resisted. Not me. I jumped in feet first. I wasn’t going to be left behind.

I have to jump in feet first again with this new technology as well, since everything these days is being written and edited on the wind. Got to get with the program in order to get that bread, and I can’t make that bread teaching. I don’t think that I am a very good teacher, either. Once I can get on somewhere, becoming more stable and paying the bills on time, I can see myself getting back to working on what I love best, known as the Great American Black Woman’s Novel, and finishing it. And perhaps, getting back to Cali, if the Big One or 2012, whichever comes first hasn’t hit it yet. (Suddenly, I hear Joni Mitchell’s California in my brain.) The Mad City is not necessarily my last port of call.

So I’ve got a tall order to fill regardless. Life must go on, right? No more boohooing. I have to get back to creating my own little Yellow Brick Road, brick by brick. So, I’ll be back pretty soon, sooner than you expect. But I’ll leave a little something something for yall to remember me by. 🙂