The Secret of Departments

Something bothered me about my lost pre- scription.

What the fuck happened to that little piece of paper? I went on a careful search at the foot of the bed, around the windowsill and then the side of the bed between the bed and the wall. And I'll be damned!! That side of the bed was hollow. A vast emptiness dead center of the bed, underneath it. I looked at the space in amazement. Unbelievable. I had stash space. A "Secret De-partment" as one of my friends in The Box called it.

It was huge. I had thought that the drawers on the other side went over there, but no. The drawers, as long as they were, only went half way. The rest was all crawl space. It could have been big enough to hide a person. My mind went naughty...stuff a naked woman down there, just on those lonely nights.

I laugh to myself... secret de- partment alright. I filled that mother- fucker so fast with shit that it amazed even me. I had my empty luggage bags, Electra's broken laptop, assorted porn DVD's that I didn't finish reviewing, clothes too small for me to wear for now, and computer junk. But it made the room appear larger and cleaner when I was done. Superior!!

Another thing, @Home, has been weak and playing games for a few days now, but with using NETSWITCHER I kept hooking another router by the name of NAVARRE, a slightly stronger, more steadier signal. But there were two things wrong with it: 1) It was password protected with WEP encryption, and 2) there was nothing riding on the signal. No internet, not even radio, nothing.

Then, suddenly, @Home collapses, as usual, and up pops NAVARRE like a dog bone. I knock it down to get at @Home, a simply reflex action, and @Home stays down. I can't get the signal. Up pops, NAVARRE, brighter than the sun. Well, shit. Nothing's happening anyway, I go to my word processing document and start typing when YAHOO opens up on my browser. WTF??

NAVARRE just started carrying a signal and dropped its WEP encryption. I was on for some miraculous reason. After all the shit that I went through to get a Wireless Router in my room from the cable company and, BOOM, here is the Internet loud and clear. I rode NAVARRE all day and all night into the next day, and it's up strong as ever. I FINALLY have the Internet in my room.

Well, I didn't solve it, it solved itself. But I knew that I wasn't going to stop until I had the Internet. I need it more than a television. Shit, the Internet is a better television. You can learn, do, communicate, express, depress, speed off and come the fuck back. I love it. I'm so pleased.

Today is the SHOUT OUT, and I'm sitting in my room, not looking forward to the commute downtown. God, it's exasperating. I get tired just thinking about it. I take a shower, put on clothes that are not retread for a change and pack up all of my shit. I carry two bags down with me to the SHOUT OUT weekly, and Lord do they feel heavy. I'm weary even as I get ready. I'm tired with a superhuman fatigue that settles down to the bone.

But I must go. And go I must. I'm on the Way before I can think about it any more.

The SHOUT OUT was amazing as usual, and I had more than my normal stage time. I hate stage time. I'm terrible at it. I just can't build the ego for such a feat. I come away more tired than when I arrived. It's not the normal hustle and bustle of the show that wears me the rest of the way down, but the MC-ing. That's the killer.

Su P. did a smash up job though, and 'Nessa did an excellent reading also, although I was in the John for half of it. Hey, when ya gotta go....

Several new acts came in to play, people that we didn't even know, who heard about us through the webpage directory. We topped our average number of patrons, which is good. It means word of the venue is getting out and more people are coming in to perform. As they say, from humble beginnings.

At the conclusion of the SHOUT OUT everyone piled out onto the sidewalk saying their goodbyes. It was very cold out, the wind had bite. Oz, D-lite, DJ Bensonhurst, OBSIDIAN and I stood outside for some time, jibber jabbing about the goings on in the poetry circuit. We stood outside for quite awhile, until I started to really feel the cold. I was about to break up the gang until OBSIDIAN beat me to it.

Everyone went their separate ways except for OBSIDIAN and myself. We retired to Kennedy Fried Chicken for some wings before beating the streets once more. The night was wearing on me, I had the long commute on the train to look forward to. I said good night to my brother, leaving him to hit the Way and struggle my old, fat bones uptown to my crib. I made a quick dinner of friend chicken wings and got online. Still NAVARRE is up and pumping the Internet at 18Mbs. Incredible. I defrag my hard drive for speed and crawl into bed, closing my eyes and drifting off.

Hobobob