Believe in the Silence

Today is the day for the SHOUT OUT.

I wake up groggy and tired but I get online. I hop online and surf and basically do all the stuff that I like to do, like send and receive emails, and then I go on Facebook to try and figure that shit out again, but I think I'm understanding it now when I put it in the context of IM, or Instant Messenger. It's just a very, very slow IM, but the size and scale of IRC, Internet Relay Chat.

Thinking of IRC, which is nothing but an online chatroom with millions of people in thousands of chatrooms. A staggering number of chatrooms with millions of topics. If you want to find someone that is in the same shit as you, go on IRC and search what you are looking for. IRC is a worldwide group of interconnected servers, like the web, but it began in Sweden or something like that. So, the flavor of it is more worldwide than IM. Secondly, you will not know the people on IRC like you do IM, which is basically a listing of your own contacts. On IRC you can be talking to scores of unknowns...terrorists, pedophiles, murders, truck drivers, professors, doctors...you get my drift.

I used to be on IRC all the time, in varied chat rooms with a number of people. I made new friends and got involved in issues and lifestyles that I would never have if I was on IM or Facebook. We even had our business meetings on IRC. It's just that powerful a tool. So, sitting here, now with nothing to do, I decide to surf for one of the client programs that gets you into the IRC universe...mIRC. I don't know what the damn thing stands for...something Internet Relay Chat but hell if I know. I install mIRC thinking about my old times online cruising through the chat rooms, saying nothing, which is called 'lurking' and then jumping into some feisty conversations. It was a helluvah lot of fun. So, I intend on reliving old times, right?

Wrong!

Come to realize that I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. I forgot how to use the program. There is a lot to learn about manual commands and moving about the chatrooms. I felt like a car accident victim trying to learn how to walk again. I struggled with a faulty memory of the application and manage to connect to a nearby server and then after that, the chatroom hallway, which opens up to the entire chatroom world, called the Channels List. From there, I type 'Adult' into the search field and up comes all of the adult chatrooms.

That's right, 'Adult' because I'm a mother- fucking adult. I pick the chatroom #hotadults because it doesn't look too racy like some of the others, such as #fuckingadults, #adultstakingitintheass or adultsexxxmovies. I drop into an ongoing conversation by as many as seven or eight people but I'm lost in the sauce, you know? I get some encouragement and then suddenly, I'm knee deep in the hoopla, talking about where we are from. I'm there with people from NM, NV, CT, and Canada. I find instantly, and with a great deal of relief, that I am with my own age group. There is nothing worse than being with a group of 20 year olds when you're 47.

Then I get a personal message from one of the people in the chat room...Cyn. We go off and basically separate from the chat room and into a personal little IM. Here, Cyn and I find out that we are not far from each other. She is in CT and I New York, and she comes to the city often. She shows me how to use mIRC and the commands needed to navigate a chat room. It refreshes my memory of such, and then she is gone, like a blithe spirit. I am more confident with my mIRC-ing skills.

I drop back into the chat room and bullshit for a moment more until I look up and notice that it's time for the SHOUT OUT! I get gone and hop the Way, which is unusually on time. So much so that I get to Otto's a half hour before it opens at 4:00. I find, sitting just next to the bar, in a small alcove, THE BOSS, Nell on a cell phone. I wait with her, and coming in at an astounding 3:40 is Cyndi Lauper! They open up and file into the building, and one of the comedians in the show even beats me into the stage area.

I set up with Nell looking on at the people filing in. I believe that she was pleased with the number of guests that were pouring in. We had a full house by 4:00. I started us off immediately, punching the people through before 5:00, our sign in deadline. It's a success and we end on time, which is important because, like I said, Nell is right in the building. Even Cyndi Lauper, the usual Miss Nasty, is on her best behavior. She served me my two beers with a smile, propped up by toothpicks. During the intermission I got in on a toke circle and ran into some righteous weed. I mean RIGHTEOUS. I was stoned for the second half of the show. So stoned that I was afraid of going up to read, knowing full well that I would fuck everything up. I couldn't even untangle the microphone cabling without help. We are packed up and leaving right when the second act is coming in. On target!

My brother and I staggered more than walked to the Way and then to Madison Starbucks where we opened our laptops, but I was overcome and passed out. I snapped up close to closing and shut down everything, heading with my brother to Grand Central, where I hopped the Way again, and took a long, torturous trip uptown, toting two bags, which I was afraid that I might leave one somewhere behind.

I got them and myself home and dropped everything, including myself on the bed. I wanted to get back onto IRC but I couldn't focus on letters and words. All I could focus on was the bed. I crashed and slept like an empty tank.

What a great day!

Hobobob