My mother was in bed when I got here, so I opened the door, dropped my suitcase, turned off the lights and was asleep within a matter of minutes. Probably before 1:30.
I slept until 6:30 and then got up to have breakfast and get Momma to the hospital to check in. Her surgery was scheduled for 10 a.m., but we were to check in by 8. They took us to the Surgical admission office, they took my phone number and said she'd be ready to go home in about 5 hours, and led her off behind the door. I opted to come home (to her house) and work rather than hang around the uncomfortable "family waiting area."
I had several projects facing me and made the mistake of starting with the first one. I am doing a feature article on the 25th anniversary of the Davis Musical Theatre Company. I've interviewed several people, but didn't get much of a formal "history." However, those interviews did change and set what I want to be the tone of the article.
However, a company member, Ben Bruening, had told me, when I interviewed him, that he'd made a video of an interview with founders Jan and Steve Isaacson. I realized that the video could possibly be invaluable to this article, so I borrowed it from Bruening on the way to Sacramento before going to my mother's.
I made the mistake of starting to watch it before I started to write the review of the show we saw last night. I had to force myself to stop watching it because the review took precedence. But I was right--it's going to be invaluable.
PART 2 - F*** STARBUCKS
It was going to be so simple. There are two wifi hotspots listed near my mother. One is Starbucks and one is Kinko's. I decided to go for Starbucks. I hate how much it costs to get anything to eat or drink there, but I figured the cost would be to use their wifi (the iTouch told me it was always free at Starbucks).
So I ordered a coffee and a croissant and asked if I needed a password to use their wifi. The woman looked confused. "Well, you need to be a MEMBER first," she said. This apparently involved going somewhere ELSE to connect to Starbucks, buying a membership, then coming back to their location, buying a card for $5 which would give me an undetermined amount of time.
You know...if I had access to the internet somewhere else, I wouldn't need to be at their blinkety-blank cafe in the first place! I left her holding my coffee and croissant and went to Kinkos, next door.
Nobody at Kinkos seemed to have the slightest interest in helping me, but finally a guy who looked like he was about 110 years old, who shuffled along, with jaw drooping (probably some poor guy whose retirement was eaten up by Wall Street Executives and was forced to go back to work) came along and I asked how I could use their wifi. He directed me to a bank of computers and told me to insert my credit card. But I needed to use MY computer. How did I do that, since they were advertised as a wifi hot spot.
He didn't seem to know what wifi was, so he stopped some cute young thing, who told him that I would have to register with T-Mobile first.
"I'm going to need some help with that," I said.
The cute young thing refused to make eye contact, the 110 year old guy waved his arms helplessly and I finally remembered Walt talking about free access at all libraries. I asked the guy if he had a phone book I could use.
"Phone book" was a phrase he understood.
He gave me the phone book and I called the library.
But the library's phone system is only automated. There are NO live people to talk to. It did give a number if you needed to special order children's books, so in frustration I called that number. I reached a human being.
He told me that yes, there was free wifi at the public library. If I could find it. My first attempt was not successful, but I finally found it, and I am now seated here at the public library on my own computer, for free.
The hours of the library are 10 to 5 and so it is only noon, but I am going to post tomorrow's entry right now, while I have the chance.
I also, as of this writing, don't know how my mother's surgery went, but by the time I know, I won't be able to get back to the library, so I'll have to come over here tomorrow morning and post the next day's entry. This is crazy.
But at least I now know WHERE to find wifi and how to get to it. And I am never, ever setting foot inside a Starbucks again.
I'm also angry with myself. The library is at the San Rafael Civic Center, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It's a unique building with some beautiful grounds and today is a lovely day so it would be great to take photos, but I decided for the first time in forEVer to leave the camera at home. So I'm leaving the puppies as the Photo of the Day for one more day.
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