6 April 2014 - 9:45 am

The Asylum’s New Home

This is the new Asylum! Isn't it awesome? And not at all creepy?  Okay, I'm kidding.  (Photo: New York Asylum by Jeremy Seto)

This is the new Asylum! Isn’t it awesome? And not at all creepy?
Okay, I’m kidding. We’re not really going here.
(Photo: New York Asylum by Jeremy Seto)

I got a message about a month ago telling me that the location we’ve been using for our write-ins for six years has closed down. Abruptly and without warning. It was three days before our monthly write-in. I was in the middle of the craziest period at work. It couldn’t have come at a worse time.

As I madly juggled about seven critical issues at work and attempted to find a place to take our write-in people to, I couldn’t help but think: what about next month? It’s the Writers’ Asylum and I have to find someplace to hold it. It’s bigger than our write-ins, I’ve got to read stuff out to people, and it’s all a bit special.

I couldn’t worry about it just then; there were far more pressing issues. I already had Starwalker on hiatus due to all the shenanigans at work. I threw together some emergency plans with my fellow MLs, and one of my awesome co-MLs took the write-in off my hands. She sorted it out and ran it, and I’m immensely grateful.

By last weekend, the write-in was done and the worst of the work stuff was sorted. So I took my other co-ML and a good friend off on a scouting mission to check out potential replacement venues for our write-ins and the Asylum. We visited a couple of restaurants I had heard would welcome a group like ours (we’re a bit special needs, what with needing to camp out for the whole day, take up a load of space, and plug in laptops). Both of the places we visited welcomed the idea of our group visiting and were very accommodating. No doubt knowing that we’ll all be ordering drinks and meals helped!

Last weekend, I came home with three bits of good news. First, the Asylum has a new home: La Dolche Vita (almost next door to where we were supposed to be!). We’re booked in and good to go. Second, we have a new Coffee Club to try out, which we’ll be doing at our May write-in. And third, our favourite Coffee Club hasn’t closed forever: we saw signs on it that said it was undergoing refurbishment and would reopen ‘soon’. I have no idea when ‘soon’ is but it’s still a huge relief.

So, the first quarter of 2014 has been crazy for me. A lot of ups and downs. A lot of changes. None of it has been easy. But things are falling into place. Despite the stress of the past month, I’ve managed not to get really sick, which feels like something of a miracle. I’m coping – barely, sometimes, but still clinging on by my fingernails. Still here and kicking.

Yesterday morning, I woke up from a dream in which I had gone to the Asylum and realised I had completely forgotten to bring the challenges with me. Nothing was ready, nothing was set up; there were a lot of people sitting and looking at me expectantly, and my brain was empty and… then I woke up. Last night, I went through the challenges (I wrote them up a couple of months ago) and they’re fine. They’re actually less sucky than I remember. Just a few tweaks and they’re good to go. It’s going to be fine.

Like I said: it’s a lot of ups and downs, but I’m doing okay. Things are falling into place. The Asylum has a new home. It has couches. The challenges are written. Today, I’m going to schedule all the Asylum posts on this blog, so they’ll pop up on the day in tandem with me reading stuff out to my people in real life. My plans will work out.

And it will all be awesome.

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2 comments

  1. Francisco says:

    I’m glad that you managed to find somewhere so easily.

    April 10th, 2014 at 6:16 am

  2. Mel says:

    Thanks, Francisco! It was hectic, but so glad it worked out as easily as it did.

    April 11th, 2014 at 12:39 pm