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Alma Castaneda hates getting disconnected. “You’re
right in the middle of a conversation and you have to start all
over. I hate that, but I’m a computer freak, you know…so
that’s just me.”
Alma admits to being a bit of a computer addict,
though it hasn’t been that long since she even knew how to
use a computer. She began using her friend Mary’s computer
this past November. She was hooked once she got started.
She’d be up until 3 a.m., 4 a.m., and
at least once until 6 a.m., chatting in Spanish in Yahoo’s
Arlington Room 3. Her friend Mary laughs as she remembers: “She’d
wake me up all the time. ‘How do you do this? How do you
do that?’ She couldn’t get enough.”
Yahooooooooooo!
“I love Yahoo,” says Alma with
a smile. And, for seeming good reason. She met her husband, Flavio,
in a Yahoo chat room late last fall. They chatted for several weeks
and then met in person. It was love at first sight. Just a couple
of months later, they got married. “It’s no use dating
for a long time,” says Alma, “by the time you get married,
you’re bored with each other.”
Chatting online helps Alma cope with the stress
of raising seven children and maintaining a full time job working
for the Richardson Parks department as a supervisor. “I like
meeting lots of different people online and talking about different
things. I get completely focused on the computer and block out
everything else. It’s a real help for me.”
Completed
Lots Of Classes
Alma also has been a prolific user of Business
Access Training. She’s completed a whopping 24 classes online,
admittedly with a little help from her 16 year old son. She’s
now using her Aztec disk and completing GED preparation classes. “I
need help with my spelling and writing,” she says. She hopes
to pass the GED test soon.
Her enthusiasm for the computer hasn’t
been lost on her children. When her four youngest were asked who
can use the computer, they all raised their hands! They gathered
around their mom and the computer for this interview and called
out answers as questions came up from one of the Aztec training
classes.
“The computer is like a game to me,” says
Alma, “that I have to figure out, that makes learning and
completing classes fun.”
Alma is Yahooing as strongly as ever. “I
have lots of different screen names,” she says grinning, “some
I better not tell you about.”
So, does Alma still chat online, even though
she’s found the man of her dreams? You bet. “I go to
the chat rooms every night.” she says with a broadening smile,
and then with a wink adds, “Just don’t tell my husband.”
I suspect he knows.
Stephen S. Vanek,
LMSW-ACP, is a writer for Business Access and has a Master's
degree in Social Work.
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