Day changer…

So it’s been a while. How are you doing? I’m doing alright. School has started back and work is busy as ever. We are also in the middle of updating the lab in which I teach, which has led to, let me tell you, some HILARIOUS encounters with technology…with an audience no less!

Anyway. I’ve had a stressful past two days. I’m not unused to the stress, I just find that when I am confronted with obstacles “on the fly,” you know, “in front of a class,” I tend to get flustered. I don’t do well with flustered. During one class on Excel for a credited BCH course, after I had setup a worksheet with all the data I needed, the computer starts logging me out, reboots, and subsequently locks itself with an administrator’s password. Yeah. I had to switch to an entirely different computer and recreate the spreadsheet “on the fly.” You know, “in front of the class.”

Anyway. I turned it into a learning experience for the students and the two instructors for the class said that I handled the “technical issue” like a pro. Aw, shucks. Suffice it to say that the whole ordeal, after I was allowed to break my composure, you know, “not in front of a class,” really put me in a poor state of mind. So I went outside to smoke before returning to my desk and saw that I had 2 voicemails. After I deleted the voicemails from bill collector’s 1 and 2, my phone informed me that I had, “1…saved message,” and it began playing it…

I saved this voice mail because it was from my mother, but it wasn’t my mother talking. I’m going to attempt to transcribe it for you now.

Mom: (in the background) Say, “Hey Thomas.”

Will: Hey Thomas!

Sophie: Hey Thomas!

Will: It’s Will…and Sophie. Come see us!

(pause)

Mom: (in the background) What do you want to say to him?

Will: I love you.

Sophie: (apparently snatching the phone from Will) Hey do you want to come to the house and have a play date?

Mom: (laughing, still in the background) A play date? What else? Tell him to bring the Wii.

Will: Hey, bring the Wii.

Mom: (knowing we must reinforce Will’s spirit of sharing, but still in the background) And we can ALL play.

Will: And we can all PLAY!

(pause)

Will: I miss you, see you soon.

Sophie: (slightly, but never totally in the background) Miss you, see you soon!

Mom: Tell him we’re on the trampoline.

Will: We’re on the trampoline.

Sophie: (taking the foreground, by force if necessary) Hey, can I get you all out of the way?

Mom: (knowing she could never be in the foreground with these two in the picture) Say, “Bye Thomas.”

Will: Bye Thomas, we’ll see you soon.

Sophie: Bye Thomas, we’ll see you soon.

Day was instantly better, I tells ya, instantly better.

And I’m totally taking the Wii.