The day started out like any other Monday. I hit snooze twice and cursed my incessant need to be an early riser. I pulled on workout clothes and laughed my way through five miles and an episode of the Gilmore Girls on the treadmill. Made sure the high schooler was up and functioning on semi-human levels. Showered, dressed, and prepared to take on the day.
By ten, I was over it. My kids went back to school without leaving the house today. Christmas break ended but they are still here disrupting my well oiled machine. Virtual learning for the first week back proved challenging from day one. I shudder to think what the rest of the week will look like.
The high schooler, who I’m certain is purposely doing poorly just to make me nuts, sat diligently staring at his chrome book with one eye open. I’m positive all of the Spanish I heard went through through an empty tunnel in his brain, connecting with not one single brain cell.
The middle schooler did her level best to hit me with at least ten thousand words before finally logging on to her first class of the day. I’m a writer and I have trouble comprehending the enormous quantity of words that spill forth from her daily!!
Nevertheless, we were trucking along relatively smoothly until terror struck. Suddenly, the wifi quit working. Dun dun duuuuuunnnnnn!!! Insert panic here! The high schooler, cool as a cucumber, insists I hand over his phone for instant hot spot usage. The middle schooler, my beautiful preteen drama Queen, freaked out.
I could see the quiver of the lip begin as she wailed about her teacher counting her absent and missing class. My email to the teacher explaining the situation most certainly would not be enough! I took my cue from the high schooler and offered up my hot spot. I wasn’t actually trying to work or anything shut away in my home office….
Hot spot activated but still slow. Not enough to assuage the emotional monster pacing my office. The swirling circle of death finally gave way to her fretful face on video in class. Of course, the teacher had to call her out as late when she popped in. She held back her tears like a champ. Did I mention she’s highly emotional??
We managed to get through class on a hot spot when inspiration struck her. She gathered her things, which is always way more than she actually needs, and camped out in the living room…two feet from the wifi router. Whatever the problem, it resolved itself. But, she was convinced it was her brilliant maneuver to move into the same room as the router that saved the day. Hey, who am I to squash her brilliance?
Crisis averted but of course it meant my office hours were sorely interrupted with theories and thoughts on our home internet issues. Hard to focus on secret operative mayhem when someone keeps barging in every thirty minutes with new stories and ideas. Luckily, there’s always tomorrow….