Actually, it was more like two days. And it was not totally without the internet, as I still had access through my cell phone’s LTE network. Thankfully my very clever Mr FA had upgraded my plan a few months ago. But I still could not access the Internet from my shiny and sleek new laptop, so sleek indeed that it doesn’t have a landline Internet port. So, when my router died a couple of days ago, surely of overuse, I was left with no computers or tablets in working order.
Here are 5 of the things that I was not able to do during those long days:
1. I wasn’t able to grade my student’s papers. Since we receive all of the assignments through a computerized dropbox, I wasn’t able to access them and download them. The same happens with the homework, they do it online and online it is graded. So, no bad news for them for a couple of days.
2. I wasn’t able to print the pictures that Little Pb has to bring to school every day so he can work on telling his classmates about what he does at home, and on description and narration.
3. I wasn’t able to entertain myself while pumping. Pumping is one of the most boring and tedious tasks I have ever had to perform. My mood while doing it has greatly improved since the invention of the tablet, particularly if I can watch Gilmore Girls on it, or catch up on current TV shows. Since I do that through Netflix, and watching one episode would have blown even my upgraded data plan, Little D will get what in Spanish we call “mala leche” when he drinks those bottles I pumped today.
4. I was not able to Skype with my mom. As she was already being quite antsy due to the scarce opportunities to see us on Skype during her week long vacation, this was the cherry on top. And, as she does every time I cannot Skype, she assumed that someone had endured a face changing accident, that the house had burned down, or that I had gained even more weight. But my mom and Skype deserve their own post, so I will leave this alone for now.
5. I wasn’t able to blog!!!! Since I’m new on Chicago Now, I hadn’t downloaded the app, which mean I wasn’t able to access my blog. Not that my IPhone reminding me that my storage is full had anything to do with it.
And here are the 5 things that I did instead:
1. I read a magazine. A paper one. Since having kids I tend to devote the three minutes a day I have for reading to books. Just to be able to pretend that I do something remotely related to culture every day.
2. I watched good old television in an actual TV. Some live news, some Rachel Ray, and half an episode of some Law and Order re-run. I felt young again.
3. I slept a little more than usual. That probably made my daily count of sleeping hours go up to five.
4. I played with the kids a little more. Who knew that they could be so much more fun than Facebook?
5. I jogged a couple of blocks, to be more exact the couple of blocks that it took me to get to a Best Buy to purchase a much needed new router.
Jokes apart, I miss those simpler times, when we were not always available, when things were turned in on paper and were graded with a pen while enjoying a cup of tea, when we didn’t rely so much on technology that its absence prevented us from doing our jobs. Maybe we were a little bit more bored, but we surely were a lot more present. So, just for my well being, I may ruin the router myself a couple of times a month. Or maybe unplugging it would be enough. That way I won’t have to run.
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