Third Time is a Charm

Yes, this is a photo of the best cable guy ever. And yes, this picture is posed, which makes it even better. I came back to the world of home internet access Friday afternoon after a painful week without it. I was super frustrated because I was having so much trouble getting all of my work done in at school where I have fairly reliable internet access. I spent the week staying at school until 6:00 or 6:30pm trying to get done what I needed to get done. Sucked. I was also coming in earlier than my usual sprint up the stairs at 8:22am, just to get in a few precious minutes with technology. I know. Oh, poor me, life is rough. Stop whining. Still, despite my awareness that one can live without being online most of her waking hours, not having internet access had me in tears, begging the largely unsympathetic Time Warner representatives to please, please get someone to my home soon. In five months in my apartment, this is the third time I'd been without internet for a week or more.

Anyway, here's a shout out to the person photographed above, who not only climbed that ladder to fix my internet connection, but more importantly returned to my house, waited for me, and in general, worked his schedule around my schedule so that I could have a Time Warner service call on Friday afternoon (the only available time slot--or I would have had to wait around 'til the following weekend). I might have died in that week of waiting and hanging out at dimly lit internet cafes that close way before my usual working hours. Some people have a soft spot for techy teachers in whose voices they can hear the tears coming. Apparently, my begging on the phone with the cable guy was not only pathetic, but also polite, respectful, and persuasive on the phone. That or he is just a very nice guy, who made my life functional again, "all in a day's work."

Anyway, I asked to take this photo and conceived of this blog post not solely for the pathos and gratefulness factor or to explain my absence in online communities. Rather, I want to talk for a minute about how struck I was by just how much it affected my life to not have internet. It was actually more than an small irritation. Here are the things I missed out on last week: witty gmail chats with friends, funny and/or academic/college-related chats on AIM with students (ahem, procrastinators!), paying my bills, checking my bank account balance, participating in web chats on a pedagogy issue for a grant, online researching for a different grant I'm writing, looking up books and other stuff on Amazon.com, spending my Teachers Choice $$ on Newegg.com, watching YouTube videos my friends send, actually responding to anyone's email thoughtfully (and not from my phone), sending important emails related to a new job, making a donation to the inauguration that might have gotten me a ticket (not likely, but still!), and planning lessons for class that included web information and resources.

That's a pretty long list. Those are all of the things I was trying fiercely to fit into my "connected" school day that I usually do at home. Ahhh, access in all its complicated definitions. What I missed most in my offine time: my goofy friends and students, saying hello and telling about their days for a few seconds every night. Wasn't such a big deal not to lesson plan or pay my bills...