friday already?

This week has flown by. And also been jam-packed. We have not had a spare down moment or eaten dinner at home even once this week. Ridiculous, I tell you. Relatedly, we have also not worked out since Monday. I feel terrible about that but am trying to convince myself that it's not the end of the world. Plus we should be able to train every day this (long) weekend...so hopefully the weather and my laziness will cooperate.

Last night after we ate Cuban with our small group, Matt & I stopped by Target on our way home to pick up a few things. Matt happened to find this clearance shirt while we were browsing in the men's department.

Ha! We're not normally big on the 'ironic t-shirt' thing, but this was just too funny...and perfect for us, since you'd be hard-pressed to find bigger lovers of bacon than us. And also we're having our 3rd annual Bacon Fest this weekend! Wouldn't it just be perfect? Unfortunately, the smallest size they had was an XL, and Matt's more of a Medium, soooo...no go on the $7 bacon shirt. Sad story. But at least Matt let me take this cute picture. And he walked around with the shirt resting on him like that for a few minutes, which amused me. So it wasn't altogether a loss.

Yesterday my dad told me the saddest/sweetest story. My grandparents (his parents), who live in Texas (and are in their late 80s), have been anxiously waiting to see pictures of Carley, their first great-grandchild. Now, they have a computer and email account, but very rarely use either one. My dad had helped Nana with figuring out how to access her email a few months ago when he was visiting them, but he knows that without someone there to walk her through the steps, she really gets too confused to figure it out. So the other day he'd emailed them some of the pictures (*ahem* from my photo shoot...), but knew he'd need to call and help her figure out how to open her email and find them.

TWO HOURS, people. Two hours is how long it took for her to LOG IN. Dad was describing what it was like and it was so sweet and sad, it made me tear up. And it made me realize how much we take for granted the language and concepts of technology....that people in their generation simply don't have. I mean, my grandparents are so smart- Nana was a nurse and Poppie an attorney...but throw in some age, arthritic fingers, memory issues, and a very confusing Yahoo home screen, and no idea how to tell if something is a 'link' or a clue what 'that blinking thing in a box' is (a cursor) or whether any given text is something you can click on...oy vey. Dad gave me the play by play of trying to walk her through FINDING THE PLACE TO LOG-IN, which took quite a long time before he even got to the part where she'd need to remember her user name and password (which thankfully, he'd written down, so it wasn't that bad).

But here's the worst part. Once she'd/they'd gone through ALL THAT-- and she'd managed to put in her username and password...guess what happened.

WORD VERIFICATION.

And I know that they're universally despised, although sometimes still deemed necessary (sorry, can't take it off my commenting lest I DIE OF SPAM). And I'll be first in line to complain about them and how they waste 10 seconds of my time (or a LOT more if I'm on my phone)...and even I, with perfect vision (via my contacts, haha) and sound mind, and no general problems with technology...I frequently mess them up and have to go through 2 or 3 before I get one I can properly decipher.

And after two hours of trying to log-in, with my dad doing the best he can from 1000 miles away to walk her through the steps...my 87 year old grandmother gets a @*$@(!* WORD VERIFICATION. Because she hasn't logged in for so long. And my dad said he almost lost his religion. Because there was nothing he could do to help her with that-- he couldn't see it! And she was so confused, and her eyes aren't as good as ours, and she didn't understand what she was supposed to be doing...and REALLY INTERNET?? Really??! With all this technology, can't you have somehow determined that Nana did NOT NEED THAT?

But guess what. Eventually...with, I'm supposing, much weeping and gnashing of teeth, she made it through. She proved she was Not A Robot. Hallelujah.

She broke into her email. And then it was another 15 minutes before she could find the emails from my dad. And figure out how to open attachments. And make the pictures big enough to see them.

And then she saw sweet Carley.

And my dad said she was speechless. And then she was crying. And hollering at my Poppie from across the house: "Daddy!! [she still calls him Daddy] Come in here!! Come see our new baby!!" And he came, and together they gushed over their first great-grandbaby, and they opened picture after picture, marveling at what God has done. 

And my dad, who said he almost lost his mind and his temper during the 2+ hours it took to get to this point...he said every minute was worth it. Absolutely worth it. God bless technology. My grandparents got to see the baby, and every stupid second of the struggle was worth it.