I’m TRYING.  I don’t even know what to say these days. I will tell you that things that used to be annoying are starting to make me laugh…sometimes uncontrollably. Uh, maybe it’s just hysteria or the need to laugh instead of tear up.

The usual for everyone, my hair, my boring food, my nails, my eyebrows, my boring conversations….with myself, my sweatsuits, my yoga pants, my college t-shirts, my mismatched socks, my mustache, my diet, my un-cleaned out closets, my husband, my mother, my kids, my blog, my email, my Zooming, my Facebook page, my Twitter, my friends, my “friends,” my toenails, my hairy legs, my dry skin, my oh my, oh my.

So for you, I hope you get at least a smile……..

Technology has now become essential to our well-being, right? After all, this is how we are staying in touch and trying desperately to keep the loneliness at bay. Not to mention meeting, after meeting, after meeting on Zoom. So now everyone needs to embrace more technology just to keep going.

My 91-year-old Mom is no exception. She begrudgingly engages with her smartphone and computer so that she can stay up-to-date, see photos of her tribe of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and yes, keep in touch with her friends who have also become self-taught IT people.

I am beyond proud of her continuing efforts, resilience, and brilliance in a world that wants to race past her at lightning speed, where she says, “whoa, Nellie! Hold on there, I’m not giving up!” And she does not.

A couple of weeks ago we had to add on-line banking to her list of chores. We held off for as long as humanly possible, but with no access to tellers, she really wanted more access to what was going on in her accounts. This is smart and I applaud her moxie. Yes, I said moxie.

I managed to get her set-up pretty quickly, but first, the bank said: “Whoa Nellie! You need to make this damn secure!” A concept we are all in favor of, n’est-ces pas? (I forgot to put my French classes up in that godforsaken list up there).

In order to maximize safety, my mom had to utilize four security questions to protect her account access. Four. Four is a lot of security in my mom’s mind. This is how it went:

Me: “Mom, you need to set up some security questions.”

Mom: “Okay, what are the questions?”

Me: “Well, let’s see. Here are some examples: “:

1. What is the first and last name of your kindergarten teacher:

Mom: “Uh, there was no kindergarten for me in 1933. Next!”

Me: “Okay, look we can make up a question. How about this: Where did Margaret first live? ”

Mom: “Where?”

Me: “What do you mean, ‘where?’ That’s the question.”

Mom: “What’s the question?”

Me: “Your mom, Margaret. Where did she first live? ”

Mom: “Where? ”

With tears of laughter running down our cheeks, it took us an hour to come up with four questions and answers that didn’t sound like “who’s on first?”

This is where technology will take you, my friends. And let me tell you my Mom deserves a gold medal for refusing to give up. Imagine what it will be like when we are nonagenarians:

My kid: “Mom just tell the super-duper micro coffee make to ‘brew coffee!'”

Me: “I’ve been telling that damn thing to make coffee for two hours now! It just stares at me with all it’s lights and touchpads and sexy red dress and says, “I don’t understand what you want.” I’ll tell you what I want, I want my old coffee pot and a damn cup of coffee!”

My kid: “Mom, you have to say ‘BREW COFFEE’  not I want a damn cup of coffee.”

Me: Oh. Never mind.

“You just have to Laugh……even in a lockdown…….please, just keep laughing, it’s important.

©2020 Cathy Sikorski