"Dogs come when they're called. Cats take a message and get back to you." - Mary Bly

Our newest staff member at UFC is Summer, a 20-year old gal who will handle some of the bookkeeping, be in charge of our internet and media efforts, and be the front desk person.
I had a most depressing conversation with Summer this morning.

I've included breakout discussions as part of my Thursday night class. I want a way to list their responses to the discussion questions after we reassemble so everyone can see what the other groups came up with. Because my laptop has to be at the sound booth that's located at the back (I use a clicker to advance my presentation slides) I asked Summer if we had a flip chart around.
She didn't know what a flip chart was.
We agreed it would be ideal if I had an iPad or similar that I could write on and have it appear on the screen, or even a large white board on an easel. Neither of those is going to happen, which is why I asked about the flip chart. Apparently 20 years old is too young to have ever seen one of those dinosaurs.
She did remember something - couldn't recall what it was called - where her grade school teacher would write on this piece of something and it would show up on the screen as she wrote.
Uhm, that would be an overhead projector, Summer.
I tried to explain the models that had a roll of plastic that could be advanced to get a clear area to write on. She just stared blankly at me.
I thought about trying to explain film strips but figured that was hopeless.
I'm old.

I'm getting a ton of bogus phone calls on our land line. I got one at 1:30 a.m. a few nights ago from the Social Security agency telling me... (hung up). That was especially infuriating because last time I got a call in the wee hours it was from our oldest son in AZ telling me his mother, there visiting, was being transported to the hospital. And Pam was again in AZ all last week.
Most of them are just several seconds of silence while the computer at the other end tries to figure out if a real person answered their call.
If I could reach through the phone to grab someone at the other end it would not be pretty.

It's now Tuesday morning. I picked up Pam at the airport right on time and we drove to Coburg Hills and got there right on time. We have two new couples in our small group and they both participated in the discussion, so that was good. One of the husbands is an orthopedic surgeon and the other is the finance guy at a car dealership. Good people.

I'm now at Starbucks waiting for my first appointment of the day. While I wait I'm watching videos for beginning Portuguese learners. I'm clearly making progress because I can translate more and more of the sentences before she gives the English. But I still wish I had more time each day to work on it. Portuguese has become my "thing." It's the latest piece and one of the reasons I'm actively thinking about if I should "downsize" and, if so, which piece(s) should go.