As I sit warmly in my kitchen, admiring the Christmas tree, I am reminded of what a long strange trip the past couple of days have been. The weather people were touting the idea of a great big storm, and honestly, I just ignored them, as usual. That was until I was going to drive to the airport at the same time that the storm was going to strike!! Suddenly, I found myself wondering if THIS time Channel 9 could possibly be right. I needed to get to the airport in Manchester because I was scheduled to do a workshop for 150 teachers through Rowan University in New Jersey. If I was not nervous enough about the prospect of a "football field" sized ballroom, then this was enough to just push me over the edge...or was it? Was there, perhaps, some part of me that was feeling the impending energy of the storm? That feeling that something is coming that you have NO control over. Honestly, I think I love that feeling. I love it because no matter how much you worry or don't worry, there is ultimately, nothing you can do!!
I would be amiss here if I did not mention that prior to this engagement I found myself engrossed in creating the world's most perfect power point. Hours and hours I spent putting everything on my computer because I was told that I had to join the world of technology and give up my overheads! You see I LOVE my transparencies that I can lay on top of the overhead projectors because I can physically hold them in my hands. You see I have a love/hate relationship with technology and because of that I do not TRUST it! Having something physically in my hands is much more concrete!! But that said, I knew that managing two overheads, as they told me I could do, would be next to impossible for someone like me who tends to teach "in the moment". So I discovered that instead of scanning everything, I could take pictures of my student samples and then download them onto my computer and put them in my Power Point. It is here that I will point out the my niece, Hallie, informed me that Power Point is not new technology...and I KNOW that, it is just that I resist using it because so many presentations I go to people just read their power points without actually engaging with the audience. Hiding behind my Power Point was not going to be my goal though...no, I was going to use it "like" my overheads, as visuals to compliment and illustrate what I was talking about! Anyway, I actually enjoyed the process of organizing everything and was feeling very good about my upcoming presentation...when the weather report became more and more ominous.
I got to the airport early to avoid the ice and hail and torrential rain that Channel 9 continued to spout on about. I got there two hours early in fact only to discover after 15 minutes that my flight, indeed had been delayed. As I sat in the airport I could feel the energy building around me. People on cell phones, running from ticket counter to ticket counter, trying to get on another flight when theirs had been cancelled. It was looking less and less likely that I was even going to get out of NH after all of this preparation and stress! Good Lord!
My flight was delayed again and more and more flights around us were cancelled. By the time we were lining up to board, the airport was desolate, save for those of us on this one last flight to Philly. We lined up. and boarded. The attendant told us to keep our boarding passes...just in case. Would we get out? Would we be the last flight out of the state? Yes, after de-icing...something I have never been a part of before and am fine NOT to experience again...we took off. I was amazed at how smooth the take off was...the landing...well we might just have well dropped out of the sky. BRUTAL. One of those Hail Mary and God I am not ready to die today kinds of landings. The collective sigh that overwhelmed the cabin was deafening as the wheels hit the tarmac. Phew. We were here and we were alive.
Needless to say I got to the hotel, dropped my things in my room and went down to the bar for a great big glass of wine and a sandwich. Then it was off to la la land. Phew! I had arrived and although the wind pummelled my windows all night...I could not think or worry anymore. I was there and I would present and that was all I could or would think about as I went to sleep!
The presentation went great. My Power Point DID work and calling to find out how everyone was back in NH was just not where I was at. I knew I needed to get through this thing before I could think about anything else. I finished, got on the van to the airport and never looked back. It was then I called home and was amazed to discover that not only had it been a bad storm, but that a tree had fallen ON MY HOUSE!!! The kids were traumatized! All I could do was laugh and think to myself...wow! There was drama everywhere and that is when I also found out there was no power. Honestly, that is worse than the tree to me...until I got home and saw it. You just can't imagine something like that until you see it for yourself. And as far as fallen trees go, this one fell perfectly! It was millimeters away from touching windows with it's fingery branches. It did put a hole in the deck and smash the railings and a chair, but it fell on the back of the house that is ALL windows. How gracefully it simply avoided every single one. Not even a mark on any of them. AMAZING!!
The tree guy has come and gone, the power has since come back on and as I sit here writing with the warmth of my computer in my lap, I am feeling for all of those hundreds of thousands of people out there without power. I even tried calling people to share our warmth and power...but even the phone lines are out and many a cell phones are now dead. People are unreachable. It is such a strange thing in our age of constant contact and interaction via texting, phone calls, e-mails, facebooking and blogging!!
So, to those of you out there...you see there is something to be said for remaining rooted in the dinosaur ages of technology. Without power we are powerless in so many ways...more and more ways every day. And so when we sat in front of the fire to find warmth, I realized that I was not all that crazy after all to bring not just my laptop, but also my big purple binder filled with all my overhead transparencies...just in case. You never know now do you??
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