It’s amazing how much trouble one little red dot can cause…

Last Friday at 3:54 p.m. while I was at work, I got a text from Dan informing me we had no internet, as someone had accidentally cut the cable wires in our neighborhood. He was told by AT&T, our provider, it would be fixed by 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. Rather than get upset over something out of our control, I just took it with a grain of salt and resigned myself to a night of cable TV, as AT&T is our streaming provider and continuing to binge watch our new series of choice, Justified, would not be an option.

For the cats, it was an unexpected bonus. Normally I’m on my computer when I get home from work to get caught up on things, but having no internet brought me an early retirement to the couch, which resulted in me being covered in cats about 23 seconds after I sat down. After a boring night of TV, I woke up on Saturday morning and the first thing I did was check our router. Plain as day, the infernal red dot was still flashing, meaning I would not be able to jump on Facebook to say hello to the world or do anything else internet related.

I tried my best to stay busy until it was fixed – I did some laundry, some yard work, some light housekeeping, and I wrote a Mother’s Day post I would schedule once the internet was back up. But, it became evident, no matter how many times I willed the red light on the router to turn green, that the 2:00 p.m. deadline was going to come and go. I called AT&T for an update and after picking through 45 grueling menu options, with me speaking in a withering voice to a recorder telling me to speak up, I was finally routed to a customer service agent from another continent, who, reading from a script, told me the problem would be fixed by 5:00 p.m. the next day.

Being the cynic I am, naturally, I did not believe the said person, but a funny thing happened after that. I still had the rest of the day ahead of me and I had about a zillion other things I could have tackled that did not require internet. I could have cleaned out and organized my closets. I could have gotten a jump start on organizing an agenda for the impending new role I’ll be taking in June as the President of the Cat Writers’ Association. I could have written a couple future blog posts and actually been ahead of the curve, instead of drowning like I normally am.

This was my paradise last weekend. The company of my cats, a good book, and not a computer in sight.

What I did instead, was grab a fresh cup of coffee and a book, and I plunked myself on the bed in our guestroom to read for the rest of the day. I absolutely love the room – it’s decorated with a beautiful leopard theme and it’s always bathed in a beautiful glow of sunlight, keeping it warm and cozy. The cats followed my lead and soon after the bed was peppered with an assortment of my feline friends, more than happy to nap the rest of the day away in my company. I have no science to prove this, but I genuinely think my body took over my mind and simply decided I needed a detox break from doing anything productive and I honestly didn’t have the energy or desire to argue with the logic.

The internet was not fixed at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, nor was it fixed at all on Sunday. Knowing myself as well as I do, I thought by now I’d be in a panic without connecting to the social world. I wasn’t able to post a Mother’s Day post and I wasn’t able to stop by other blogs to leave comments. I could have made the effort to bring my tiny laptop to an establishment with wi-fi to interact, but I just didn’t have it in me.

Happy belated Mother’s Day – I’m sorry I couldn’t communicate last Sunday but you were all in my heart!

When I got to work on Monday, I was able to connect to Facebook to see how everyone was doing and I was also able to see the throngs of emails I wasn’t able to access over the weekend. What did it all boil down to me missing? Not a whole heck of a lot, honestly. Nearly all my emails were spam and it appeared the world had continued on its merry axis while I forged ahead without internet.

At this point, it wasn’t even that I wanted the internet back, it was more the realization that nearly everything I do requires me to have internet. When I left work, the internet was still out at our house and I was starting to get edgy not being able to communicate – not necessarily socially, but now I couldn’t communicate in a business sense on my cat side of things. I must have walked into my office a dozen times – was the red light, green yet? Finally, at around 6:00 p.m. it came back. No fanfare, bells, or whistles. Just like that, the red light became green. I jumped on my computer, thinking I would feel victorious, but honestly, deep down, all I wanted to do was grab another book, settle on the guestroom bed with the cats and read the night away. Ironic, huh?

P.S. An update to the story – after several years of spotty streaming service from AT&T last night was the final straw. It was a tortuous night trying to watch an episode of Justified because of connection and buffering issues. We have made the decision we will be looking elsewhere – anyone have a good provider they can recommend?

As an aside, for those of you interested, our annual Cat Writers’ Conference (CWA) will be held this year at the Hyatt Regency North Houston Hotel, June 7 – 9. There will be educational seminars, a great keynote speaker (Dr. Marty Becker – America’s Veterinarian), editor appointments, a book signing event, and more. The Cat Fanciers’ Regional Cat Show will be held at the hotel and we will also be hosting our annual awards banquet. It’s a great opportunity to connect with cat-loving people and you don’t even have to be a member of the CWA to attend. If you’d like to go, we’re offering all kinds of great packages – from one-day passes to the full event. Please click here if you’d like more information or to register for your ticket. 

Calling all cat-lovers! We’d love to have you join us at our annual conference!