...I'm the gal that was honestly stumped a week ago when someone asked me if I had an iPhone or an Android. Honestly...I have no clue. If you offered me $1,000 to tell you one difference between the two I would walk away with no money. To me a phone is a phone. Can I call, text and take pictures? Great, I'll take it.
...The Cloud. I just had Jesse explain it to me...again. As long as I know my files are safe, I'm good.
...BYTES. Honestly. What in the world. Jesse starts saying "bytes" and I think of food. Like how big of a bite of deep dish pizza can I take? As a visual he wrote out the differences between the different bytes, like megabyte vs. kilobyte, gigabyte vs. terabyte. This can be best represented to me in a visual. For instance, if I stacked Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on top of each other, and each cup represented one byte, which stack would be taller. Now that has me doing math....
 |
| I tried to actually use Reese's to understand bytes and their different sizes, but Jesse then tuned me into the fact that if 1 peanut butter cup = 1 byte and there are approximately 35 cups in a bag, I'd need 30,000 bags for a megabyte. Now THAT I can comprehend because that is something I can actually BITE into. |
Here is where I feel badly. Since Jesse works at an IT Company in town, technology is a big part of his life. It is something he is truly interested in it, and as his wife I'd love to be supportive and listen and show I care, but it is tough when I have NO clue what he is talking about. That, and to be frank, it bores me...very much like every science class I ever took.
So, welcome to some realistic scenes in the life of a wife married to an employee at an IT company.
SCENE ONE:
Jesse walks into the door as I'm once again whipping up a domestic diva's dream supper of mac'n cheese.
Sarah: Welcome home, honey! How was your day?
Jesse: Well, today I had fun trying to identify the age of a PC with our RMM tool because it's a white box and only reports the serial number on the motherboard and the manufacturer is less than helpful. After that, I had to update the quoting templates for our server options because the processors on the Gen 9's switched from v3 to v4 and the speed has increased on the DDR4 Ram.
Cue my faraway look and random thoughts...
Sarah: Can he see the emptiness in my brain where all tech knowledge should be? If I respond with "Sorry about that," will he end this conversation thinking I understood what he said or will it make him keep talking? Maybe I hear the girls fighting and I should go break that up. Why does it matter if it is a white box? I think a teal one would look cool. Did he say something about a mother? I need to call my mom tomorrow. Wait, focus!!
SCENE TWO:
The girls are in bed and we are relaxing and catching up on some episodes of Longmire while he blogs or tinkers on his computer and I'm probably doing something for my It Works business. Suddenly, with a burst of enthusiasm Jesse pumps his fist in the air.
Jesse: Yes, I DID it! I installed three different OSs in VMs on the desktop of my laptop in an hour. Now I can run Ubuntu as my daily driver and use the VMs to test other operating symptoms.
Sarah:
Yup, I wrote nothing there because due to the time of day my faraway look is now just a completely blank stare. I'm also too tired at this point of the night to have the energy for random thoughts much less the effort to ask any questions. Instead, I give him the classic "I'm so sorry I'm unable to understand but honey I'm really proud of you" look.
I'm sure there are others of you out there that can relate. I'm sure we all have a spouse, a family member or friend that has some talent or interest that you could really give two hoots about, but because we love them and care for them we listen to them. We rejoice in their victories (even if they have to explain them multiple times) and comfort them in their struggles.
The crazy thing with me is that while the topic of technology wants to make me take a nap, it is pretty crucial to our (and my) every day living. If you would take away my phone and my computer away for a bit I would struggle. I know I would survive and life would go on, but you have to admit technology has streamlined our lives. I depend on it for so many things from connecting with my family and friends to running my business. I'm blessed to have a husband that gets the tech stuff. I don't get it, but I'm glad he does.
I know there are several things I'm interested in and talk about that make Jesse zone out, but at the end of the day I know he cares about me and supports me in all I do. I just hope he sees that in return.
Simply put...the connection is processing.
Great post Sarah! You had me cracking up. When my husband tries to talk shop with me, I just say, "I have no idea what you just said." I don't suggest you say that though because then they feel an intense need to clarify which means you have to listen to it all over again just in another way. Don't do it. :)
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