“Are you kidding me?” I cry at the screen that has alerted me that I am now locked out of my grad school site “for security purposes” as my password was incorrect five times in a row. Seeking articles on the university library site came to an immediate halt when suddenly, my password was necessary to access an article.
“What’s wrong over there?” my husband asks from the other room.
I explain to him the source of my trauma.
“Whose going to want to get into my account anyway? Who are they protecting it from?” I ask.
“They are protecting it from yourself,” he says, as he watches TV without a flinch.
From myself?
I ususally brush off his smart— comments when my distress becomes his playground for words. But this time is different.
All day I’ve worked on transcribing interviews, analyzing data, searching for articles and writing up sections of an article. I’d not even taken a break for a walk on this 30 degree day in Minnesota.
Consumed.
I shut my laptop and grab my notebook to write this down.
“These things don’t just happen,” I hear a voice in my head.
(I had another paragraph drafted to explain the learning here, but I deleted it as I think the lesson is obvious. And, I’m too lazy to revise it today.)
Shari 🙂
I’m participating in twowritingteachers March 2018 Slice of Life Challenge of writing a blog post every day for the month of March. I’ve already missed a day, so I’m out of the contest for prizes, but no worries. I’m just going to keep plugging along. 🙂
To check out other writers, visit here.
Islands of My Soul 
Passwords are the worst! I totally feel your pain… I had to create a doc and archive mine to keep everything straight. On another note, I loved that line about your distress being a ‘playground’ for your husband’s words. Such good writing, even if that comment wasn’t what you wanted to hear in that moment! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ugh. Passwords are the worst. I recently locked us out of our online banking and have to call to have it reset. I just can’t make myself call.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am soooo glad to know I’m not the only one who can’t keep track of my passwords. Unless I use the same easily guessable one for everything. I know I should have a notebook or, better yet, use one of the apps to keep track of passwords, but I just can’t be bothered. I hope you got outside after that! (I wasted yesterday’s 50 degree day inside, and now it’s snowing again.)
LikeLiked by 2 people
Well, I do plan on heading outside today. And, after reading your post, I need to up my yoga challenge!! 🙂
LikeLike
I understand all too well the struggle. I’ve called to get a password reset, most understand, but once the person who was helping me was curt and not happy that I’d forgotten/lost my password, “Just write it down”, she said. But if it were that simple. I store them in my phone notes, I write them in a bullet journal, I have my computer save them, but sometimes it just fails. I suppose I should write a slice about this!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for feeling my pain, Pat. I have an app in my phone I keep them all in (dare I say that outloud?) but I’m constantly updating as I become even too lazy to go find my phone when I need to enter a password, so I just keep changing them – and I don’t let the phone app know. I wish I had a better system.
LikeLike
I can’t stand all these different passwords and the fickle tyrants of software, locking us out on a moment’s notice. Ugh! Great slice!
LikeLike
I feel your pain. I’m having a similar password problem, although related to a business (local hospital) and accessing my account so I can pay the bill. You’d think they’d want the money! Colleges are the worse, and reading your post reminds me I need to post grades for a class I recently finished teaching.
Good luck to you and your grad studies. It’s impressive that you’re committed to blogging every day in March w/ the data analysis you’re doing, too.
LikeLike
The. Absolute. Worst. Let’s go back to the days when our greatest online security problem was figuring out how to log onto instant messenger…
LikeLike
True to all of the above, but my favorite line was “I am too tired to revise…” Yup! My students can relate. Last Friday I was too tired to teach- would have loved to put in a movie. Tonight I was too tired to revise as well and I think my post has good intention but is a bit of a hot mess. Glad you did post and remember writing every day is the prize!
LikeLike
I’ve done that at school when I’ve tried to get into my attendance account using my school email account! So frustrating. Nothing more embarrassing than to have to call administration and tell them you locked yourself out!
LikeLike