Techless wonders

I thought my bag felt a little lighter than usual as I was walking toward my office this morning, and I soon realized why: no computer. Yes: I used my office laptop to take minutes at a meeting last evening and then took it home--and left it there. Oops.

Things I accomplished this morning without my computer:

• filed a pile of miscellaneous paperwork in appropriate folders
• tossed a pile of old exams into the shredder
• put a pile of books back in their places on the shelves
• proofread a pile of legal papers from my dad, trying to locate all the places where my phone number was incorrect (but at least they were consistent!)
• wrote a letter (on paper! by hand!) to a former student, after searching through my desk drawer for a note card that said something other than "Thank you" or "In sympathy" (and now I wonder about that sympathy card: I clearly bought it intending to express sympathy, but to whom?)
• turned toward the place where my computer normally sits at least a dozen times intending to write an email, only to once again realize that it wasn't there

Things I did not do this morning in the absence of my computer:

• read email
• write email
• blog
• read online news, blogs, or social media sites
• correct the error on a rubric that led to a student's receiving an incorrect grade
• locate my favorite version of Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire" to post on Facebook 
• write up the minutes from last night's Faculty Council meeting (which took two and a half hours despite a limited agenda and once again raises the question: why can't six PhDs figure out how to conduct faculty governance in under two and a half hours a week?)
• tap away at the computer keyboard while my first-year composition students practiced Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Paragraph
• check my online schedule to make sure I can leave campus early today to prepare for the grandkids' visit

So all day I've been playing it by ear, flying by the seat of my pants, and trusting that the world will continue turning despite the absence of my laptop computer. And if it doesn't, I'm counting on you to let me know. (But not by email.)