“Grandpa
can’t streak through the dining room anymore,” my grandmother said as we sat in
front of her computer. Typical Wednesday night? Not at all, and this one was
going to change everything.
I
stopped at my grandparent’s house to give my grandmother her Mother’s Day gift,
a little bit early. I sat at the table as they finished their supper and
discussed everything ranging from grandpa blowing up my uncle’s chain saw to
both of them working at the Ledger that day.
As
my grandpa cleared the table, my grandma opened her present. As soon as she
pulled the webcam out of the gift bag, she looked at me, and told me she’d
hoped I hadn’t spent a lot of money on this, and she hoped I was going to teach
her how to use this. Of course I was going to, that’s why I’d stopped by early.
Most
people might think I’m a bit weird. A webcam, what kind of Mother’s Day present
is that? Let me explain. I’m moving in with my boyfriend in Westfield, New
Jersey on Saturday. Then we’re moving again to Towson, Maryland by the beginning
of June. I won’t be able to stop over at my grandparent’s house for lunch like
I usually do when I’m in town every week to attend school at Indian Hills. I
won’t be able to see them when they’re visiting Des Moines, and stop at my job
or apartment for a quick visit. I know there’s always phone calls, e-mails, and
text message, the last of which my grandmother is still mastering, but they
aren’t the same as face-to-face conversations.
My
boyfriend and I have been doing the long distance thing for a while. We usually
video-chat on our Xbox Kinects. He gave me the idea of buying a webcam for my
grandmother, after visiting our friends in Towson, and noticing that one of
them uses Skype to talk to her family in Albania. We both agreed it would be a
pretty neat way to talk, if my grandmother could figure it out.
So
this landed me at my grandparents’ house on Wednesday night. I installed the
webcam, downloaded Skype, and then the learning lesson began.
“How
do I open this?”
“Double
click the Skype icon on your desktop.”
“How
do I call someone?”
“Click
their name, then hit video call.”
“How
do I hang up?”
“Click
the red phone.”
“What
red phone?”
“The
phone that’s there when you’re in a call.”
I
told her all these things, and she would jot them down on a piece of paper.
Without the actual visuals, this wasn’t really going so well. So I had my
boyfriend get on Skype on his iPad, add my grandmother’s I.D., and call her.
They talked about how exciting it was that we were moving in together, and how
this “Skype thing” was a “real good idea” if my grandma could get the hang of
it. My boyfriend reassured her it wasn’t hard, and she would eventually
understand it. Grandma decided she might have to have my little brother come
out and help her after I moved. They caught up on things that happened since
the last time he was here in February, and my boyfriend mentioned the wreath
with a frog on it hanging clear across the house on the back of the door.
My
boyfriend had to go to dinner with our friends, so we ended our call, and I
showed Grandma how to sign off. She then went to the living room to discuss
this new fan-dangled video chat with Grandpa, while I updated their TomTom.
“You
missed Kendra’s boyfriend on the computer!”
“Hmm.”
“He’s
down in Maryland signing their new lease. So now we can video chat and see them
when we talk.”
“Hmm.”
Wheel of Fortune was on. My grandpa must really like that show.
“Our
picture was so good he could see the frog wreath, but he said his picture
wasn’t so good because he was using his iPad.”
Grandma
came back to the dining room, and we chatted as the TomTom finished updating.
We made plans to try out Skype Thursday, to see if she could figure it out on
her own. I’m pretty confident she’ll do okay, especially since she wrote down
directions.
