I totally blew it. I could have had the coolest “home school” experience for Katie and I choked because I just don’t have my brain completely around the concept yet. She could have met Steve Wozniak! I am such an idiot.

My awesome client booked him for a presentation – I will post a link to it when it is available on Tuesday – he talked about education, technology and creativity. I was responsible for promoting it via social media and tweeting the event. I never realized he was actually going to be onsite (I live too much in my virtual world) and that I could have taken my daughter in to meet him. I also never realized just how incredibly cool he is.

He spoke about education and the things he’s done to inspire creativity in kids. His passion and enthusiam was absolutely contagious. I think his talk is especially compelling for the home school crowd because his arguments support many of the reasons we home school.

From his feelings about standardized tests (doesn’t like them) to his appreciation for individual learning differences, he’s truly an advocate of finding a child’s inner “spark” and then fueling that desire to learn. And while he’s focused on the kids, he’s a huge supporter of educators – especially those commited to inspiring the desire to learn and create. I consider myself to be that kind of teacher!

As it turned out, it was fortunate I didn’t take Katie to the presentation, because during it, I got a call that my aunt was being rushed to the emergency room. I am responsible for her and her husband (they were the victims of elder abuse, robbed blind by their grandchildren). So we needed to get packed and head north to see what the heck was going on.

We had to make about a three hour drive, laced with a dinner stop and then another for a post-dinner pit stop. It was dark for most of the drive and Katie was getting pretty bored. But then she said, “let’s do some home school!” and we started a game to work on her spelling. It was pretty fun and did make the time go by faster.

We arrived at 10:20 and drove straight to the ER. When we got there we found my aunt standing on the sidewalk, looking exhausted. They had just discharged her! Her husband was looking for a cab to get them home! What amazing timing. We got them piled in the car, took them home and got them settled. It felt good to know they were both okay and we can figure things out tomorrow morning.

So I blew an opportunity, but it all turned out kind of the way it was supposed to. Figuring out all the things I needed to do in rapid order nearly brought me to my knees but piece by piece, it came together. And thankfully, at least by now, I know every morning brings a fresh new day and I always survive, somehow!