Many years ago I had a recurring dream where I was in high school though many years older. I had to get to class but did not know where the classes were. It was not the school of my youth and the bells between classes had no rhyme or reason that I could tell. Two bells meant you had to do something different than one bell or three fast or five slow. All the students knew what they were doing but me. I was in a panic. Sometimes a student 
would try to give me instructions but another bell would ring and off they ran!
I had this dream over a period of a few years in my life that involved rough choices, but eventually everything was sorted out and the dream went away. Or at least I thought it did…
For the past few weeks I have been working with a most delightful man who has designed our new AHI website. Dan laid the plans according to what was needed for AHI. He built the frame, added color and style, put in some content to give us some idea of what it would look like. Then, he announced it was ready- for us to finish. I enlisted a co-web worker, our own Board member, Dan Sutton who is also techy. Having him on board gave me a feeling of security. Now I was between two Dans ready to go. In the Russian culture, if you stand between two people of the last name it is considered good luck. I soon discovered I was going to need it.
You see Dan of Israel knew all about the web site- it is his job and he built it. Dan of USA knew how to do the web site because he works with this type of software in his job. The only one who DIDN’T know how to do it was, of course, me.
Did I hear a bell? What school is this? Yes, I have my assignments/web content written- well, maybe half of it… I have to do what? I have to load the website? Wait! I have to do it? But, I thought you guys with the knowledge would… load and do… ummm, yes, I understand. I have to learn it. Was that three bells or five?
Okay. I am looking at the log in page. Oh, dear. What did he say to do here? Where is that email he sent? No, not that one; or that one; or- yes, here it is! Okay, I have the user and password entered and voila’! I am in the back page of the site. Now what? Where is that other email…? What if I hit the wrong thing and crash it all!!!
Several weeks go by filled with many emails of desperation, emails with more instruction, one training session and one coming up. A deadline is set! Hmmm, actually, that may not have been a good idea…
Each day I am working on the site. I ask questions, get answers and go back again. Some pages need to be re-written, new ones created, pages moved around. Parent pages, quads, resizing photos, child pages, links and resources, slide shows and media, kb vs mb, collecting pictures and editing them, outlines and notes, drop-downs and NO parent pages!
Some nights I can’t sleep because of the bells and I feel lost in the halls of this crazy tech school. Then along comes Israel Dan to give me directions and I begin to find my way to some classes. I think I am beginning to understand some of those bells.
Then one evening I choose pictures for slides, I download the software for resizing, succeed in preparing the picture, insert it into the slide show with the text. With great trepidation I click on the button that says “Publish.” I wait. Then I check the home page of the web site. Oh! The slides are there! They are all there along with the words!
I am so excited I go to Wal Mart and buy a chocolate bar- the really dark kind! Chewing on a square, I decide to venture into the other pages and see if I can add some pictures there. After that, I might even make the colossal leap into, oh, dare I say it? Links!
Very soon this website is supposed to go public. The most critical parts of it will (I hope) be ready and I will keep adding to it as I can. Dan of USA will be my assistant (though I had hoped it would be the other way around!) I am sure I will make mistakes and some of them may be really funny- enough to make you laugh and me scramble for my computer. But really, I will have been taught all this techy stuff, all this about websites that I never wanted to know, and especially one thing. Now I know I can write and work on a website and do all the back page stuff, and I have discovered something else…
… I still prefer delegation. 🙂
And, by the way, no more dreams with weird bells and mystery halls. I can get around our web site with the best of anybody. That is, as long as you don’t ask me anything new.
Sitting on the Rock in the middle of techsand,
Susan
