From 97 to 0 in a Blink of an Eye

It truly was a blessing in disguise.  But I didn’t know it at the time.

How could I???

At the time, I thought it was the end of the world. And, in a way, it was.  A blissful end to a horrible world… no... No!  A horrible end to a blissful world, is how it really felt.

The dawn of the doomsday was just like any other ordinary day.  

No advance warnings.  No creepy premonitions. No special announcements.

In fact, it was supposed to be a fun day.

Few errands.

A violin recital. I know - we all have our own definition of 'fun'.

A bite on the go.

And to top it off, a field trip to Trader Joe’s!  

How can anything bad happen on a day when there is a field trip to Trader Joe’s???

Be back home in time for my Duolingo Day 97.  I was already planning a 100-day-streak party.  Just three short days until the coveted milestone. Practically already in my pocket.

Then, one little hiccup led to a delay, and then another hiccup, which led to another delay.

No biggie, I thought.  I can handle this.

By the time we returned home, got kids in bed and I turned the computer on, it was already all over.

Instead of 97 what greeted me on the Duolingo home-screen was… a big. Fat. Z.E.R.O.

Do you have any idea how it feels to go from 97 to 0 in a blink of an eye???

How it feels to tumble head-first from almost the top into a mucky nothingness of not even one but zero???

I could sense a giant void being formed inside the pit of my stomach, shaped exactly like that zero mocking me from the screen; then, a torrent rushing into the void at a lightening speed. Denial, rage, negotiation, arguing, the madness of injustice and unfairness of it all. More denial, more rage, more negotiation. 

Mom, are you O.K? A pair of big brown-saucer eyes peers at me from behind the bedroom door just cracked open.

Nooooo… I think I just died!