I can hear Alex playing his computer game, which by itself is not necessarily a problem. The problem is that I can also hear his friends through the speakers, and apparently they have decided that today is the perfect day to bring back the timeless comedy stylings of Beavis and Butt-Head. So now, instead of peaceful background noise, I have a full-blown Beavis and Butt-Head reenactment happening somewhere on the other side of my door.

I finally had to close the door and put on my headphones just to have some quiet. Nothing says “productive morning” quite like studying with headphones on to drown out a bunch of boys doing their best impression of two cartoon idiots.

I’m learning about cloud computing right now. Since the book talks about it so much, I’ve been quizzing myself to make sure I actually understand it, rather than just nodding along whenever I see the words “cloud computing.” I have the different types of cloud computing down pretty well. Those make sense to me.

The five models, however, are another story.

They seem straightforward enough when I’m reading about them. I think, “Okay, I understand this.” Then I quiz myself, and suddenly my brain apparently decides it has never seen the English language before. I start second-guessing which model is which, and they all begin blending. It’s one of those things where I understand the concept while I’m reading it, but the moment someone asks me to identify it without looking at the book, my brain goes, “Hmm… cloud?”

Still, I’m working on it. I’m determined to get those five models straight in my head. Eventually, the clouds will part. Hopefully.

And despite the Beavis and Butt-Head soundtrack happening in the background, I’ve actually gotten quite a bit done this morning. I filled up the pill boxes, did laundry, washed Tommy’s hockey unders, had my coffee, filled out my planner, and studied. Well, technically, I’m still studying, but that counts.

So that was my morning: laundry, hockey gear, pill boxes, coffee, planning, cloud computing, and an unexpected live performance of Beavis and Butt-Head coming through the wall.

Honestly, not a bad morning. Just a very noisy one.

It’s the afternoon, and I’m doing alright with quizzing myself on cloud computing and the different cloud models. I’m making progress, but I have a feeling I’ll probably be coming back to this on Monday and picking it up again. Today is just one of those off days. I don’t really know why, but I can definitely feel it. My focus is all over the place, and it’s been harder than usual to settle into studying.

I think part of it is that I have a busy weekend coming up, so my mind keeps jumping ahead to everything that needs to get done. I’m also worried about Kel because her dad is still in the hospital. That’s been on my mind, too. Then there’s Karissa’s computer situation. She starts school in four days, so I’m thinking about making sure she has everything she needs and that the computer is ready for her.

I’m not too worried about moving Alexis into her school. We’ve done this before, so we have a pretty good idea of what to expect. She told me that her move-in time is noon, which means we’ll need to leave around 9:00. That really isn’t too bad. We’ll just have to get up a little earlier so we can get everything packed into the car and be ready to go. I think we’re taking the car, although I’m not completely sure yet.

When I put all of that together, it makes sense that studying feels a little tougher today. There are a lot of things competing for my attention, even if none of them individually feels overwhelming. Sometimes it’s just hard to concentrate when your mind is already thinking about everything else that’s coming up.

For now, I’m going to make myself some tea, take a little break, and then get back to studying. I just need to keep moving forward.

Well, I did make myself some tea. But I decided to fold and put away Tommy’s hockey jersey and unders. And then I put away the laundry that I did today. Getting up and doing something felt a little better than sitting at my computer. I just needed to do something. Now I’m back to studying. I’m going to do that for a bit before everyone comes home.