The lobby of the hotel is gleaming and spacious. People are milling about everywhere I look. Five of us are seated at the free terminals to check email or, in my case, blog.
The woman to my left is desperate for help. She’s gotten halfway through an online plane ticket purchase but can’t go further. The screen seems unresponsive. She turns to me and asks if I know what she is doing wrong.
“It looks like there should be more to that screen. I suggest she click the maximize icon, but nothing changes. The window doesn’t expand. We click a few other links, but nothing happens.
She calls her son to walk her through it. He can’t help, either. She asks me to watch her seat while she goes to ask the concierge for help. He suggests a refresh. It doesn’t work. Finally she gives up, deciding to try again in an hour. “It’s probably a problem with their site; that’s what everyone is telling me.”
I take a last stab at it. “You know, sometimes when you can’t find the scroll bar on the screen, you can use this scroll wheel on the mouse instead.” I had said that before when she was on the phone with her son, but she’d not understood. This time she hears what I mean. She tries again.
“It’s working! That worked!” Soon she is printing out her boarding pass, thanking me.
Moments like these, one after another like pearls on a string, are all I ask from life.
