A small tale

It should be of no surprise to anyone who's been on the Laurier campus for the past couple of weeks that I'm coming down with a cold, since it seems to be making the rounds early this year. I've had a sore throat all weekend, which decided to upgrade to a hacking cough right in the middle of a drop-in session with the last student of the night tonight.

So there I am, attempting to talk about academic style, unable to get breaths - never mind words - in between uncontrollable coughs, tearing up from the tickle in my throat and completely interrupting the flow of tutoring.

Much to the student's credit, he graciously excused me for a couple moments to get up and walk about, so I wouldn't spew disease all over his assignment.

I think that, as far as interruptions to tutoring go, having a tickle in your throat/uncontrollable coughing fit is one of the worst, since you're quite literally unable to excuse yourself. However, contrary to my fears, the world didn't end; I got over the cough, came and sat back down, and we went through a couple more points before I wrapped the session up and we closed the Centre down for the night.

Have any of you had instances where something has interrupted your session? What was it, and how did you deal with it? This instance has made me curious.