I'm watching the Paris Opening Ceremonies while talking to my Mother on Zoom. We are watching it together. She is watching it live on CBC, while I am on a KBS stream that may or may not be live.

She is watching a fellow in a suit and running shoes give a speech, while I am watching dancers on a boat.

"Is it Seinfeld?" I ask my mom of the man.

"No. Can't you see him?"

"I only have dancers right now."

"There aren't any dancers. That was hours ago."

"Yeah, probably my stream isn't live. But it is dark."

I don't have the sound on either. I'm talking to my mom, after all. But my stream does have a little man in the corner translating the whole affair into sign language. I don't know sign language, but I probably wouldn't understand the Korean commentary either.

There is not much for the translator to do when we are looking at the dancers. Apparently there is no commentary. He has his hands at his sides, and, frankly, looks a little disappointed. All dressed up but nowhere to go!

"Do you want to hear a complicated story?" my mom asks. It's a loaded question. My mom over-complicates even the simplest stories. I can't image what she will make of a story that she finds complicated.

"Is it about you trying to show someone a photo over Zoom?"

The story wouldn't be that complicated, but the process is. She always holds something up off screen and then starts talking about it, pointing to things and saying things like: "And here is my favourite part." I usually have to suggest that the camera is pointing at her face, and maybe the something should be held in front of it. But then she can't see the something to point at.

"It's a story with a lot of names."

Names are one of her favourite sidetracks in a story. Recalling the name of someone's child or husband can really draw the story out.

"Go on then." Another little expression I picked up from old British crime dramas. Usually you use it when someone asks you if you want a tea, but I think it applies here, too. I get a piece of paper and a pencil to keep track of the names. My brothers like a good transcript of Mom's stories. They like a diagram.

"There is this girl Kathy at my gym." she starts. 'Girl' means she is under 60.

"Kathy Thompson?"

I ask questions occasionally so that my mom thinks that I am listening. This is an important part of a conversation. The appearance of interest.

"No. Did I tell you about how I forgot her birthday– "

I'll skip this bit. Much like I did on the Zoom call. I was watching the dancers, after all, and had a bit of Googling to do at the same time.

Sometimes when I have to Google during a Zoom with my mom, I tell her that I am putting her on pause. When I finish Googling, I say "...and unpause!" while making a button pushing gesture towards my camera. She then resumes from where I paused her.

That was an aside, much like my mom's story about Kathy Thompson.

"I was talking to Kathy at the gym, and she told me her daughter got into a school in New Hampshire. I told her that I have a friend Sandy there and go to visit her whenever I am in Boston," my mom continues, finally returning to the original story.

There are some more details. A story is about details, and my Mom is not one to short-shift you on these, but I was still watching the Olympic dancers, so I missed some of them. It turns out that when Kathy's husband was in New Hampshire moving his daughter into the university, he went to a store to get boxes, or something, and got talking to the man in line in front of him, who turned out to be Sandy's husband Erland.

"What is Kathy's husbands name?" I asked. I needed it for my diagram.

"Oh. I don't know."

"I'll call him Erland."

"I don't think that was his name. He is trim and fit."

"Sounds like an 'Erland'."

Also Celine Dion came into the story somewhere, but I am not sure where. Possibly she was just on the CBC broadcast of the Olympics.