basically one computer science lecture later, I still haven't told anything about my workday.

ahaha

I can try to leave out such words, like "we had to roll out our software onto a really old computer", but then I can practically only say "that was really annoying".

Tough. Try my best with analogies, tailored if possible, but still tough.

“We had to try to translate our app into a language this ancient computer could understand. It was as easy as suddenly switching to Shakespearean English halfway through this conversation. Or like if you drove your car to a mechanic who’d been cryogenically frozen for the last hundred years. He doth protest much, methinks.

Overall, it was like putting together a thousand-piece puzzle, except the box came with a million pieces and most of them were useless!”

Good thing your mom was surely impressed with you all the same 😉