Past continuous and telling a story

past continuous: The past continuous is was or were plus the verb with -ing. It says that something was already under way at a moment in the past — not that it started then, and not that it finished.

interruption: When a short fact cuts into something longer, the long one goes in the continuous and the short one in the simple: I was cooking when the phone rang. The word when introduces the short one, while introduces the long one.

two at once: When two long things were going on at the same time, both take the continuous, usually joined by while: I was reading while she was cooking. Neither interrupts the other — they simply overlap.