With One Push of an Elbow.

It's amazing to think how much of your life is wrapped up in your computer. This thing--a thing bought in a store, no less--holds so many of your memories, your work, evidence of how you've spent your time, the data of your life. And then with one little push of an elbow, it's suddenly all hanging in the balance.

First off, I know I am an idiot. It doesn't matter that my dad scolded me 20,000 times growing up to keep liquids away from the computer. It doesn't matter that I am now the adult, the parent, I was (am) still silly enough to keep a cup of water on my computer desk, and then subsequently freak out at the prospect that I just lost everything on that powerful little MacBook Pro. (A huge purchase Jason and I made only one year ago, the fruit of my first real, big-girl job.)

I thought I was so smooth, lifting the computer nearly instantaneously in the air when the cup of water tilted over. I wasn't fast enough. A small puddle landed on the keyboard. Then my MacBook shut off. And then it wouldn't come back on.

Now, by the the Grace of the Computer Gods, I'm typing this on an old Apple keyboard, hooked up to my MacBook, which I have successfully gotten to turn back on. (A tip given to me by my good friend Candice's husband. Thanks so much, Rob, for knowing what you're talking about.) The laptop's keyboard doesn't seem to be working, but after some Command + Alt + P + R reboots, the computer seems to have turned back on fine (albeit slowly). Each one of my precious photos, each one of my thousands of documents, designs, purchased music and movies, has been carefully transfered to a backup hard-drive.

We're not really in the position to buy a brand, spanking new computer right now (we're trying to buy a house, and a new MacBook just isn't in the cards), but I will happily keep using this machine, hooked up to an old Apple keyboard or not, until the Computer Gods take her away for good.

All I can say is this: thank God for external hard-drives. Ninety-percent of my job is done on this computer, and the thought of working (and, um, functioning) without it makes me feel a little lost. And I promise, Dad, this time I really, really, will never have liquids near the computer again.