CRASH! The Final Chapter

Well, the final chapter of my story is filled with a lot of agony, a little ecstasy, and some crying thrown in. That's right, crying. I was really surprised at how deeply I was effected by the loss of my computer. Really, it was the loss of our family photos from the last 2+ years. It's not like I was sobbing constantly, I mean, I'm not a basket case, but I will admit a few tears were shed.

But again, I digress.

Let's go back to Wednesday morning, right after I experienced CRASH! Part Deux, and arrived at yoga. I always get there a bit early because I have to drop the boys off at school and I don't really have time to do anything before class starts, so I usually end up at the yoga studio about 15 minutes early. I don't really mind because I enjoy chatting with my friend and yoga guru Amy before class starts, and when I arrived I made the BIG MISTAKE of telling Amy I was having a bad day. In her usual, calm, chakra-aligned way she asked me about it, and I told her about the car, and then, ANOTHER BIG MISTAKE, I start telling her about the computer crash of the day before. Well, I thought I was in control of myself enough to talk about it calmly, but as I'm telling Amy the saga, I get all teary and had to apologize. I was able to pull myself together, but had to leave yoga early because I just couldn't focus with everything on my mind.
Fast forward to Thursday, and I head to the big city to take my car to the only Volvo dealership in my state (one hour away) and to go get the diagnosis of my sick MacBook. Well, after getting the bad news at Volvo, I headed to the Apple Store to meet my fate. As I walked to the store I was still feeling a little on edge. With the car news tacked on top of it all, I was feeling a bit fragile and was afraid of another emotional meltdown when I had to explain what happened to my laptop to the Mac Genius I had an appointment with. As I walked up to the store I kept telling myself "Do not cry to the Apple guy. Do not cry to the Apple guy. Do not cry to the Apple guy."
And then I arrived. I hadn't been into the Apple Store for quite a while, and I had forgot that, in my opinion, the Apple Store is about the closest thing to heaven that can be experienced on this earth.
First of all, there's all the pretty computers flashing candy colored images in a beautiful, minimal, clean room space. And then there's all the cool people hanging out there. If Apple was really smart they would keep the Apple Store open after hours, dim the lights, serve drinks, and call it Club Apple. I'd go. But best of all, there's all those cute geeks who work there running around with wireless devices looking very smart and very busy. I don't know how Apple does their hiring, but I think they must require that not only you be smart, but look like some derivation of Justin Long to get the job. And if you wear hip glasses, they pay extra.
Needless to say, surrounded by all of this I was feeling a bit better, and a little less emotional (although I may have been experiencing some other emotions that weren't so bad). When it finally got up to the Genius Bar to talk to my very cute tech, Sean, I was feeling I could do this, and told him the story, including the fact that I had most likely lost all my family photos due to my laziness when it comes to backing up. No tears. Hallelujah!
But, Apple Store euphoria aside, the news was still not good. Sean did everything he could and still couldn't get my hard drive to respond. I think he could tell I was fragile, so when he finally had to deliver the bad news, he said "Yeah, um, well, I don't think we're getting anything off this hard drive." I could tell he was waiting for something, possibly tears, possibly yelling, and I think I actually saw him take a step back from me as the words came out his mouth. But I don't think he expected me to say "Sean, you know what would really help? If you would just give me a hug," and then he took me in his skinny geek arms and I knew everything would be alright. Well, okay, maybe that last part was just in my head, but there's something about a cute guy telling you that your hard drive is toast that really softens the blow.
Sean did give me a card telling me of some place in California where I could send off my dead hard drive to have it disassembled in a clean room for only $1,000. I don't mean to sound callous, but losing my family photos might make me cry, but it's not going to make me spend $1,000 on the off chance they can be retrieved. I guess I'm not that sensitive after all. We did take the dead hard drive to a local place to see if they could retrieve anything, so in a week I will know for sure.
In the end Apple didn't replace my computer, but put in a new hard drive so it seems new. That's both good and bad. I have to rebuild my whole iLife, which isn't fun, but I can do it at much greater speed now that my computer isn't bogged down with all those photos of cute kids opening presents on Christmas morning. 
So, it was a terrible week, but now it's over. There is a moral to this story, and please, take it to heart. BACK UP, PEOPLE! Don't learn the hard way. Actually, you should be backing up right now instead of putzing around on the Internet reading blogs, so go. Do it now. GO! GO! GO!