Murphy Doesn't Have Anything on Me

Murphy doesn't have anything on me.  (I may be crossing my fingers as I type this as to not jinx myself).

In the past week, I've been arguing/dealing with the treadmill installers (long story), the vet, and now my computer.

Last night, my computer died on me.  After looking online from my ipad at the possible causes, it seemed to say my internal hard drive couldn't be found.  Thanks to great advice from my brother, I made an appointment at the Genius Bar at the Apple store down in Nashville.  (I mean who knew, a genius bar?)

Every time I walk into the Apple store, I feel like an 80 year old that has lost touch with technology.  Having to bring two little kids in there with me makes me even more self-conscious.  As soon as I meet my Genius, I tell him that in relative terms I am computer illiterate.  I explain what is going on and how I think it is the hard drive.  He agrees and asks if I have been backing my computer up.  I hang my head in shame and explain that apparently I am the type of person that has to learn lessons the hard way.  I hear about this all the time, but never once took the time to back up all our files and pictures.  In my head I try to blame it on my limited technical knowledge, but really I'm just making excuses.  So the Genius says that he can still see my hard drive which is great news and could try to back it up onto an external hard drive for me if I would want to do that.  I quickly agree because the thought of losing all those pictures is something I hadn't come to terms with yet.  So he begins that process and tells me it could take a while and that I could play around the store if I wanted.  I asked (with a pleading look in my eyes), "can I leave the apple store?"  At first he hesitated, but I think after glancing down at my two sidekicks, on of them already screaming, he quickly agreed that it would be fine.

So with an hour to kill I began to shop.  I had been wanting to go to the Bare Escentuals store to get matched with the correct foundation, but I didn't think I was going to end up at this mall in Nashville anytime soon.  I guess my computer breaking was lucky for me in the makeup department.  I got the perfect color of foundation and continued on my shopping day. My next stop was the Pandora Store.  Remember my Christmas gift bracelet?  Well the bracelet has 3 sections.  You can lock off each section with a clip.  Since my charms have been drifting all over the place but then getting stuck in all different sections, I decided to splurge and buy two clips to keep the charms in the center.  I figured I deserved a little something for taking both boys to the upscale mall for an extended trip.  We also bought Ryan new sneakers.  Unfortunately he's so attached to his old ones that he didn't want anything new.  I even resorted to showing (and buying) him shoes that light up just to get him to agree to new ones.

Eventually we ventured back to Apple, but it had 25 minutes left in transferring the hard drive.  So went went to go eat a pretzel.  At this point Sean had had enough with the stroller, so I was trying to carry him, the diaper bag, our shopping bags, push the stroller, and keep my eye on Ryan.  We got our pretzels and found a nice and secluded bench.  All three of us sat there quietly enjoying our pretzels thankful for a break from the mall.  As we were finishing, Sean decided that he should walk on his own through the mall.  This is not usually something I would allow, but really the kid had been in the stroller for long enough.  Sean began his drunken sailor walk and was so happy.  At this point let me also tell you that Sean doesn't so much have a laugh as he does a giggle or chuckle.  His giggle has a little devilish quality to it.  It is really cute and adorable, but pretty unique.  Well, Sean was having so much fun running around free and kept doing his little chuckle.  I was afraid people would think I was letting my little one run wild, but thankfully everyone seemed to smile at him and think he was cute.  After a little while of this, I needed a break and to get him back under control.  I plopped him back into the stroller.  I thought he'd scream his little head off, but he in fact fought very little.  I think that taste of freedom had worn him out.  We made a quick potty break and headed back to the Apple store to wait.

We waited about 10 minutes until our Genius was free again.  He said it was successful in backing up the hard drive.  I was relieved.  He was trying to see if he could just repair the hard drive too instead of replacing it, but he had 3 more minutes to wait.  3 minutes later he had more good news.  He was able to repair the hard drive.  My computer was up and running and still had all the original information, plus I now had a backup too.  All I had paid for was the new external hard drive, which I obviously needed to invest in.  All the work the Genius did was free.  I wanted to kiss him I was so happy (well, not quite, but you get it).  I now understand why so many people LOVE Apple.

I was really lucky to escape this computer issue without losing any of my files/photos.  I was also lucky that I didn't have to spend a lot of money to get it fixed.  I think it was a good lesson to me about the importance of backing up my files/photos.  And it ended up being a pretty good shopping trip too!

Murphy didn't win today!