Accidental MacBook upgrade

My baby is sick.

Inciting Incident: MacBook dropped onto floor at kids' swim practice. Still works and all seems to be okay.

1st Turning Point: When Gwen tries to reboot her laptop, it hangs. She tries again. It hangs. *insert 5 Stages of Grief*

Pinch Point: Mac repair man agrees hard drive is likely toast and provides repair and data recovery estimate. $$$

Yes, I dropped my MacBook yesterday. 🙁 I was pulling it from my tote bag like I've done a thousand times. Except this time it slipped from my hand and hit the tile. I think I stopped breathing.

After gently retrieving it and setting it on the table, we both (me and Mac) hyperventilated for a few minutes before I opened the lid. To my surprise, it seemed okay. Maybe just a little slow, but I was able to keep working. I created a whole blog post about transferring Scrivener files to the Nook complete with screen shots. (See the comments in Tuesday's post for a quick run-through.)

But then, the Black Moment. When I tried to reboot, it failed. So Mac repair is coming today. Luckily, I can use The Engineer's computer for the next few days, but he doesn't have Scrivener. If I get the itch to write before I get it back, I may have to slog through with (gasp!) Word.

For now, I'm still going through Blind Fury on my Nook, but I expect to finish today or tomorrow. My edits will have to wait.

Thanks to MobileMe, I still have access to my Inbox and email capability, and my calendar. I have all of my manuscripts and other important documents backed up, but I didn't think to include email. And I haven't backed up my photos in a few months because they take so long to transfer. The Engineer has many of the important pictures, but this has been an eye-opener.

I need to determine what's not only critical, but important, to me and make sure I back it up regularly. I encourage you to do the same.

With any luck, this will turn out to be a boring story where I get a new hard drive with all of my old data and software back, and my computer is better than ever.

Hey, I'm all about the happily ever after, remember?