She turned her can't into cans and her dreams into plans

Good morning Internetland. A lot has happen since we last spoke. Its strange how a day can change so dramatically from one minute to the next. Friday started off as a great day. I was interacting with community members, I taught an organizational workshop, I found a youth leader to help me with my summer camps, I helped the church committee clean up the church for the upcoming Novena, all in all things were looking up. At 5pm I returned home to examine the damage the bugs were doing to my legs and spray the smallest amount of Deet possible in hopes of finding a balance between allergic reactions and being eaten alive. I pulled out my computer to double check a few things before heading out the door to soccer practice.

My computer turned on to a white screen with a flashing file folder and question mark in the middle of the screen. My stomach dropped. I know very little about computers, but this appeared to be very bad. The question mark might as well have been a skull and crossbones. I called a few friends and got a few answers. It was bad. I needed to take it into a Mac Store. There were two options, one just simple re-installation, two a new hard drive.

Saturday morning woke up at 4am. Caught the bus at 5:30am. Arrived in San Jose (frantically) at 1:15pm. Found the Mac Store by 1:30pm. I was told that a repair was $40 dollars and a new hard drive was $200. I explained my situation (am a volunteer, live in the campo, my computer is my lifeline, I have no money) and I am sure that I was the epitome of desperation. They said they needed two hours to fix it. My last bus to get back to my side of the country leaves at 3:00pm. I had an hour and a half. They said they would try.

I grabbed a quick lunch and then loitered annoying (and anxiously) in the store. At 2:38pm I was shown my computer, it was working! I asked if all my data was okay. The answer was no, I took a deep breath in, put my hands on my head, mourned my data loss for 10 seconds and then moved on. I asked, "So it was just the installation disc?" The answer, "No, it needed a new harddrive, but I found one. It will only be $50 dollars." Shock. Look at watch, 2:45. "Thank you so much! Can I pay now?" I whiped out my card, packed up the laptop, signed the receipt and bolted out of the store at a dead run. I ran into the first cab I could see and told the cab driver we had 10 minutes to get to the bus station. His response "Impossible."

Long story short I made the bus, with some questionably safe cab driving, 8 blocks of running, and 45 minutes of waiting when I arrived at the bus stop only to find the bus leaves at 3:45pm. My computer is up and running and I have been downloading all of the things that one needs to download (the list is surprisingly copious).

Lessons learned? I can't say I am quite sure of the lesson yet. I know in the past I said that a broken computer would be one of the things that would send me packing. But when the computer broke, I was upset, but after an evening of being upset it seemed so clear. This was a problem, there was a solution. It might mean some hard work, some money, some time, but a solution was out there. It was different when Cricket died, that type of upset seems insolvable. So maybe the lesson is that problems are solvable. Seems pretty straight forward, but when I was sitting in my room with a broken computer, and an unbroken silence, nothing felt solvable. You can't drown in the upset of a problem that is solvable, you just have to wait it out.

Time to start the day. Goodbye for now, sending loves.