Please pray for my computer

My work computer spent yesterday morning in a coma, and in the early afternoon was whisked away to the ICU. The prognosis is not good.

This is not a good thing to happen, ever, but certainly not two days before the Spring semester begins. As I watched it being wheeled away, I panicked -- now what was i going to do for the rest of the day? My entire work life revolves around my computer, whether it's answering email, checking student records, or tweeking class presentations. For most of that, I canuse another computer. But what about all of my files? I became a finely tuned sprotscar, only instead of 0 to 60 in under 2 seconds, I went from panicked to crazed.

Sure, most of my files were backed up, but during the chaos of the end of the Fall semester, I know I worked on a lot of things and I did not back them up. What were they? What had I worked on before the Christmas break? Was it anything really important? My brain refused to dig deep into its core to pull out those answers for me.

A cup of tea later, I was feeling calmer. This could be a good thing, sort of like that box of files the movers lost three moves back. When my memory acts its age, I now have a built-in excuse. "I'm sorry. That information was lost when my computer crashed."

Technology really can be a good thing. Even when it is not being good.

New Year, New Goals

Like everyone else in the Universe, a new year means new beginnings for me. I have trashed New Year's resolutions, however, in favor of what I am calling My 2010 Happiness Bucket List, or as I have fondly nicknamed it, HBL. Instead of having a list of vague and meaningless resolutions that I give up on about halfway through January, I have identified 28 things I want to accomplish over the next 12 months. Some are simple --- like try Ethiopian cuisine and take a photography class -- to more involved things like finishing my children's book and giving up shopping for a month. Also on the list: updating my blog weekly at the very least! That should be easy; I can update my HBL progress.

The idea for my HBL came from two sources. Heather Bowser, a reporter with the Daily News Record here in Harrisonburg is doing a bucket list in anticipation of her birthday. Reading about her ideas got me to thinking about putting together my own bucket list. Then I started reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I decided to focus my bucket list on things that make me happy -- learning new skills, getting outside, spending time with Bate.

I've put my HBL into a year-long chart and printed it out. I'm pretty excited about this new approach. Hopefully next year at this time, I will see a whole lot of checkmarks on my HBL. I've already completed one -- Try Indian cuisine. It was good, but I don't think I'll be rushing back!