Smash Hit

I can't tell you how excited I am to be posting tonight.  My sudden absence from the internet had nothing to do with my lack of enthusiasm for the blog and a lot to do with what happened two weeks ago, a disaster only I could successfully pull off.

As you know I have been slaving away on my thesis for what feels like an eternity.  Two weeks ago I finally reached the point in my editing and formatting when I just had to admit that I was done.  For real.  Barring typos and formatting problems, I am actually done and am now supposed to be preparing to defend this monstrosity in two weeks.  So I converted it to a pdf, printed out the form I had to sign, made frantic phone calls and emails to ensure that my paperwork was all in order, and emailed it to my committee.

Not even an hour after this, the unthinkable happened.  My computer broke.  Again, let me back up for a moment.  The entire process of writing this thesis has been rife with computer problems.  Last Thanksgiving I had to borrow a friend's laptop to write my final papers on because mine was so overheated that the Best Buy guy told me the only way to make it work would be to run it out of the refrigerator.   After I got that fixed, the keyboard crapped out and I wrote the first chapter of my thesis without many of the necessary keys because there was no way I could go without my laptop while writing.  Other problems cropped up over the next year.  I wrote with an external keyboard, had to turn the entire computer off and on again to access the internet, gave up listening to music on the computer itself, and basically became confined to whatever odd setup I could rig for a computer that had to have three things attached in order to make it work.  I dealt with all of this because a computer is so integral to the thesis process and I did not feel I could go without it for long enough to get everything fixed.

Then, when the end was finally in sight, the computer slipped off of the stool I had balanced it on and cracked the screen.  This was beyond the last straw and so I packed my baby up and with the help of my flatmate Andrea, took it to the Geek Squad to mailed away to a repair center.  Last week I got a call letting me know that my warranty did not in fact cover accidentals and so it would cost almost $400 to repair the computer.  But, when I picked up the computer today I found out that this was only the screen and the rest of the computer has been repaired.  So I am currently using only the top half of my screen, but I am able to use all of the other parts of the computer that I have not had access to for over a year.  I will still be able to make any necessary edits to my thesis, and more importantly, I am able to blog again!

Fortunately for us all I have not finished anything since the great computer crash of 2011, an event which hearafter will only be spoken of in hushed tones, lest the irony be too evident to avoid the inevitable hysterics. I'm leaving tomorrow for a whirlwind Thanksgiving, but when I get back you can expect all new posts about my Autumn Melody and the Attraction on the Moors socks.

This Thanksgiving I'm thankful for the ability to type on my computer and access new podcast episodes.  Hope you have a lovely holiday!