Coffee With Mi

Mi, I toast you with a tumbler of freshly brewed kaapi!

I Proposed Universe Disposed

Yesterday, I was all settled and ready to finish up a post – a review of a hair oil and hair pack (imagine! bet you’re finding it really hard not to smile) when I realized it was dinner time.

Intending to continue after dinner, I toddled off to make poha and salad. I enjoyed a bit of “Awkward”, alternating between that and “Rizzoli & Isles” until I finished eating.

Then opened my laptop, when I remembered I had to email a tentative schedule to the author of the manuscript I am currently editing. Since that would only take a short while, I thought I’d get that done first before continuing with the review post. I can be so smart like that.

So imagine my utter shock at discovering that the folder with the one MS Word file now a/ showed no sign of that file, and, b/had 96 files with gibberish names.

To say I was alarmed would be the understatement of the year, even if the year is only 21 days old!

I breathed to calm myself. Oh, breathing is a regular habit with me, as you know, but this “breathed” was conscious to induce extra calmness. I stopped to think of the silver linings. I don’t mind saying I had to really force myself, you know.  I mean, memories of two previous occasions cascaded into my mind, reminding me of what a crybaby I had been at the time, and I scolded myself, saying, no tears.

Good thing I had only edited a few pages in the ms and didn’t feel so bad about that. I could easily catch up with it. I was afraid, though, about the rest of the files in the 64 GB USB drive and realized there was no choice but to start backing up.

So, I did what I do best, Mi. I considered how I could save the situation rather than mope over what had happened, and what could happen. Then, making up my mind, I just shut everything down and went to bed. You know I’ve always believed in sleeping over it. I invariably wake up and find that the problem is not as intimidating as it seemed the day before.

Armed with coffee and a quick chat with my techGuru and friend Ravi, cooking tackled for the day, I settled down at 10 am to deal with the task at hand.

I spent a good five hours backing up. The thing about this is, once can’t just initiate and walk off. One has to babysit it, because there’ll be a series of popups asking stupid questions, which, unless answered, won’t allow the process to continue.

“Annieways” as they say these days (ugh!), I looked at my day’s to-do list already shifting over to accommodate this emergency, and decided to make the most of it. I pulled out my playlist of songs–because better to sing loudly than sulk, no?– my diary and note book, and my set of pens and got started. Sitting at the desk, I made plans with deadlines. I allocated them to appropriate dates. Oh yes, there were plenty of interruptions: answering the phones, responding to doorbells, and so on.

By 4, I was done with backing up and formatting the crazy drive, and had managed to sneak in lunch, too. And two coffees, of course.

Actually, I must say it felt therapeutic to delete a whole lot of stuff you know. And also to discover stuff I had forgotten I had stored. So I think, Universe, I am cool with what you did.

Lessons learned (thank you, again, Ravi)

1. High capacity USB drives are a bad idea, a pain to back up and riskier in terms of data loss.
2. Better to use 8 GB or max, 16 GB USB pen drives.
3. Cloud backups make sense.
4. I may propose, but there’s no guarantee that Universe won’t dispose and I am actually okay with that.

That’s all, Mi! Heading off for that much-needed coffee now, as I trudge forward to catch up on pending stuff.

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Vidya Sury

Writer, Editor, Blogger, Influencer. I blog/create content for businesses and edit manuscripts for authors and publishers. On my blogs, I write about all the things I enjoy in life: parenting, personal development, health and wellness, books, food, travel, gratitude, mindfulness, happiness. In my free time I play with my dust bunnies and show my diabetes who's boss.

2 thoughts on “I Proposed Universe Disposed

  1. It happened with me quite often in the past and you tend to freak out. But, I am glad you recovered the work you’ve gone through with the edit, Vidya. I think breathing in and out helps often to gain composure when universe playing havoc with our minds.

    Happy weekend.

  2. Data back is so critical and your experience tells me that. I also breathe in and out to relax and sleeping over the problem actually solves it for me too 🙂 Glad you were able to find your data.

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