Seriously?

The last few days have not been my most stellar days. OK, the last few weeks have not been the best.  But, the past 3 or 4 days really take the cake. Is it the weather?  Karma? Friday the 13th?  What?  Obviously not, because I don't believe in any of those things, except weather, but it really feels like someone or something is out to get me.  As the song goes, "It's all going just so perfectly wrong. Hey, hey, hey what can I say, it's just been one of those, one of those days."

Several days ago our computer, our not really so old computer, crashed. I mean, bit the dust. It started doing weird things, making strange designs on the screen and sending me bizarre messages in DOS. But, it was NOT booting up and doing it's thing.  A computer expert came over while I was gone and re-formatted, read: erased, deleated, good-bye, no more, the entire harddrive.  However they did this without backing up what was currently on it which I found out later could have been done first!  We had recently bought a new computer and given our old-old computer to someone else. 

I've been writing a novel for the past nearly two years. I'm in the middle of my last chapter, 50,000 words in.  Somehow in all of the shuffle, we had backed up the book, which was on the old-old computer on the semi-old computer, but not on the new one or an external harddrive.  It was one those things that we were getting to, but hadn't done yet.  Big, huge mistake. Please don't lecture me, I know. It was on two computers! However, in the hustle and bustle of getting the new one, we deleted the hard drive on the old-old one and gave it to a friend and in the ensuing week or two had yet to back up my computer. And Thursday night I was informed my book, my baby, my hard work, my dream. . .was gone.

I know a little bit now how people feel when they lose possessions in a fire.  Something precious that I poured my heart and soul into was gone.  I was stunned into disbelief and then I just started to cry.  I cried until I had a headache and my eyes were almost swollen shut.  There was no way I could recreate two years of hard work and no way I even wanted to try.  My dream of trying to get a novel published was simply dead and gone.

In the morning, Nathan told me that he had talked to a computer guy and had a way of maybe recovering some files.  I was like, "Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it."  I left to do some shopping, but on my way to the car, Laura came running out after me. "Daddy says come quick!"  Nathan found a several files containing parts of my book, safe and sound and completely perfectly formatted.  So far, we've recovered about 3/4 of the book.  Not perfect, but oh man, I'll take it. I started crying again.  OK, maybe my dream was alive again!  My best chapter is still missing, but I can work with what I've got.  About 200 pages have been restored to me.  Oh yeah, and they are backed up on and external hard drive. And I'm thinking maybe a hard copy in a fireproof safe is not overkill at all here.

At this point, I'm thinking, "I am seriously tired of this emotional drama."  This is on top of our foster baby dying and some difficult personal issues at church lately.  I'm thinking, "God really, seriously?  Can I catch a break here?"

Last night Nathan and I went on an amazing date.  We shopped (which is my idea of fun, ok?).  We ate at Blackwoods.  We laughed.  We had fun.  Nathan bought me some new white dishes that were on sale.  We got home and I had them all stacked on the counter. I opened the cupboard and the sugarbowl was perched precariously on the edge of the shelf and came crashing out and landed on the top of the stack of dinner plates and broke the top one to smithereens.  I just stood there in shock. I wasn't sure if I was going to cry or start laughing like an insane maniac.  Seriously!?

Nathan came rushing out of the bedroom. "Are you ok, what happened!?  I explained as calmly as I could.  He said, "What are the odds?"

Oh, I'd say pretty good right about now.