From catastrophe to fresh start

While Brooks is busy judging contest entries, I'm going to talk about my week.  It was one of those weeks.  You know that part of one of the HP books (3, I think) when Harry and Ron are working on their Divinations homework and coming up with fake predictions of a different horrible event they'll experience every day for a month?  This week was like that, except it all really did happen, and without my prior consent.

Most of it's stupid, boring stuff involving a cold and ripping one of my favorite shirts, but some was particularly fun.  My internet going out for 24 hours while I was in the middle of researching Book Stuff was a good time.  (Warning:  Doing in-depth historical research on an iPhone for a whole day will give you a wicked headache.  So now you know.)   I'd had my connection back for about twenty-three seconds (ok, a few hours) when I had a ridiculous accident with a French press and my trusty old MacBook.  It was...not pretty.  Trusty Old MacBook is now in the Great Apple Warehouse in the Sky.

So now the week is over, I'm online from a swishy new Shiny Thing, my book deal present to myself landed in my hands (Best. Headphones. EVER.) and things are looking up, especially thanks to an unexpected silver lining.  As you can expect from an old computer, it was filled up with all kinds of crap I didn't need or particularly want, but who ever feels like sitting down and clearing things out when the Sparkly Internet is there just waiting to distract and entertain?  Not me. 

I'm thrilled I managed to rescue the data that wasn't already backed up, but I've been able to choose to transfer only stuff I need onto Shiny Thing.  I'm feeling wonderfully uncluttered and very clearheaded.  I've done a fair amount of writing in the past day or two, and it may be the stress (or relief from it) talking, but I'm noticing a difference in quality and clarity.

It's not quite spring yet, but maybe there's something to this cleaning out/fresh start business.  This nightmare of a week has turned into a pretty good one, though I will still whine about one thing:

That was one *($@)^@#*$ expensive cup of coffee.