A Punch in the Face

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”  -Mike Tyson

If someone had told me that I would be quoting Mike Tyson on this blog, I’d have punched THEM in the face.  But, alas, it’s true.  My best laid plans for a totally Career-Centered Month were thrown for a serious loop when I managed to spill water onto my laptop.  Long story short, KAPUT.  nothing.  Did I run regular backups?  Of course!  Just not in the last 8 months or so, and that hard drive is in my condo in Boston, which I can’t get into until November.

Thank god for dropbox, but that giant spreadsheet that I have been working on for the past year with all of my contacts and venues and programs and A WHOLE YEAR OF RESEARCH?  GONE…  Gone….  gone….

A friend here in Bermuda had a spare MacBook Pro that she wasn’t using and she graciously lent it to me until I can get a new laptop. But man oh man, that was NOT what I needed this month.

Luckily, all of my information is SOMEWHERE.  Whether its in dropbox, on my phone, in piecemeal throughout hundreds of emails, on that external hard drive, or elsewhere online, it’s not lost forever and ever.  It has forced me to slow down, get creative, and appreciate that I have made an effort to streamline my life.  In the next couple of weeks, I can start fresh, add back exactly what I want on there (and leave out the junk) and carry on.  Everyone is fine, and this is only going to cost me time and money.  Here in Bermuda, a young mother was recently killed in a road accident–hit by a drunk driver.  I didn’t know her personally, but people I am close to have lost a best friend, a colleague, and a daughter.  People in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and throughout the Caribbean have truly lost everything, and right this minute, people in Northern California are losing their homes, their businesses, and even their loved ones.  So, with a little bit of perspective, I can take a deep breath, do what needs to get done, one step at a time, enact “Plan B” and try to dodge the next punch.