Sometimes She Cries
You know how songs pop into your head depending on your mood? That’s exactly what happened to me last week while I was sitting around feeling sorry for myself. Sometimes She Cries, an Eighties ballad by the hair metal group Warrant made an appearance.
I was working on a new flash fiction story. It hadn’t been easy to get anything to percolate. Pages were due to my crit group in a few days. So it was with more than a grain of consternation that I returned from lunch to find my laptop completely unresponsive. Windows update? Yeah, right.
We tried all the usual steps. And also more than that: hard disk pulled out and tried elsewhere. No dice. Several hours later, we closed the lid and gave up. The next day, as soon as the local repair shop opened, I was there.
Scrivener
I know, I know. Always back up your stuff. That’s a given and everything was backed up. Thank the heavens for Scrivener, which automatically saves something like every five seconds. I have it synced to a mostly useless desktop but that desktop worked enough for me to retrieve my story. Whew!
But days later I was still waiting for the laptop, and wondering why these kinds of things throw us off our game so much. I’ve been thinking about that for more than a week and I still can’t figure it out. Yes, it’s inconvenient. Totally disruptive to our work flow. True, it gives you a break from being connected in yet another way, so that can be good. But still.
Maybe It’s a Control Thing?
I don’t know. Maybe it’s a control thing. I feel like no small part was caused by stress related to having to give a recovery key to the shop. If you use Windows and you don’t know what this is or how to find yours, you might want to click here before the day comes when you need it. I mean, that allows access to all of your data. But trust has to play a part in the equation. The other choice was buying a new laptop and starting from scratch, which was a less desirable option, due to the expense.
In the end, I got the laptop back relatively quickly, after about eight days, but not quickly enough to really be able to write the original post I had intended to write. Yes, yes, that’s a bit of an excuse, but while I write a lot of things by hand, I also tend to type blog posts just because it’s easier for me.
As for that feeling of stress that comes from not having the laptop around…no clue. I guess it’s pretty common to have something minor really throw a wrench in the works, whereas the big stuff seems to get handled better, at least in my case. Maybe it’s just a matter of timing? If things hadn’t been as time-sensitive with my crit pages, or I hadn’t needed my laptop to do a million other things that were pending right that moment, then it wouldn’t have been as big a deal. I can’t really say.
Sometimes She Rages
But when I hit the power button and was able to painlessly start working, oh, that was a relief! I also realized that the feeling of self-pity I originally had actually didn’t last long, and my reference to the Warrant song was, well, unwarranted. Beautiful song, but the song that really fit my mood after the requisite fifteen minutes of moping was Rage, by Heart.
The only connection to any of this with what I’m about to write is, actually, rage, and a desire to break things. I mean, I really wanted to pitch my desktop over our balcony down to the street below because it is just so slow! But I would never actually intentionally break something. Some people will, and do, though.
Anarchists Responsible
The anarchists responsible for damaging many of the shops in the center of Turin three years ago were found guilty of various civil and criminal offenses. While on the hunt for where Italo Calvino used to live, I posted photos of some of that damage the day after it all happened. Three years for the initial court proceeding to finish is somewhat fast for the justice system around here, from what I can tell.
The Count of Monte Cristo
The photo of the church in the blog post referenced above, where the protesters spray painted that “God is a pig,” is in the same small square as the famous Bicerin cafe. Turin, as I’ve said before, has many literary connections. One of those is Alexandre Dumas, who often frequented Bicerin. I just heard that Masterpiece PBS (in the U.S.) has a new series based on The Count of Monte Cristo. There’s a nice video talking about the filming locations below. I recognize three places in and very near to Turin, something that’s always really exciting. I hope I can watch this series at some point.
Have you read The Count of Monte Cristo? What’s the last little thing that threw a wrench in your works? Let me know in the comments below.
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