I am a psychologist, but i am not trouble-free nor quirk-free. Let me explain..
During the week-end, i attended a conference that i had been waiting impatiently for. After almost two hours of fervently taking down notes and filling up sheet after sheet with valuable information, the long awaited coffee break was announced. I hurriedly left the hall and decided to pass by the restroom. With my bag heavily dangling on one shoulder, the conference booklet on my arm, and my blackberry phone in my hand, i somehow overestimated the multitasking facility that women are believed to possess... I attempted to wash my hands.
Turned open the faucet, and woooooooosh ran the cold water.
...and swiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiish went my phone under the running open water.. along with my sanity..
Panicking, i cursed myself under my breath, and with trembling hands tried to swipe the drenched battery and keys with a paper towel.
Stupid stupid stupid!!! i punished myself.
Oh, it's no big deal! Khalas, even if the phone dies, as long as you've saved your stuff on the memory card, you have back-up. You'll transfer everything in a second. A friend calmly explained to me, dismissing my anxiety.
Memory card? Back-up? Two words that are definitely not part of my dictionary. I have heard them, yes, i do not live on Mars, but have i actually made them a part of my life?
NO.
This must not come as a surprise to you. I have mentioned how technologically challenged i am before. My students laugh openly in class, everytime i get a warning window amid my powerpoint presentation and anxiously ask them what's happening. Technology and error windows frighten me.
So, as the color from my face started to fade, i started to imagine my contact numbers drowning one by one, my appointments on my calender swimming round and round down the drain, and my precious images of all the kids in my life popping away like tiny bubbles.
No back-up.
I am not a very important business woman, so you might be wondering why all this drama over some phone. But i am a very obsessive psychologist. And i have many things organized around this electronic device, and with the possibility of it dying on me, my whole sense of order and control sank underwater.
Well, the happenings of the rest of the day will only make you laugh. I did virtually every single thing i was told to do or i had read off the internet to do that might save my phone. I blow-dried it, left it for hours to dry on a napkin, flipped it over for another set of hours... and.. overnight, my blackberry was submerged in a basin of italian uncooked rice... Laugh all you want, but besides a trustworthy source, a website by blackberry geniuses suggested it.. apparently, rice absorbs moisture. Scientifically proven.
Now that i await the final verdict from the electronics store, i can only think of the many things that i wish i had "back-up" for. Simple things, little things.. like my first time on an airplane, my first diary, my first movie at the theater, my first stuffed doll.. things that take such a big toll on my life and yet with one slip.. disappear.
How tremendous the effect that things and objects have on our life, because of the meaning and memory that we attach to them. And how easily our world comes down, with one slip under running water..
Time to learn how to back-up...
