Appendicitis! Aka, finally finding the "down" part of the ups & downs of traveling

The weekend started out great! The stars aligned and I was actually was productive almost all of Saturday. Yup, you read right; productive. I had the majority of my remaining assignments about half way done, and was planning to finish up the more prominent ones on Sunday. Or at least that was the plan.

Sunday dawned beautiful and sunny-Ok, well when I woke up at noon it was that way. I cheerfully powered up my computer, only to discover it was running a little slow. No big deal, I'll just jump in the shower while it starts up. However, when I came back, my computer had decided to give me a lovely white screen. Hmm, this isn't one of it's normal tricks. But I figured there was some kind of glitch. I manage to get it to restart it's self(ever so slowly) and once again I got the white screen. This is starting to look bad, but this computer and I have had lots of fights over the past year and a half. I should be able to figure something out right? Wrong. Everything I tried lead right back to that cursed white screen, or if I wanted to change it up a bit I could start it in safe mode and get a black screen instead.

It was clearly time to start asking for help. My first stop, per every computer problem I have ever had, is my brother Ben. Sadly, fate was against us and neither of us could get through to each other. Ok, well, I'm dating a Computer Engineer student, surely he might know something, or at least be able to find someone who does. I can't even remember exactly what he said might be wrong, but it sent me reeling. It was far worse then I had thought. I wasn't going to be able to fix this my self, or even have someone walk me through it like I normally do when things go wrong.

-Insert the beginning of three days of panicking here.-

I'm not a worrier, I never have been. I don't panic easily, and I generally work through stress well. Maybe it was the fact that all of my final assignments were currently on my computer, maybe it was that I was completely helpless in trying to fix it. I don't know exactly why, but suddenly my weekend went from sunshine and happiness to tears and panic.

-Insert savior number one-
 Ruth stepped up and began saving the day. She put out a cry for help on her facebook status:

Ruth Jeffs is calling all computer people (*cough*NERDS*cough*) - Anna's computer has D.I.E.D.!!!!! Damsel in distress seeks white knight with mad computer skillz.... half-done assignments and such at stake. O.O Anyone in the area???

and suddenly, help started appearing. We soon headed out to meet out help/do research for Ruth's assignment.
Our first stop was the library where her friend, Scott, took a look at it. He said I should try to copy all the data off of it and restart the system- just in much better words, that probably made more sense. Alright, well  now to find someone to help me with that. Then we were off to the Ballroom to find the dance group and more help.

By this time Ruth had found out the appalling truth that my laptop doesn't have a name. In order to assure that my computer wasn't suffering from some sort of identity crisis, it was decided that we would just have to name it. With pretty much no deliberation, Sarah offered up Appendix as a name. It sorta stuck, as my laptop is not really necessary but horrible, horrible things happen when stuff go wrong.

In typical fashion, Appendix attracts all sorts of helpful attention. Soon we are zooming back to the flat, where Jesse played with it a bit and managed to turn the screen yellow. Hmm, ok.Well, that's not quite the color we're looking for, but it's neither black nor white, which is all I could get it to do. Whirlwind Jesse couldn't stay long, so he left me with the -now yellow screened- Appendix still very very sick.

-Insert savior number two-
In the depth of the night(or like 11) Michael knocked on the door, got me the files I needed for the week, and whisked Appendix off to his secret lair to proceed with emergency surgery in attempt to save the poor laptop. With regular status updates on my dear computer over the next few days. I learned the hard drive was quickly approaching death, but Michael had managed to save my data off of it, and with a new hard drive on the way, prognosis is looking excellent.

 By the time Michael picked Appendix up, I was exhausted, giddy, stressed to the max, had cried twice, and probably should have been locked in my room until I was sane again. However, I couldn't believe how many people had  offered, attempted and succeed in helping. These are truly amazing people. And I'm incredibly grateful to everyone for their help and support.