My Backup Plan(s)

As I continue gallivanting around in my office, on my never-ending quest to try to become an organized person, I find myself more disorganized than ever. I’m cutting myself some slack considering this summer’s recent unpleasantries, but still, a day will go by and, even though I’m working, nothing gets finished.

It would probably help to have a plan, follow that plan, and see the fruits of that plan. But that plan is just plain boring to me.

I am stuck between a rock and a Macbook. My computer Guru, Matt, was able to crack the code that my Windows computer concocted to lock me out. We backed up as much as we could – – while the computer was on self-imposed lock-down – –  so Matt could reinstall Windows 7.

I have Carbonite backup, external hard-drive backups, and The Cloud (whatever that is,) which one would think, in theory, would be a good idea.

However, those hard-drives don’t speak a language I understand. When looking for backed-up files, all I see are what seem to be random numbers and letters, when what I want to see is, “Leslie, this is the file you’ve been looking for. All you had to do was click ‘enter’ three times. It’s been here all along,” as if written by Glinda, the Good Witch.

As I try to learn Mac “Genius,” I have yet to conquer Windows “Geek” which leaves me dangling like a participle.

In order to make my point more palatable, I’m going to describe it in terms of food, because that’s one of my favorite subjects. Let’s say I signed up for a basic cake-making class. Soon after, an opportunity presents itself allowing me to take a really cool cake-decorating class.

I really like the cake decorating class because it’s fun and creative. I’m doing things I’ve never done before and liking it, but, I never finished learning how to bake cakes in the first place.

I conclude that’s not very important and go ahead decorating my cake. I decide it needs an Eiffel Tower on top because a cherry is so cliche’.

So, I build a beautiful Eiffel Tower using fondant and spun sugar. It is art. It is too pretty to even consider serving to anyone, which turns out to be a good thing.

After placing the elaborate Piece de resistance on top of the half-baked salmonella-laced cake, it begins to sink like the Titanic, leaving me with a pathogenic Leaning Tower of Pisa. Nobody wants that.

And, have you heard the rumor that when you disobey the rules of baking to such a degree that the department of health needs to be called, the Pillsbury Doughboy HIMSELF comes to your house with a few Keebler Elves for backup, and removes all of your baking utensils?

So, here’s my office in a nutshell, although it would never fit in a nutshell because there’s far too much crap. If it were a giant nutshell that had been created for a scary made-for-TV movie, then maybe my stuff would fit. It would require a ladder, spelunking gear, and a bungee harness for me to get in and out, but desperate times call for huge nuts.

These are desperate times, my friends. But for some reason that I will not even try to understand for fear of leading myself on another tangent, I have extra energy tonight.

So, I will pick just one project I’ve left unattended, and finish it. I am going to find each and every saved video I can, transfer them to a flash-drive, and hand the flash-drive to Lucas who will make magic out of them somehow, as he always does.

By finishing that project, I will be helping Lucas, because he’ll have material to work with, and me, because I’ll have the satisfaction of seeing a project through.

I wonder what that’s like?