Protein Smoothies and Laptops: A Cautionary Tale

(Note:  Names may have been omitted to protect the not-so-innocent.)

I had a "friend" who recently spilled a protein shake all over her less-than-a-year old MacBook Pro laptop. Even though she hopped right up and began attempting to drain the liquid off of the machine, the damage was done.  And boy, was there damage:

Please note how the inexpensive fan and Wifi section are completely untouched.

After she let it dry for a day (possibly making it worse), she attempted to power it back up. But alas, it would not start...no matter how many times she pressed that little button.  

Thus began a nearly two week saga of driving all over town, making appointments, and shelling out serious cash to fix this split-second mistake.  She found an expert to extract the data for a "reasonable" rate.  Praise the Lord they were able to because this friend had not backed up in quite some time.  And it just so happened that her son graduated Pre-K, she hosted a once-in-a-lifetime anniversary party, and their family had taken a special spring break trip to Chattanooga just like our family!  Coincidence, huh?!  So of course I could imagine how she felt when she realized that all of those home videos and photos were at risk of being lost forever!  In fact, since she couldn't remember exactly when she had last backed up, it's possible that her son's 5th birthday, Christmas of last year, and much more could have been lost.  

But God had mercy on her pitiful soul and the data was recovered.  She had to take it back to the Apple store for the third time (first two were for quotes) to get repaired and then pick it back up from them and return it to the IT store for them to reload her data.  Eight trips to various places and, again, SO MUCH MONEY later, she picked up her basically brand new computer.  It was a gigantic pain, but it was also a valuable learning opportunity.  

Lessons learned:  

1.  Back up your data.  Frequently.  

2.  No smoothies around the computer.  Water, coffee...basically anything else would've been better than a thick, sticky smoothie.  And really, just to be safe, you should stop drinking healthy crap like protein smoothies in the first place.  

3.  When (not if) your spouse or kids make stupid mistakes like this in the future, show them serious mercy.  Not one time did this friend's husband make her feel badly for her mistake. (Trust me, she was upset enough for the both of them.)

Here's hoping you can learn from her experience.  I know I sure did!  And let's hope she starts blogging more again soon now that she has her computer back.  :)