Lynn Espinoza is a broadcast news veteran with more than a decade of media, presentation and executive coaching experience. She has developed personal coaching sessions for Fortune 100 C-level executives, corporate communicators of all kinds, doctors, lawyers and leaders in non-profit.
Chicken Soup for a Hard Drive’s Soul
Posted on May 28, 2008. Filed under: Latest News
Ohhhh. Ohhhh. NO!
I was spending Memorial Day working at a relaxed but constant pace. I knew that on this day, my clients were bellying up to their barbeques, away from email, and needing nothing from me. I could do more than catch up - I could get ahead. It was even a working lunch.
Annie Chun’s Asian Chicken Soup. Ginger and green onions. A microwaveable bowl with an evil design flaw. Meant to look like a traditional Asian soup bowl, its base is too small. It’s top-heavy. Focused on perfecting an upcoming presentation training session, I set my chopsticks on the rim of the bowl - without looking.
Tip.
It was that fast. Broth bubbled up from beneath the keyboard, finding room to flow between each key - like a riverbank that can’t contain the Spring melt. My computer screen changed to a deep red, as if to tell me its lifeblood was leaving. With a flicker, I knew it was the last time we’d see eachother.
The guy at the computer repair counter popped open my computer’s soggy underbelly. He removed the green onions from my hard drive, and it didn’t look good. Turns out, though, the hard drive was OK, and I’m back in business on a new machine. An expensive lesson, yes, but - WHEW! I shudder to think….
And in any tragedy, there is an element of triumph. I learned more than, 1) I should do a better job of backing up my stuff and, 2) I shouldn’t eat soup at the computer. You see, I needed to let clients and colleagues know that I wouldn’t be online for a couple of days. I called them. We talked. I asked them how they enjoyed the holiday, and we exchanged the niceities that we tend to forego in email. My lack of technology (temporarily) may have advanced my relationships (permanently). And I also got a pretty good joke from the computer repair guy:
Computer Guy: Oh, I see. Your computer had quite a virus.
Me: What???
Computer Guy: Why else would you give it Chicken Soup?
One Response to “Chicken Soup for a Hard Drive’s Soul”
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I’m sorry this happened but it makes for a hell of a good story– the way you tell it.
I miss you as a reporter. You were the best thing going on KOMO’s 11pm news for years.