And the heart sinks...

Yesterday, something happened to me that I never thought would happen. Not to me, anyways. (Why I thought I was excluded from this phenomenon, I don't know. But, nonetheless, I gave myself an exemption.)

My computer crashed.

Finally, after getting internet set up in my new office, I returned to that office after a month hiatus of working on another computer. I'm fussing away to my heart's content, eager for an afternoon of chatting on YAHOO IM with my niece. I notice, annoyed, that I have more pop-ups on my computer than I did last I used it, so I set about the task of removing random programs that have been installed thanks to the self-installing virus that is so popular.

I delete said program, and my desktop shows up with 1/2 of the icons missing. I restart the computer, as I ususally do when icons are missing.

However, when it restarted, the now-evil-in-my-eye computer said "welcome, first time user."

and now, many, MANY panicked moments later, it does not even recognize my keyboard so therefore won't get past the set up BIOS screen.

The computer guy's coming out this afternoon to pick it up.

Don't you know I was going to back things up last night, b/c it was starting to act funky?

UGH.

So, now, we're waiting for the rescue guy - i mean, computer repair guy - to come over. And then we wait to order a new computer.

But first, the oh-so-anxious waiting to see if my hard drive got fried in the process. 'cause if it did, the 6 month research data entry project that i did last fall... oh the horror.