KILROY: Macbook pro

My MacBook Pro is a pro at many things, but it is especially a pro at scaring the crap out of me.

This weekend my MacBook went into cardiac arrest. Everything turned out to be fine. If it hadn’t, I wouldn’t be writing this column right now. Getting there, however, was certainly a production.

Some time between leaving class and logging onto Facebook, my laptop took a turn for the worse. I lifted the screen only to find the dreaded beach ball spinning about. After powering down, I powered up … well, I tried to. Instead of my desktop, a file folder with a question mark appeared. Not good. Not good at all.

I tucked my MacBook into my backpack and darted to IT services. A man in a red-collared shirt told me that my laptop’s hard drive had crashed. The next few minutes were a blur.

“Take it to the IT in Kenmore, there’s nothing we can do with it here,” I thought I heard the man say.

Kenmore. Kenmore. I dashed down the street, arms pumping, backpack straps flailing.

Once inside the IT office, I shoved my laptop into an employee’s face.

“I think my hard drive crashed!”

The man, also donning a red-collared shirt, studied my MacBook. “Yeah, it looks like a broken hard drive.”

“So, can it be fixed?”

“Yes.”

“How long will it take?”

“Two business days, and today’s Fri … ”

I didn’t wait to hear the rest.

En route to my dorm, I remembered a CD that I had stumbled upon a few days earlier. The label had said something about rebooting your MacBook’s hard drive.

Once inside my room, I looked up phone number for Apple Support guided by the knowledge that I wouldn’t be able to navigate this ship on my own.

After talking to a machine for five minutes — I don’t care how technologically advanced Apple thinks it is, sometimes you need to talk to a human being — someone named David came on the line. Quite embarrassingly, I thought I was still talking to a machine so my tone of voice may not have been all that pleasant. Anyway, David spent 30 minutes coaching me on how to reboot my computer using the CD. Unfortunately, it did nothing.

Time for me to do what any owner of an ill MacBook would do — hit the Genius Bar. Side note: the Genius Bar is Apple’s version of the ER. It is not an actual bar.

To my luck, it started pouring rain on my way to the bar. If my laptop wasn’t ruined before, it was now.

Once inside Boylston’s Apple store, I was directed to the bar. Problem. It was located on the second floor, and the windy staircase was soaked.

Somehow I managed to make it upstairs where an Apple employee clutching an iPad ushered me to a bench.

A few moments later I was called over to the bar.

The bartender, I mean Apple employee, was very nice. He said he would take my laptop downstairs to be looked at.

And so I waited. Now I’m pretty sure that the Apple people didn’t appreciate the fact that I was dripping water all over their fancy floor.

The sideways glances and reshuffling of chairs kind of gave it away.

Whatever.

I grew increasingly bored sitting there so I decided to listen in on my neighbors’ appointments.

The man on my right had dropped his MacBook off his bed and was now being told that Apple no longer had the parts to replace it.

Gulp.

Twenty minutes later the Apple man returned, my MacBook in tow. He was also toting a gigantic cardboard box, which made me extremely nervous.

I was prepared for the worst, but all the man did was hand me my laptop and say, “Here ya go.”

“Wait, what happened? Is it fixed? What was wrong with it?”

“A cable was loose. You’re good to go.”

“Thank you. Thank you so, so much.” I wanted to give the man a hug, but then decided others might find it inappropriate.

So I just left, cradling my laptop in my arms. Thank you, MacBook, for handling this situation like a pro.

Meaghan Kilroy is a junior in the College of Communication and the Opinion Editor for The Daily Free Press. She can be reached at mkilroy@bu.edu.