Trials & Tribulations Before Paris Fashion Week

DALLAS, Feb 29, 2004 / FW/ — Less than 8 hours before I board a plane to go to Paris, my Microsoft Outlook crashed on me! All my emails, my contact list and my appointments gone in the blink of an eye!

In this technological world, I am one of those who is totally dependent on Microsoft Outlook to keep track of my day — from my schedule, tasks for the day, and most important of all, my address book.

So, to say that I was devastated when my Outlook crashed is an understatement. It’s more of, “What do I do now?”

Remember too that I did not have time to rebuild it! In computer terms – save as much data that can be saved and then repair it, or the worst thing is that I would have to uninstall Outlook and then reinstall it. In real time – it is about 2 days work with the amount of data I had.

Though it was a Sunday, I had to call in David, our very reliable PC support person. I had to ask him to work on my laptop and salvage what he could. It was a tall order, but he had to try. He understood that I could have my Outlook go south on me in the middle of the fashion season.

In another bout of panic attack, I called my assistant Carol and had to ask her to piece together my appointments and schedule for the coming Paris ready-to-wear season.

She sounded so calm over the phone and was really calm when she arrived at my doorstep.

“Now, Sara, don’t worry, we will have you up and running sooner than you think,” was the first thing she told me. I gave her a look that said, “Do you know something I did not know?”

Walking towards my computer paraphernalia bag, she asked, “When was the last time you synchronized your palm top?’

When she said that, I gave her the biggest hug and the biggest smile. “ Last night, before I went to bed.”

“Then you have everything you need for the Paris season. David and I can rebuild your data while you are in Paris,” Carol commented with another smile.

To make the long story short, Carol synchronized my Palm top with one of my desktop PCs so that she can have a copy of all my data and David was able to repair Outlook so that it will be working while I am in Paris.

He was still working on it while we were on our way to the airport. He did not hand me back my laptop until I was ready to go in the security area.

As I board the American Airlines flight to Paris, all of I can think of was … in this highly technological world, people still makes the world go round… and it pays to back up everything!

[SARA CONDE]

(Photo above: Dell Axim)