I always work when I travel, that’s one of the perks of having an online based business, you can work from almost anywhere. But through all of this, I really came to understand just how important a computer obviously is to running your own online business.

So, I packed up all of my usual work necessities for Sri Lanka. My laptop, external hard drive, headphones, planner, cameras, SD cards, all with the plan to work on a new course while there and film and edit videos from Sri Lanka.

My downfall came from trying to be hydrated while I flew. I brought along a water bottle that had a lock top. At some point during our flight from Amsterdam to Colombo, while I was snoozing away the “locked” water bottle started leaking into my bag.

I woke up to a wet sock, and thought Michael had spilled some water or something simple, but as I went to investigate further I saw it was coming from my bag.

From the outside it was just a small innocent spot, but once I opened it up I realized the canvas material has essentially trapped the majority of the spilt water inside my bag. And lo and behold my laptop was at the bottom of all this.

I immediately freaked out, popped it out of it’s protective case and wiped off all the water with my airline blanket. I said a little prayer in my head and tried to turn it on...

Nothing. I later learned that if you get your laptop wet you shouldn’t try to turn it on, or charge it. And if you can take the battery out do that. Well, you can’t take a Mac apart, and I was just a few hours into a 9+ hour flight, headed to Sri Lanka for three weeks.

Michael looked at me with genuine pity, and I think he was pretty concerned I was going to have an emotional breakdown. I’m surprised I didn’t.

Not surprisingly there aren’t any Apple stores in Sri Lanka. (I saw mostly old Nokia phones while there).

So, the best I could do was to leave my laptop out and open in an effort to dry it out.

And if potentially ruining your laptop isn’t bad enough, having to lug it and everything else around that you know can’t use is a cruel punishment.

More than that I was irked I wouldn’t be able to work on my new course, which was the plan for my time there, and why I had worked so hard to get ahead on my upload schedule.

But I’m beyond grateful that I had all my content done and scheduled through the end of January, because it would have been a trick to somehow get it done at that point. Not to mention the internet in Sri Lanka is spotty at best.

I could have been upset, I could have let it put a damper on my trip, but I made the decision on that plane that maybe it was just a sign that I was supposed to step away and just be in Sri Lanka for three weeks.

I was able to keep up on emails with my phone and Michael let me use his laptop one afternoon to launch January’s Chart Your Cycle session.

And in the end I did the math and for the amount I paid for my laptop, and the time I had it, it cost me less than $2 a day to use it, and that’s next to nothing for all the work I was able to do on it each and every day.

Now that I’m home I’ve sorted out a temporary replacement situation, which I’ll talk about next week, and have my sights set on saving up for a new computer.

But you better believe your sweet tush that this isn’t going to stop me from continuing to pluck along with FemmeHead. And at the end of the day it was just a laptop, which is pretty insignificant when you look at the bigger picture.

[Part two of the story coming next Tuesday. Stay tuned.]

Have you ever broken a computer at a pretty inconvenient time? My college laptop crapped out in the middle of mid-terms, which was pretty stressful, but I ended up getting a used MacBook for $400.