About every 2+ years my laptop likes to dance the provocative Slow Samba of Death, throwing out little bits of information here and there with ever increasing lag times inbetween till I'm offering up my firstborn to my computer in exchange for seeing all the useless junk mail in my Hotmail inbox.  But my computer, like my first grade teacher, Sister Mary of the I'll-fix-you-with-a-straight-ruler Order of the Benedictine Nuns, takes no prisoners, which is how I found Geeks after a frantic Yelp search.

Theresa sensed the desperation and cluelessness in my voice and was able to take a look at my computer same day, if I dropped it off at her place.  And though I did worry about leaving my computer with a complete stranger  who dealt with weirdos like me for a living (I had the option of staying with the computer and breathing down Theresa's back while she sifted through my bank information, Star Wars memorabilia, sensitive work spreadsheets, and videos and pictures taken of me after my fifth margarita the time I thought I was an underwear model), I needn't have worried as she was very professional.  Even though she had my computer for at least 3-4 hours I was charged for less than 2 hours of labor.

Besides cleaning up my computer of viruses and malware - I had over 275 viruses previously the day before - she'd also cleaned up my registry, updated all of my drviers, did a general diagnostic and discovered that my SATA hard drive is getting towards the end of its life cycle and that my computer's fan was constantly going off (but my computer was still unbearably hot).  If I'd wanted to continue using the computer, she suggested I replace the fan and purchase a SSD on Amazon (and even showed me a recommended brand and size for what I needed to do) - but the kicker was that it would take then at least 1 day for installing the new hard drive.  This frightened me more than a die-hard addict being told to go cold turkey for I was on my damn computer everyday for at least 10-12 hours.

After returning home with the computer I'd noticed it running much more smoothly and faster than before.