No, I'm not dead, and no, I'm not in the hospital. I've been busy with the play; couple this with the fact that I don't have an internet connection at home (no point in paying for a service that I wouldn't be around to use), and I'm rarely around (either to post blog entries or to fix the oft-broken Blacklist).
free photo public sexFriendly suggestion: if you think something serious has happened to me, shoot me an email. I check my email constantly all day, regardless of what else is going on.
Anyway, I'm hoping to get the blacklist crap fixed in the next few days; I've got 1604 comments, and I'm sure that several hundred are spam...
Dunno when I'll get around to getting internet at home; right now, I'm still paying rent at the old place, which really hurts (I'm currently paying $940 per month between the old and new places), so it isn't as high of a priority as I'd like. On the plus side, though, I just paid off my car loan, which will be an extra hundred or so that won't be leaving my pocket every month, and I've got several hundred dollars coming to me from the IRS... things will just be a little tight for a while is all.
While I was busy packing up everything, the Blacklist got stuffed again (apparently, it has a maximum number; a very lame feature that I plan on taking up with the author when I'm not busy). I removed some of the less-obvious entries (stuff like 0019302), so I'm de-spamming everything now. My own number of comments has dropped from 1700 to 950. Huzzah.
However, I'm going to be taking a break so that I can pack some more. Those of you with blogs here, despam and take care of some of the work for me. :)
I'll fill you in on all the "wonderful" things that happened today at some later point. First, I feel like sharing what just happened.
One of the things that got moved today was my bed. Since I'm still staying in Murfreesboro (I've still got a lot to do at the old place), I borrowed my dad's inflatable mattress to use in the interim. Before I left, Dad told me that I'd have to get new batteries for the inflater thingie. No problem.
So I get to Murfreesboro and get some batteries. I sit down to swap them out, and I notice that one of the old batteries is corroded. Not good, but it's just a simple matter of throwing it out (which I was going to do anyway). However, the new batteries weren't working. It looked like the thing wasn't sealing properly. Yadda yadda yadda, I spend a good 10 minutes trying to figure out what the hell is wrong. I end up deciding that the corrosion has done something to the pump, and that I've got no inflatable mattress for the night. Shit. So I put the pump back in it's box (with the new batteries in it) and the bad batteries in the trash.
Time for Plan B: clear off all the crap from the spare couch and sleep on that (I got the couch for free when I moved in, so I'm leaving it to pass it on in a similar fashion). It isn't terribly comfortable; my feet dangle off the edge, and the sofa covering isn't quite as smooth as a bedsheet (which is in Nashville). Oh well, I can deal with it.
So I get tucked in and relatively comfortable, trying to ignore the subtle noises coming from my neighbors (general talking and a very noisy cat meowing every 20 seconds). I figure I'd been laying there for about fifteen minutes when all of a sudden I hear this loud whirring sound, not entirely unlike a chainsaw in a horror movie. It freaks me the hell out before I realize what has happened: I left the pump turned "on" (since it wasn't working, I didn't know better). I turn on the lights and make a dive for the box; sure enough, there it goes, pumping air from nowhere into nothing. I turn it off, simultaneously cursing the fact that I just got the shit scared out of me and celebrating the fact that I can have an inflatable mattress now.
I unfold the mattress and hook it back up to the pump. I have power, but it doesn't appear to be inflating the mattress at all (I'm not being impatient; I've used it before, and it went a hell of a lot faster). *sigh* Since I'd already resigned myself to the fact that I'd be sleeping on the sofa, I simply put it all away; tomorrow, when I've got plenty of time to let it inflate oh-so-slowly, I'll give it a second shot.
The problem, though, is that I'm wide-awake; my hands are still shaking from the instant adrenaline rush that I got when the damn thing kicked on. I probably won't be able to sleep for another hour... *sigh*
Apparently, the stress of the move has finally caught up with me (why oh why couldn't it catch up with me after the move?), because I felt like total and absolute shit all day yesterday; Tuesday afternoon I had a simple headache, but by Tuesday evening I was feeling quite under the weather. I woke up at 3:30, 4:30, and 6 am on Wednesday, and my entire body was aching. On top of general ickyness, I also had a meeting with a potential client Wednesday afternoon.