I apologize for the long silence, but moving is the sort of endeavor you save up energy for. And now? I’m moved.

Yep. Miles away from the house we lived in for almost six solid years. Living with a guy almost exactly my age and his teenaged son. So far, so good, and I’m as comfortable here as I could expect to be given the circumstances.

For the record, the first thing I did was sit down and eat. The second thing was to reconstruct the easier of the two desks, and the third was to set up the computer.

Priorities, people! It’s all about the priorities.

Oh, and did I mention we have broadband here? Oh hell yes. I expect to be posting more often now that I don’t have to fight a crappy slow dialup connection…

Wendi has the key to her new apartment. I’ll be getting the key to my roommate’s place today, if all goes well.

It has begun.

I’ll be moving first. It’s only a huge undertaking because of how long we’ve been entrenched in this house, not because of how much stuff there is to move. I’m firmly focused on the idea of junking as much junk as possible as I move. I’m not going to a very large space, and the next place I inhabit afterward probably won’t be that much larger. It therefore behooves me to keep the amount of packrattage to a bare minimum.

It should be an interesting couple of weeks. Hell, it should be an interesting life…

I turn thirty-two years old today, and to celebrate (in advance, sure) I went north to visit Dawn and also spend a bit of time with some folks from Pool. It was a wonderful, fun, relaxing, rejuvenating couple of days, and I shall always be thankful for such an interlude during this particularly stressful time in my life.

Hey, I even got to shoot some pool. I’m still not very good at it, but I am reminded now of how much I used to enjoy that particular pasttime. I even managed to call and sink a moderately tricky 8-ball shot… only to lose the game anyway on account of scratching. Oh well. It was almost a perfect shot.

All through the weekend I was getting presents of one sort or another… for instance, Lilith bought the anime version of Metropolis on DVD for me. Dawn gave me sweets of various kinds, a Pikachu candy dispenser and the most adorable little plush Nekobus from My Neighbor Totoro:

I arrived at work this morning only to find… well, what can best be described as a cookie basket, waiting for me at the front desk. Thank you, Heather!

I also got birthday cards and some brownies from my coworkers, not to mention lunch at one of my favorite restaurants and any number of verbal birthday greetings as I worked around the building.

Yeah. It’s not all bad. I just have to remember that when things go to hell like they’re so prone to doing…

A few weeks ago I tried to send my friend Geoffrey a text message from my phone to his in reply to a question he’d asked. At the time I didn’t realize that I’d incorrectly entered his number into my phone’s address list, so I couldn’t understand why he never replied.

Three weeks ago, mind you. I’ve since fixed the typo and all is right with the world. I didn’t really pay much thought to the minor issue of the poor confused soul who might have read my terse missive. Nothing came of it at the time, so it was no biggie, right?

“Wrong!”

I went to bed early tonight on account of sheer emotional exhaustion. For the first time in ages, I was actually asleep before midnight. Perhaps it just figures that such bliss couldn’t last…

My phone rang at just past midnight. The caller hung up about the time I managed to answer, and while the number looked vaguely familiar I couldn’t quite place it. Had it matched anything in my address list it would’ve displayed a name along with the number, so I figured maybe it was a coworker trying to reach me about a problem at the office. I decided to wait up a few minutes to see if they’d call back.

The caller did try again, but it wasn’t who I expected. See, this complete stranger called to ask if I’d just sent him a text message.

Nope, I replied, I haven’t sent a text message all evening. What did it say?

“Enemy Territory.”

Aroo? I did send a message like that, but it was weeks ago… and oh yeah, there was a problem with having the wrong number. But… that was weeks ago!

Turns out this gentleman had received the original message, wondered what was going on but decided to let it slide until it happened again. Here’s the weird part: It happened again. Tonight. Somehow either his carrier’s SMS got wonky or mine did, because a message I sent three weeks ago (he still had it on his phone, thus the date checking) was re-sent at midnight tonight.

I explained this likelihood to him, and we had a good laugh. I’m fairly certain he doesn’t think I’m some sort of weirdo who likes to play pranks on random strangers via SMS, anyway.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if I can manage to fall asleep again…