I’ve got so much going on here right now trying to get so many things done and work related, and now to boot have two very sick elderly dogs - I had enough on my plate with one sick one (Lulu), and suddenly out of nowhere, Dobie took a turn for worse last night - anyway, I’m having trouble coming up for air right now.

Be back soon with more details, but for now, just keep us in thoughts and send good karma this way for my four-footed babies if you will.  They could use all the good karma they could get right now, and thanks.

There’s just really no time to be spared, so pardon me for this hit & run update.

1. A little while ago, I ate a cheese Krystal - because I was badly in need of food that I could get quick and didn’t have to cook and it was 3 in the morning - and it was unbelievably, horribly, terribly, awfully & ungodly bad. I have never had a Krystal that tasted that disgustingly, putridly bad in my life. Yes, I realize that Krystals are not haute cuisine, but come on - it’s a Krystal. How can you screw up a Krystal that bad?? If I die in my sleep here in a little bit, you’ll know what happened. Blech. A shoe sole would have tasted better I think.

2. I’ve been eating entirely too much fast food lately anyway, which is kind of okay because I never eat anyway and all I ever get is, like, one little McDonald’s cheeseburger, and they’re all of a dollar and I DO NOT HAVE TIME to cook. But let’s not talk about the fact that in the past two weeks I’ve been served (A) a cheeseburger that was between two top buns, and (B) got home one day and opened the bag to discover I had a top & bottom bun with cheese in the middle - and no burger. Wake up, people! I know it’s just an unimportant $1.00 cheeseburger, but it might just be someone’s only meal of the day that you totally screw up.

3. I know I shouldn’t have laughed because they’re both elderly and one’s a little sickly and might be a bit senile, but watching not just one but two of my cats fall off the desk a few minutes ago, within a few minutes of each other, with an empty chip bag (the small 99-cent Big Grab size) on their heads was almost as funny as a few years ago when my elderly then-16-year old cat got his head stuck inside an empty Krystal Chik box.

4. On a not-as-amusing note, Maggie’s (same Maggie as in the pic above) new favorite place to nap is with her head on the edge of my keyboard, which usually eventually occurs to me at some point after being puzzled as to why I’m typing in all caps or ““““` is appearing on the screen again.

5. I am apparently now completely and totally assimilated into the electronic communications world at this point, because now that my fax AND my printer are both borked, and a fax that I needed to get where it needed to go so I could start getting some commission payments didn’t go through because that dinosaur of a mid-’90s era fax that I inherited from my old office is totally dead now… it took about a month for it to finally occur to me that I could just put a stamp on an envelope and MAIL it.

6. Besides the petered out fax and printer, now my desktop is apparently on its last legs too - I’ve known it was coming, was hoping to hold it off a little longer, seeing as how that’s pretty distressing since I do 100% of my work on this computer these days - but it spit out a frightening serious error at me the other day and threatened to not start (but it eventually did). In the course of seeing what I could afford to ditch in an effort to get it speeded up a little and prepare to defragment the drive for the first time in I dunno how long, after going through some other directories, I took note of the millions of Notepad files I’ve got saved to the desktop - and had a bit of a chuckle over the title of some of those files, such as: CLC Links Widget, WP Tutorial, Moved Blogs, kathyt, kathyt Links Widget, More Moved Blogs, B Blogger Template, one simply titled B, B Tutorial (yes, I don’t remember why I felt I needed to make her her own instead of giving her the one I gave everyone else), and Sarcastro Stuff (which reminds me yet again that I STILL need to repost all his old photos one of these days, ugh). Anyway, giggle - yeah, I’m a blog geek.

7. There are angels in the blogosphere and in my MySpacesphere too. Angels, I tell you.

8. I’m so tired I don’t have time to BREATHE, and I don’t have time anyway because I have way too much work and projects to do. This staying up for a day and a half at a time, sleeping a few hours and starting all over again is getting a little old. I’ve been up again for about 38 or 39 hours now and worked straight through for about 22 well, really about 29 or 30, of those, so yeah - ’scuse me if I’m a little loopy right now.

That is all. But seriously, if I don’t at least show up for a minute on Twitter by tonight? Food poisoning. Ugh, a nasty, dirty, filthy shoe sole would have no doubt tasted better. Yuck.

9. (Yes, Lesley and Brittney, I know I shouldn’t eat meat anyway.)

10. (But still - it’s a Krystal! How can anyone screw up a Krystal??)

11. Zzzzzz…

So did Super Tuesday actually happen yesterday? Because there was no talk of anything on the news here yesterday except this tornado, that tornado, the next tornado, and the one after that, and etc., etc., etc. Starting about 4:30 pm and well after midnight, on at least one local station that was virtually it.

Living in the center of the city, I’m usually protected ‘cos the main danger zones in the Metro Memphis area tend to be out in the ‘burbs. Still, I didn’t sleep last night because nowadays, when the sirens start going off, my adrenalin rush just gets out of this world (and if you’ve never been here before or have forgotten, this is why).

There was some damage not too far away though, out in the airport area; lots of damage out in the eastern suburbs and across the state line in DeSoto County, Mississippi; and probably the most stunning, for here, was the 50-foot chunk of wall taken out of Hickory Ridge Mall down in Southeast Memphis. Kid sister and her hubby lived not too far from there, just south of Germantown, until they moved a couple of years ago, so for once, I was actually happy they are now living in Nebraska. Otherwise last night would have been even more horrifying and frightening.

Though there was plenty going on here last night to freak out about, I found myself much more affected by the news of the tornado that blitzed the north part of Jackson, Tennessee, about an hour northeast. The damage was huge in many spots up there, most notably the demolition of a/some dormitory building(s) at Union University.

Why would that affect me so much more than what was happening right here in my own back yard? Because when I got caught on the road in my car during the 2003 tornado that hit Jackson, I was pretty much right there by Union University. No matter that I was basically safe at home an hour away, last night in my little house in front of the computer, listening to and watching the live stream of the continuing weather update on one of the local stations. When they said a tornado had touched down in Jackson and said where, I knew exactly what it looked like up there at that moment, ‘cos I’d been there, right there in it.

I guess I’m always gonna be a little more freaked out by bad storms and the sirens, but for a moment or two, that really, really bothered me last night. Glad I wasn’t out in it all, here nor there, but just hearing about them now in places I know - and especially that one twister in particular, striking right there where I was that night in 2003 - it’s just kinda bone-chilling.

On another note, thanks to everyone who stopped by and left such kind words about Rocky yesterday, including some I haven’t heard from in years and years. Very much appreciated, all of you. I left out one little part yesterday I meant to throw in there, so bear with me a sec and I’ll stop talking about it soon enough.

Like most of my zoo, Rocky was a foundling. My neighbor who lived here for years came home from work one day a little over ten years ago, and when he got out of the car, there was this little tiny orange kitten in the small tree right above the driveway mewing at him. So of course he immediately knocked on my door, orange ball of fur in hand.

And because there is an invisible sign on my forehead that only cats and dogs can see that says “SUCKER”, the little orange furball never left. Seems like only yesterday, and when he was so sick and old and leaving us, that’s really all I kept thinking about, that day years ago.

Well, that’s it for the moment, I’m so tired I’m about to drop dead, so I’m off for now. Tomorrow maybe I’ll write about my Christmas adventures. It’s not a pretty tale.

P.S. Again on tornadoes - does Knuck have the right idea? ‘Cos what if the tornado hits your house, but doesn’t really blow it up and just does some damage but nothing fatal to you or the house, and then you ARE wandering like that, and then you’re, like, this naked guy wandering around Nashville post-tornado, and…

It’s really still too early in the morning for me to ponder this. Smiley will have the punchline I’m too exhausted to come up with right now, I just know it.

So I’ve been busy on some projects I have been trying to pull together and complete forever now, thanks to my well-known Aussie rock fetish, and I guess you could say Phase 1 & 2 are up to speed now, Phase 3 is about to get done, and then onto Phase 4 one of these days when I have some free time that I never have anymore.

Anyway, I’ve been busy here and here, and finally got the only existing video footage of The Monarchs up on both MySpace and YouTube, and those of you who pop over here occasionally from the Pen and that general sector who haven’t already heard about the videos will certainly want to check those out.

Otherwise, I am so exhausted right now, and have had so little sleep in the past week and a half (not because of this stuff tho), that I have absolutely nothing else to blog about unless you wanna hear me yawn, so ’til later, folks…

It occurs to me I haven’t changed my iMood from “awake” in I dunno how long, but the thing is, it’s usually right anyway.  I am awake most of the time lately.  And if I’ve fallen asleep, I don’t know it ‘cos I’ve done it accidentally… so I can’t change it, since I don’t know I’m asleep.  Right?

Makes sense to me.

The good thing, I guess, about feeling stressed and under pressure more than usual is that when I’m like that - when there’s a LOT of stress and pressure - I don’t wanna do anything BUT sleep.   I predict a lot of sleeping this week.  That may be of the good.

Thinking of Aunt B. and ‘Coma today, and everyone and anyone else who needs some extra good thoughts.

Seems like most everyone I know is in kind of this collective mood, in varying degrees of difference ranging from contemplative and introspective, apprehensive and despondent, restless and expectant, and about fifty million other adjectives I could come up with right now.  There’s positives and negatives and plenty of neutrals and just all sorts of stuff going on, but it seems like most are just in sort of this collective funk of some sort; or if not a funk, some very potential life-altering kind of stuff right now.

Whatever’s going on with me is not nearly so literary.  I’m just plain in a mood.

I’m also sneezing again, which is making me mad because I still really have yet to 100% get over that last bout of crud that befell me right before the car wreck.  I’m hoping this sneezy business is just a temporary thing.

More later, because when I start typing and then deleting a sentence that includes Philadelphia, Atlanta, and NYC all in the same sentence, then I know I’m going in the wrong direction with my train of thought and I need to regroup.  None of those three cities nor anyone in them have anything to do with what I’m on about right now.  And I need a little sleep.

I really do not like Sundays, not at all.

So I am home, but not for long. I am exhausted to the max, but in a good way. I should have just gone straight on to bed early last night, but didn’t. Now I’m up again, but that’s OK, I think (think) today is going to be a fairly easy day.

All and all, great trip. I met in person some wonderful folks I have “known” for a while and a few more, and we just had a great, great time. Other than the fact that I lost my MP3 player and some other stuff I can’t quite remember what was in the bag at O’Hare, and the fact that my foot is about to fall off, it’s all good. I almost broke my foot a few years ago but didn’t quite break it, and it has given me a ton of trouble ever since, and nowadays the other foot and ankle gives me a little trouble too because I don’t walk quite right anymore because of the bad one. Consequently, the bad foot and ankle have a habit of swelling up to Supersize with things like lots of walking in airports and stuff. I didn’t notice it until I was waiting in the St. Louis airport yesterday for my connecting flight, and then it was like, whoa! The other one was swollen too but the difference was between looking at an almost normal foot and ankle compared to a gargantuan deformed one. It really hasn’t bothered me that much (and has gone down a little), probably because when I am really tired, my feet always hurt anyway. I’ve felt better, but I’ll live.

The show, again, was fantastic and The Abbey is a pretty great place to see live music in Chicago. Other than that little idiot who made us leave the venue entirely too early and before everyone in the band had come out after the show.

I kinda hate now that I understand I could have met up with Tatiana for dinner or something Saturday night, dang it. But since it was such a last minute trip and was kind of a whirlwind one, I just wasn’t thinking much ahead of time other than all the must-do’s. Hopefully there might be a next time for Chicago later in the year, though.

But here’s the REAL scoop… remember I said I’m home, but not for long? Guess where I am going Wednesday? L.A.! Yep, I’m going to see the Hoodoo Gurus AGAIN on Wednesday night. It was another opportunity that turned up that I just couldn’t pass on, things with work are working out where I can go (and Thursday’s my day off anyway), so here I go again! It just so happens I have an old friend who is from Sydney but has been living in L.A. for several years now who also was going to the show, so hopefully things will work out there (’cos lord knows I don’t have enough $$ left for cab fare at this point, but we’ll see).

This is going to be an even more whirlwind trip ‘cos I am actually going to be there barely 12 hours, but when the opportunity presented itself, I just couldn’t pass it up. And I never get to do stuff like this or go much of anywhere anyway, so this is cool. About ten years ago, the band was playing what was then intended to be one of their last dates in Australia, and almost all the American fans went down there for the show, the band and their manager threw a big barbecue for everyone who had come in from all over the world, and all this great stuff. I wasn’t able to go and was miserable. So all of this this week almost makes up for that. I’m thrilled, really; too tired to maybe show it right now, but I am.

So this week’s going to be a super hectic one (especially because I am going BACK out of town again for a very short trip on Saturday), and I’m probably going to just collapse next week when it’s all over with, but it’s all good. For a whole bunch of last minute stuff, it’s not turned out so bad (yet - knock on wood nothing happens like my plane is severely delayed Wednesday, god, that would be awful).

If you wanna see some pictures taken of the Chicago outing, click here. Someone needs to stop me from waving every time a camera’s out, I look like a big dork. And to shut my mouth. And I seriously was not drunk until the very end of the evening, heh.

So, I didn’t seem to be able to find my way to bed nor couch for a nap Saturday afternoon, seeing as how I kind of accidentally got stuck in the Seventies and spent two or three hours downloading a crapload of Aerosmith, Nazareth, The Runaways, Alice Cooper, Ace Frehley, and KISS. Must have been the Plaid Stallions influence.

Not that I don’t already own most of that stuff I just downloaded anyway, but it seems I have gotten too lazy to pore through the CD rack, and you know, it’s just so much more convenient when it’s already on the hard drive. Plus there’s the fact my CD-ROM drive only works when it wants to lately anyway.

One of these days I’m going to write a great big scathing post about some of the artists and bands whom I’ve discovered are still charging per track via the various services, as well as some of the ones whose stuff you can’t get at all. Some of those charging per track, it’s been really disappointing to see - not disappointed because I can’t download some stuff, but disappointed in them for being that way. I know that’s a hot button issue in the music world, but I have always believed - and still believe - that those that make their stuff available as a regular download are going to make more money on those tracks than if they slap a 99 cent per on it (yep, I’m looking at you, Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others).

‘Cos you know what? 99 times out of 100, I’m gonna pass right by those. Put your 99 cent price tag on ‘em all you want. Most of the time, I’ve already got your CD sitting in the rack that I paid full price for anyway. I don’t need your MP3 so bad I’m gonna pay for it individually again. No. Sorry.

Then there’s the ones whose stuff’s not available at all. Yeah, I’m looking at you now, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.

Come to think of it, though, I can think of several reasons why Zeppelin’s stuff might be a little more difficult to deal with regarding licensing and royalty issues and such, now that I’ve thought about it for a minute.

There’s plenty of others out there, though, that really just have no real good excuse and, like I said, my opinion is that many are shooting themselves in the foot as I said above. I bet more of those 99 centers on Napster, et al, get passed over than get purchased. Anyway…

Speaking of music, one of my oldest friends is subscribed to my Last.fm feed that spits out whatever I’m playing at any given time. Seriously. Subscribed. Even checks it on whatever handheld Web-capable whatever he carries around with him. Because I know this, sometimes I make a point of playing about a dozen really goofy insane tracks just to mess with him.

I have to talk to you about something Elvis-related, too, but that’s going to have to wait ’til I’m a little more awake ’til I have my very late dinner and get my head back on straight again. I should go finally did nap. For a little while far too long and way too late, which means I’ll probably be up all night but that’s okay. (Obviously, I initially penned this post before said nap occurred hit me like a ton of bricks and rendered me unconscious for most of Saturday evening.)

I really wish I could have gone to bed last night.

I wish I’d learn to stop asking for more work during weeks I’m feeling overwhelmed to begin with, no matter how much I could use the extra pocket change.

I wish I would post about last weekend’s trip to Nashville before I go to Nashville again this weekend.

I wish this day wasn’t go to be so godawful long.

Unfortunately no, nothing entertaining and charged with carnal delights has kept me away the last couple of days. And it’s amazing how one can be away less than 48 hours and fall SO behind. Sorry I didn’t post pics as promised Friday night; truth is, I fell asleep… which, if you hang around here much, you know that’s a better thing than my usual M.O.

Let me catch up a bit and I’ll be posting a bunch of stuff shortly.

The bad: I’m here, if you can call it that. I returned home sometime after 2 a.m. this morning. And, since you can’t leave here without five billion things to do upon returning, went to sleep shortly after 5 a.m. and had to get up at 7 for work. I think I’m awake right now, but I’m not entirely sure about that.

The good: Tomorrow is my day off, then I work Friday, then of course is the weekend. Man, I like working two days a week. Hmmm.

The bad: I forgot and left behind a couple of very important stocking stuffers, which irked me. (Note to self: Always look in the hall closet before leaving for Christmas.)

The good: I got tons of incredibly cool stuff and we all had a very good Christmas together. It would have been just as excellent without all the presents. And thanks to all who left those nice Christmas wishes. Yeah, it all turned out fine, despite my panic attacks. (And deep down in my cold, black Grinchy heart, I suppose I always knew it would turn out fine anyway.)

The bad: I think my family might be singlehandedly responsible for Amazon’s announced huge Christmas profit this year. (But I probably don’t care, because…)

The good: I think my family might be singlehandedly responsible for Amazon’s announced huge Christmas profit this year. I think I have more than a half dozen gift certificates to redeem. Watch me spend them with glee!

The good: My brother-in-law gave my sister an iPod, which will no doubt keep peace in their family as now he will be able to play all his insane games on his laptop without being interrupted and asked questions every ten minutes.

The bad: My brother-in-law gave my sister an iPod, and I may never be able to get her on her cell phone again because she’ll never hear it, because it’ll be 24/7 iPod.

The good: I apparently made my rental car reservation so late for my compact car that I got like a quadruple upgrade because they were out of everything else. I thought it must be a mistake when I walked to my assigned vehicle and saw the minivan/SUV/whatever it is sitting there. Nooo problem packing the vehicle with presents to and from our destination. On the way up to pick up my mom, we were on the phone and she goes, “Are we going to have enough room?” I’m, like, “Oh, yeah, we have plenty of room” - without telling her what had happened, so then I was all pleased with myself about what was going to be a big surprise. (No, it doesn’t take much to amuse me.) Anyway, yes, unexpected compact-to-SUV upgrade, that totally rocks.

The bad: Why can’t that happen every Christmas?

The good: I got some real, actual, several hours’ worth sleep, in a bed.

The bad: Well, I’m obviously off to a bad start again on less than two hours’ sleep last night, but maybe there’s time to sync myself into some reasonable sleeping schedule so I don’t stay up for most of another three weeks again.

The bad: The much-anticipated-by-moi Lynnster Christmas Tour of Middle Tennessee 2006 was a total bust, and it’s all my own fault. We dragged around all day Tuesday and hung out and visited with family some more, and ended up not leaving Chattanooga until after dark, so I didn’t get to meet up with CeeElCee, KathyT, or Ivy as planned. And Ivy’s poor little Megs has pneumonia, which is terrible.

The good: I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with Kathy on the phone anyway despite my messing up our meet-up plans, and she’s just as nice and fun as you would think she’d be. Can’t wait to meet her and Ivy on the next trip! And, Megs is feeling better today, so Ivy says - yay! And I guess the other good is when I come back up in late January or early February, I’ll have much more time (and quality time!) to spend with folks anyhow.

The bad: Just being away a couple of days and I am hopelessly, tremendously behind on the way too many blogs I read daily.

The good: Lots of cool stuff to read and pictures to look at, and several days off soon ahead anyway.

The bad: I am home.

The good: I am home!

Hope everyone had a happy happy and merry merry, can’t wait to get caught up and see what everyone else was up to…

Hey, all you good and wonderful people. I am OK. I was out of the house for over 8 hours yesterday, what with the office Christmas party and desperation shopping, since I haven’t been able to do any. The good news is I do not have to go out to ANY more stores. I have a little online shopping that I was planning anyway to do tonight or tomorrow, and once that’s done, I am finished except for the wrapping. Or I should say in my case, bagging.

I noted on another blog this morning (sorry, it now escapes me where I saw it - I got so behind being gone yesterday, catching up today has been a blur) the theory that gift bags did not make things as Christmas-y as wrapping up presents one gets to tear into. While I do totally see the point, I gotta say gift bags are the best thing that ever came along for someone like me.

You see, much like I was born missing the gardening gene, sewing gene, and housecleaning gene, I also apparently am missing the giftwrap gene. I am like the world’s absolute worst present wrapper EVER. Every once in a while, I’ll wrap one that doesn’t come out looking just plain pitiful, but even those have inevitable problems. I’m just not good at it.

Not even working at the giftwrap counter of my godmother’s gift shop for a couple of Christmases and one graduation season helped. I learned to do those just well enough to be passable. Most boxes were in one of three sizes, so it was repetitive enough I could make them look like something besides something your retarded 2-year-old cousin might wrap. But I just have never been very good at it. No, that’s an understatement; I’m not good at it at ALL. Give me a roll of wrapping papers, scissors, and tape, and soon there will be a disaster of epic proportions.

Nowadays, with the widespread sale of gift bags and cute little gift boxes, I’ll go out of my way to not have to wrap something traditionally. Right now I have one thing that can’t be bagged, though if I had a bag big enough, you can bet it would be bagged too.

In any case - yep, like the gardening, sewing, and housecleaning gene, I am most assuredly missing the giftwrap gene as well. I can cook, however, so I guess that makes me not an 100% poor excuse for a female.

On another note, I do appreciate everyone’s kind words and worry this week. The stress over not being able to shop for Christmas, all the huge expenses, and the inability to sleep almost got added to yesterday when it appeared my Christmas bonus for this year had gone missing, but it turned up, much to my relief.

Health-wise, honestly, I think I’m okay, I just need several days with not so much to do and plenty of opportunity for several good night’s sleeps. I have habitually overworked myself on a regular basis for some time now, averaging 60-80 hour work weeks for a very long time, and that coupled with all the recent stress plus some other stressors I haven’t blogged about, I think I just managed to hit the proverbial brick wall with both stress and exhaustion. Unfortunately the next couple of days are going to be hectic preparing some more for the holiday and getting out of town, and getting ready to go out of town.

But tonight I have an opportunity for a good night’s sleep - maybe two nights in a row if I can get ahead on all the stuff I need to do before Sunday morning - and I only work two days next week. So my plan is when I get back in town next week, I’m going to pick up some melatonin at McSmiley’s previous suggestion, try to avoid taking on much freelance work next week, and just try to chill out and rest and recuperate.

And if that doesn’t work, then maybe I’ll head up to N-town and let Hutchmo and Mrs. Hutch bring me back to good health with peace and quiet, decaf, and danishes. Well, maybe I’ll do that anyway. Mmmm… cheese danish!

But I promise if things don’t get better soon, I will see someone with a medical degree for real so y’all can all stop worrying. You are all sweet and wonderful good folks. I may have worked for and with doctors most of my life, but I don’t like to see ‘em unless absolutely necessary!

Back to finishing the day and hopefully making some headway on projects, catching up, and must-do’s tonight and tomorrow as well as sleep. Hope everyone is having a good Friday and not suffering pre-holiday stress. I am most thankful to have gotten that shopping out of the way even though it liked to have killed me doing it all at once yesterday like that - one less thing to worry about!