Whew. Dude. What a couple of days.

Okay. Sorry for the incommunicado thing–last night, in an orgy of packing, I Got Moved. Thanks to some good friends and their Pickup Truck of Holding, everything except my futon frame and a couple of bookcases got moved out. It was amazing. Kevin’s living room now resembles an explosion in a furniture and plastic bag factory, and my computer didn’t get hooked up again until tonight.

Thanks, first of all, to my buddy Brooke, who called me up, listened to me babble for a few minutes, and then said "Right, I’ll be over in an hour," and showed up with food. This is particularly noble because Brooke is allergic to cats, but she packs like a demon nonetheless, while sneezing madly. Greater love hath no woman.

Huge mad thanks to Mike & Amy, Wes & Elizabeth, who showed up with a truck. Mike & Wes are two of the finest specimens of the uniquely southern variant of geekdom you will ever meet, and their packing skills are Epic. They turned my furniture into a 3-D tetris set and fitted it into the truckbed without an inch going to waste. It was incredible. If they packed a clown car, it would be so dense that not even light could escape.*

And, of course, the biggest thanks of all to Kevin, who orchestrated the whole move-a-thon, took very good care of me while I was still wandering around going "Wait–what–I’ve been robbed? REALLY?"**–plied me with fifty-year-old whiskey when appropriate, and spent this evening assembling my desk and setting up my computer. (And, perhaps most notably, nearly reduced me to tears, when after we had unloaded everything into the living room, and were going off to get food, turned to me and said "Welcome home!")

And then, of course…there’s you guys.

Jeez.

I’m getting a little choked up here, but y’all came through amazingly with the orders and the donations. I’ll be able to replace Mr. Printy (the exact model was discontinued, so I’ll have to get Mr. Printy’s cousin, but that’s okay) and the scanner, and my vital tools (I discovered today that they carefully picked through my tool bin and took everything. Pliers and an electric screwdriver are pretty essential to my job. And tin snips. I mean, Kevin has a pair, but a woman needs her own tin snips, damnit. If zombies attack, you don’t want to have to share.) plus a few other things.

I don’t know how to thank you all for the kindness, and I’m too fried after two days of frantic coping to come up with anything eloquent, so–THANK YOU. I don’t know if I deserve you, but I am the luckiest artist around, and I will arm-wrestle anyone who says differently.
 

I promise you amusing stories of Ben vs. Beagle tomorrow, when I am less fried.

*Clowns stuck all over the event horizon. Very unpleasant.

**I still keep doing this randomly. It’s not even traumatic so much as just so WEIRD, ya know? I mean…really?