The Grinch Who Stole Stretchmas

The past 24 hours or so have been... trying. So basically, this is a really long vent and invitation to anyone to come drink with me tonight, cause though heartbroken about Seth and Sommer, I didn't sufficiently tie one on last night. So, the most recent chunk of my life goes as follows:

-Spent 3.5 hours or so at the Apple store. Mac Geniuses, particularly Eric in the Tysons Corner store are the most amazing human beings in the world. They answer the exact same questions 30 times in a row and never act impatient or like they've answered the exact same questions 30 times in a row. In my tenure there I saw approximately 394,208 people come in whose iPods just needed to be restored. They spoke caringly to each and every one of them. Amazing. So, Eric = good, my computer = not so good.

-So yeah, my computer. Fucked. Long story short, I had to buy an external hard drive ($100, about 1.5 hours lead up time), put everything i have on there (1 hour), wipe my computer and reinstall my OS (about 1 hour), go home, finish transfering my files, buy a new battery ($100), buy a new power adapter ($100), then discover that my computer -- which was ordered online -- came preloaded with iLife and Office, so I have no backup disks and therefore don't know how to reinstall them. So, any of you computer types out there who have suggestions in that arena, hollar. A little known fact about me is that the two things that will crumble me into a stress heap more deeply and quickly than anything else are computer and money problems, so, yeah, this is pretty much making my neck turn into a giant spring and bounce up and down, cartoon-style.

Also, does anyone know if iLife '06 is just an update, or will buying that give me the actual programs?

-After leaving late for work (dorking around with my computer more, complete and utter inability to decide on what shirt matched what sweater), I encountered the worst traffic possible. It took me an hour to get off of the beltway exit and onto 123 (which is a distance of less than 4 miles), only to be redirected back onto the beltway for another 20 minute adventure in re-directing, all thanks to a suspicious pipe in a gully.

-Got to work, was met with, "wow, so you're wearing jeans to the meeting?" Had to turn around, drive home, change faster than lightening, and go back to work, rerouting to avoid the aforementioned traffic.

-Go to said meeting which was basically an hour of "how do I tell you this is terrible without insulting you?"

-Got a really terrible "roast beef melt" that was supposed to be delicious but was really just a fancy and gross cheesesteak.

So I was feeling pretty deflated. Then I came back to the office, and saw this, and am now falling into fits of gigles over the idea of Matt Barrick being crushed to death by a shetland pony. And seeing the walkmizzles and Dave and Stephanie in Philly next weekend, and eating a real and not gross cheesesteak.

So back to my original point -- who's up for some drinkin this evening?

UPDATE: Boss just emailed out the following. I'm never getting home. "Just ran into the UPS driver (4:40pm), he said the traffic lights are out at International and Westpark. If you go that way, it might be a little dicey."