Dead Man Walking

          I'm going to get the hang of this "sleeping" thing if it kills me. I was dead on my feet at work today -- I really did not feel fully alive. The best part was knowing that I had to go home and pack up all my things before I could rest, and I took the packing process at a snail's pace. Fortunately, it wasn't a terribly difficult task, since I came up with a reduced amount of stuff and prudently refrained from decoration. I went over to Davenport B for a moving bin, and of course, Rose was signing them out. Fast forward: everything was packed up save for the cable box, router and associated wires, which I have to carry out to a service center in Roxbury before week's end. This falls to me because it has to happen before 5 pm and Gary works until that time. Okay, fine. My very last task was to get these things in a separate bag for moving convenience. Upon trying to remove the coaxial cable from the wall, I found that it was impossible to dislodge. This was the third time this summer I found myself wishing I'd brought my toolbox. I can't describe my extreme frustration at this point -- there was about an hour left before I was required to move out, I was running on less than fumes, and if something happened to the electronics we'd be looking at a huge fee from Comcast. The RA who was ready to sign me out said he usually carried pliers but couldn't find them; the entire RD office at Davenport B hunted around for the office pair, but couldn't find them; the maintenance staff at Douglass Park said they couldn't do anything to help (as if they don't have a pair of pliers or adjustable wrench laying around somewhere); and Northeastern's maintenance staff couldn't do anything until the next morning. Eventually, an RD made the reasonable offer to take my name and number and notify me when the cable was disconnected from the wall. I accepted gratefully, concluded the move-out, and trucked all of my crap over to IV. Shandana let me into her suitemate's empty room, and it looks like I'll be living large for the next few days. This is strangely reminiscent of the time I snuck into an empty room in IV with an RA's help while visiting Northeastern. I have to pause here and give a huge shout out to Iris for helping me pack and trying to keep me calm. Somehow, I wasn't ready to sleep after all this excitement and took a walk to the reflecting pool with Sean to talk about life. When I finally did collapse into bed, it was with an almost triumphant feeling. I'll deal with those nagging doubts about the Comcast gear tomorrow.