take this and take six, haters

I need to leave my apartment in the next 5-10 minutes so that I can go to the airport and get on my flight to my ancestral homeland. I'm unfortunately way behind at work, and so I intend to spend the time after I get through security answering emails as furiously as possible until boarding; it won't get me through everything that I need to have done before I get back to work, but it will be a major start.

I almost had a disaster today -- when I got home from work, I discovered that the power was out in the building because a transformer blew up in my neighborhood. Luckily the building has a generator, or else I would have had to climb 17-20 floors (unclear exactly how many floors are between my garage and my apartment), but the elevator still worked. Someone in the elevator told me that the projection was that power would be out until tomorrow, which dismayed me -- it's clear how addicted to technology I am, since I promptly wondered how I could possibly travel without charging my two laptops, my two phones, my iPod, and my Kindle. But, the power came on half an hour later, so I was able to pack, shower, charge things, and do a myriad of other civilized activities.

That's all you get -- I'll be in Iowa in the morning, and my family is picking me up and taking me to breakfast in the glorious city of Des Moines. Goodnight!