Sorry for being quiet since the move. If I seem somewhat distant or something, I'm just really busy, even if I don't seem like it. Much of that busy-ness is mental, not physical. Let me bring you up to speed.

On July 25th, I finally left Austin, TX and moved back to my parents' place in Fort Smith, AR. The next morning, on July 26th, Calyo and Sildrae left, joining me later that day. We're now all living with my two remaining parents: my grandfather and uncle on my mother's side.

This wouldn't be too bad, except for two things occuring close to the time of our move.

1) The son of one of my other uncles unknowingly brought bedbugs into this house. My parents had been fighting them, but due to their age, they hadn't been able to do too much.

2) The small apartment in the garage caught fire, thanks to the window air conditioner's power cable becoming damaged. Not all of the garage caught fire, but there was plenty of smoke damage, and insurance won't let us use the interior at all.

Again, these two issues wouldn't be bad on their own, except that the house is a mess. My grandmother was a packrat, and there are so many figurines and nick-nacks in the house that my parents never got around to going through everything and selling/packing it all away. On top of that, a close friend who had been living here left some of his belongings in my old bedroom. Both the master bedroom and my mom's old bedroom have things that need to be sorted, and guess where we are?

As a result, I'm having to go through everything, box up almost all of it, and help move out furniture to make room for our belongings, with the exception of a giant wooden desk that I plan on reclaiming for myself. However…that has to wait until after we swap some rooms around, as the master bedroom is so awkwardly set up that Sildrae and I (who are sharing a room) wouldn't be able to set up our desks at all. AC intake, a giant two-door closet (which also needs cleaning), three doorways that can't be blocked (one quarter of the space), the breaker box, and very poorly-placed power outlets make it nearly impossible to even try to set up that room properly for the two of us.

Currently, Sildrae and I are holed up in the still-cramped master bedroom, though I've managed to box up nearly everything in there. All that remains is moving furniture out of there, finding a place for the boxes of stuff, cleaning the carpet, and spraying the pesticide along the walls—which means we'll have to vacate for a couple of hours.

Oh, I should add that I've been having to do this while suffering from a constantly-flaring allergic reaction, initially caused by the laundry soap that my parents use, and constantly re-triggered by the dust and diatomaceous earth (initial pesticide) that coat the floor and furniture. My parents haven't been able to do much in the way of cleaning, so guess who's been trying to do that as well?

There's still so much to do, but I'll hopefully be able to set up a desk soon. Once I have that, I should be able to start writing again…once my stress levels fall again…and once I'm able to deal with the cleaning and such. But I should be able to do that, and it's the only thing keeping me remotely sane at the moment.

So yeah…Just an update.