Columbus: Third-World Fun in a First-World City

Okay, I'm exaggerating--Columbus is still at least 30 functioning traffic lights away from anarchy. And I still have running water at home. The berry has been closed for the past day and a half (and counting!), and the fact that I still have not straightened out the projector situation for a program I'm supposed to be doing tomorrow night on the Peace Corps in Eastern Europe, plus am unable to log on to check my email to find out crucial info on whether the situation has been straightened out because apparently the berry's server is still down, is causing me only low frequency distress right now. Of higher priority is the task of keeping my cat's antibiotics cold, which must happen despite not knowing anyone in a ten-mile radius who has refrigeration capabilities, much less ice to sell me so that I can put it in the cooler I've been loading with a venti cup from Starbucks that I fill with ice any time I go out to eat, which is about four times a day, currently.

To tell the truth, I'm very much enjoying my extended vacation, not in the least because I am not a homeowner. I'm enjoying eating out at every meal (and it was time to clean out the fridge, anyways). The fact that my computer at home doesn't work (I'm at a different berry curently, one that is open and very similar in feel right now to a refuge camp--thank god I don't work here, I'm thinking, as I listen to the patient staff member at the desk explain repeatedly that he cannot move people ahead in the reservation line for computers because they are "in a hurry" or working on "important business"), the fact that my cell phone only intermittently works, the fact that none of the lights work no matter how often I unthinkingly flip their switches...none of these things bother me too terribly much. In fact, if they never got around to getting the power back on, I wouldn't mind too much at all, so long as the movie theaters kept running, and the restaurants, and the one open grocery store kept my favorite cereal in stock, and some kindly benefactor paid off my credit card balances every month.

Any takers?