Previously on "Everything's Coming Up Russes!"

Yesterday Russ spent his morning doing laundry.  When he ran out to his car to grab a few things he saw The Actor, and The Baby Mama walking up the street.  Russ couldn't really tell what was going on down the street, it looked like The Actor was kind of pulling The Baby Mama along, like she didn't really want to be walking with him.  Russ hurried, grabbed his things, and went inside.  After starting laundry he went back up to the apartment to lay down, he wasn't feeling to well.  When he walked in The Actor and The Baby Mama had already made it inside, and they were standing in the door way, well one of them was.

The Baby Mama was incredibly wasted.  The Actor was trying to get her shoes off, and take her into their bedroom.  She had fallen over.  Russ could tell that The Actor was incredibly frustrated, but was trying to keep his cool.  Russ just got in bed and laid there... pretending not to know what was going on, and 10-15 minutes later they had made it into the back bedroom.

The Prophet was laying in bed too, and made a joke about The Baby Mama having too much to drink.

Later that evening, Russ came to the apartment wanting to try and get to bed early hoping some rest would help him shake the cold or whatever he had.  The Actor, and 3 of the kids were all eating dinner.  A few minutes later The Prophet got home, and talked about his day, then asked...

"Hey Gus, how was your day."
"Fine.  Russ."
"Oh Russ, Russ I'm sorry, just got off work, I'm sorry, my minds all scattered, I'm tired."
"Yea."

The Prophet went on to ask The Actor...

"Hey so how's "The Baby Mama" feeling?"
"Man she's...  She needs to stop drinking.  She needs to stop drinking... she just... man... she needs to stop drinking."

The next day, Russ found out from The Drug Dealer, who's lived in the apartment for almost 3 months, that The Actor and The Baby Mama had gotten into a huge fight when Russ and The Prophet had been out of the apartment.  He said it sounded like The Actor had been throwing things against the wall.  He wasn't sure what it was about until Russ informed him what had happened the previous morning.

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After being hit with parking tickets, failing at being places on time, and just being worn out by his whole living situation, Russ felt defeated and broken down.  Awakened by people talking... loudly, Russ checked what time it was...

"8am?! Fuuuuuck."

Russ had maybe gotten a couple hours of sleep, he was constantly tossing and turning, being woken up be people coming and going at all hours... it was not a good situation.

The Drug Dealer is planning to move out of the apartment soon, and is paying to stay in the apartment daily.  The Actor, apparently strapped for cash decided to wake up The Drug Dealer to collect his rent.

"Hey I don't mind you wanting your money, but you're waking me up kinda early you know man?"

The Drug Dealer scrounged up some cash, paid the Actor and got back in bed.  Russ thought he could probably get a couple more hours of sleep in before getting up.

"Yo Russ man, can I use your laptop to edit my trailer?"

Russ laid there for a moment.  Russ is not a morning person.  Not at all.  Who likes waking up?  Not Russ.  If you want to be on Russ's bad side go ahead and wake him up one morning.

"Uh.................... (a long pause)........................ yea."
"Cool just boot it up and log in for me."

Russ took his laptop out of his bag, and turned it on.

"Here man I made you a folder, just drag whatever you're using into there."
"Oh I'm just going to connect my... my...
He makes a box motion.
"...my computer mind."
"Hard drive?"
"Yea it's like that... and I'll just drag that into iMovie."
"Oh... well... if you could just drag your stuff into this folder I like to keep everything organized..."
"I learned how to do it just by dragging my stuff into iMovie, so that's how I'd like to do it."
"This is the same thing pretty much, just drag it here first, and then into iMovie, just so I know where everything is..."
"You see man if I drag them straight into iMovie it's easier for me..."
"Yea but, this is easy too... you just..."
"I mean, I just drag them into iMovie and start working, and boom, they're there, and I'm working, I know where everything is, and-"
"Fine fine fine... do whatever."

Russ shoved the laptop into The Actor's hands and laid back down.

"I'm leaving here around 10:30 or 11:00 so I need it back by then."
"Ok thanks man, I appreciate it."

Russ was pissed off at this point, he wasn't going to get back to sleep, he pulled out his phone and logged onto Facebook.  He's done this before, when he's been angry, or really depressed, he'll post a status update reflecting his attitude.  Much like a drunk dial... you regret doing this an hour or so later... a... an... Uprage (update + rage... get it?!) if you will.  He updates his status... heck let's try out our new word.  Russ uprages.

"LA, and my living situation make me want to die.  Maybe i'll get hit by a car today... that'd be nice."  He took the update down a little later, after getting a lot of positive responses from friends.   Thanks guys.

 Almost an hour later The Actor came out and handed the laptop back to Russ.

"Here you go man, there wasn't enough space on your computer."
"How big are the files... you just want to make a two minute trailer... they shouldn't be that big."
"Well you only got about 50 g's in there."
"Yea, but 50 gigs is a lot of space..."
"Gigs?"

Who knows why Russ kept the conversation going... without much sleep he was kinda out of it.

 "Uh... there's like a third of the hard drive still free... are your videos really that big?"
"I dunno man... I guess so."
"Oh well sorry man."
"It's cool, it's cool."

The Actor went back into his room.  Russ then wondered why it had taken him almost an hour to figure out that there wasn't enough space on his computer...

Russ got up, got ready and left the apartment.  He checked his email on his phone.  The friend who had given him the ticket to the E! pilot taping, had emailed him.

"Hey I saw your Facebook post, you want to come hang out with me while I write?"

Russ replied.

"I'd really appreciate that man, i'll come hang out for a little while.  Thanks."

His friend replied letting him know where he was, and Russ headed to meet him.

Thirty minutes later, Russ arrived to meet his friend, and couldn't find him.  Russ looked around a bit, and then called his friend.  No answer.  Russ emailed his friend letting him know he was there.  Russ waited around for about 15 minutes then decided to just head to a coffee shop.  Later Russ received an email from his friend saying he had to go back home.

"Great.  Thanks man.  What a fantastic day."

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Late that night Russ felt something coming over him... suddenly he had a cough.

"Fuck... I'm getting sick."

Russ remembered something, this last weekend when The Four Kids were around, he remembered them staying away from one of the kids because the kid could be sick.  Had Russ caught something from the kid?  Perhaps he caught something at one of the many coffee shops he frequents?  He was usually really good at tracking down how he got sick.  He usually has hand sanitizer on his person, and washes his hands frequently throughout the day.  He tries to be careful about what he touches...  Anyways, he knew he needed to get a good nights rest so he decided to take some sleeping pills, something he had been wary of in the past, but living in this new environment he was having a lot of trouble sleeping, and was desperate.

Russ woke up the next morning and felt worse, he wasn't fully sick, but he felt like if he didn't nip this thing in the bud, he would die.  Well he wouldn't die, but it felt like it could be bad.  He was kind of weak, and was either too hot, or too cold.  He also looked like shit... he hadn't shaved in weeks, his hair was all messed up, had bags under his eyes... he always felt like he looked worse when he was sick.

He didn't have the option of staying home and trying to sleep it off during the day, not with people coming and going, watching TV loudly, or speaking with outside voices... inside.  Honestly, these people talk so loud... loudly?  Russ just continued on like he did everyday.

Drinking plenty of fluids, and trying to take it easy, the sickness would hit him in waves.  He'd feel fine for awhile, but then feel week all of a sudden.  Later during the day he went back to the apartment to eat and maybe lay down for a bit.  After eating, Russ sat on his bed.  The Drug Dealer had been sleeping, and rolled over looking at Russ.

"I feel like shit."
"That sucks man."

The Drug Dealer did not look well, and Russ didn't want to tell him that he wasn't feeling well either.  Although Russ seemed to be doing a lot better at battling whatever this was than The Drug Dealer.

"Feel better man."

Russ got up and left the apartment, and continued on his day.

Later that evening Russ went for a long walk.  Walking down Hollywood Blvd, outside of some night club, Russ saw her, and she was beautiful.  He slowed down his walking, and couldn't help but stare at her.  He decided to approach her.  He had no choice, he was just drawn to her.

To be continued.....

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Next time on "Everything's Coming Up Russes!"
What's this? Has Russ found love?  Stay tuned...