Has Mercury gone retrograde again?

Last night I was IM'ing with my cousin and after a long series of rambling posts from me, although the little icon said she was writing things, she didn't reply. I gave it five minutes - thought maybe her phone had rung or something - and then wrote "Are you still there, chica?" Turns out she had been replying but the replies weren't appearing on my screen. So she just called me and we talked on the phone - the old-fashioned way.

Tonight I was on the old-fashioned phone with my sister and similarly, I was saying something and she was very quiet, so I waited for a reply and finally said, "You there?" and she wasn't. I hung up and tried to redial but couldn't get a dial tone, then could but the phone wouldn't dial. I think it was probably a battery thing, but she said her phone had packed it in at the other end as well.

When we worked out about the IM thing, I told my cousin it reminded me of being at slumber parties, where I was always, always the last one asleep. Every time, I'd be in the middle of some long, rambling story and finally realized that no one was listening to me because everyone else had fallen asleep.