trouble logging in

I paid my membership thru paypal on Jan 10th. Received a confirmation e-mail a few minutes later and clicked on the link to activate. When I try to log in it shows" user status: offline." I have tried to log in from the various options including the one on the left hand side which asks for the security code. I am using IE 6.0. Today I have tried several times to log in from a computer at work with the same results. Can you help.. thanks jim
Also - what does standby under the membership column mean?

PS When I tried to post this I got the message that user name was already taken I'll try again without my user name firemanjim