(It's the perfect job for me. Once I was hanging out with Joey, and she was looking through her change jars for quarters. While she was in the other room doing her laundry, I re-sorted all her change into silver and pennies. I'm obsessive about weird things.)

I got this job because the last girl doing tips just transferred to the new store. I asked my manager, "Who's doing tips now?" and she said, "You. Want to?" And I said sure. It takes about three hours a week, supposedly, and it's a non-back-straining activity, which is good.

The only problem is that my schedule is kind of tight. They should be done as close to Monday as possible (people get antsy when it comes to getting paid-- don't ask me why). I went in tonight after class to take care of it.

It was okay, but only because I didn't work this morning. Normally, I work on Mondays. (Which is separate from the tip thing-- I have to come in at an unscheduled time to do tips.) So therefore, if I do tips Monday night, I'll work from nine to two, go to class from three to six, and go back to the store to try and do tips before we close. That's a long ass day.

I suppose I could have gone in this morning, but I wanted to go for a bike ride, of course. As it turned out, I couldn't finish tips because I ran out of the paper in which to roll the change. So I get to go back tomorrow and try and finish. I was already there for three hours tonight-- I hope I get faster at this. And stop spilling change all over the place.

Well, it's pretty fun. Cool people were working the closing shift, and I sat in the back and chatted with them while mindlessly sorting change.

Like I said, my schedule is fairly tight these days. Not unmanageably so-- mostly because I dropped that Friday morning class. Otherwise I'd be panicking about writing papers and doing homework constantly.

I mean, last night I wrote a seven-page paper in an hour at two in the morning. Admittedly this paper was not for Professor President, and it was much more casual as a result. But I went out last night instead of putting my nose to the grindstone, because this semester, I'm not allowing myself to stress as much.

(The unspoken interesting part is that last night I went out to go play pool with my friend Megan. I really shouldn't have gone, but hey, I was hoping to run into a guy who I met playing pool a couple of weeks ago. Which I did. And it went well, as the notify list already heard in girlishly squealy detail. We chatted about books and compared our neurotic M&M eating habits. I even asked him for his number, which is uncharacteristic of me, to say the least, but he seemed happy about it. I promise to tell you everything if anything comes of it. But I'm in the excited crush-y phase, and will restrict myself to extremely embarrassing notify messages for now.)

Here is my schedule. This is what my life is like this semester. Stalkers, take note.

Mondays: Like I said, I work morning shifts, nine to two. Then I have class at three (a block away, by the way) giving me time to run and get a Jamba Juice or a sandwich. Then it looks like I'll be heading back to work to do tips. Not shaping up to be my favorite day of the week.

Tuesdays: I have my poetry workshop with Joey and Laurie. It was the only day we could all do it, which kinda sucks for me because I have to drive into the city on a day that I normally wouldn't. But the workshop itself is always fun-- a great lunch, gossip and poetry. After that my day is free-- I will probably be doing longish rides on Tuesdays. On Tuesday nights, aside from watching Buffy and 24, I have to try and do my Shakespeare homework. This may turn out to be tricky. He assigns a lot of reading, and these shows actually require me to pay attention to the television.

Wednesdays: I have my Shakespeare class from three to six. Leaving me time to sleep in until noon, get in a good bike ride, take a shower and head to class. Wednesday nights, it's time to do my homework for Thursday. (Write a poem for workshop, do any art-related reading and critique the poems of others.)

Thursdays: Essentially the same as Wednesdays. Sleep in, bike ride, shower, class. Get a jump on homework for the next week. Pay bills.

Fridays: Gloriously, a whole day off. A long ride plus errand running. Plus sleeping in again. I love Fridays. This would also be a great day to do homework if I can ever get my ass in gear. Maybe even hit a movie once in a while. (I never see movies anymore-- even though Gosford Park is showing right down the street. Tragic.)

Saturdays: I work from nine to two-- it's the start of my work week. It's weird to have that "yay, it's Friday" feeling, even though I know that I work for the next three days, culminating in the suckiness of Mondays. But Saturdays are cool. When I get home, I can go for a ride if I want, or just relax, and then go out on Saturday nights.

Sundays: I work an afternoon shift, which means I get to sleep off whatever I did on Saturdays. It also means my day is kind of blown-- I usually clean and do laundry on Sundays.

So there you have it. Not such a bad life, is it?

"And finally, I'd like to use this love-centric day to tell you all, dear readers, how much I love you. There are of course a few of you in particular I'd like to tie up in a bow and have my way with, but I love each and every one of you, one way or another."