I had what passes for a weekend here at the International House of Pie: a lot of work to do. The SAT is coming up yet again. The periods of busyness are balanced out by the periods of less-busyness, but this is one of those times where I am often working all day and night at three different jobs, and my brain gets tired.

I talked to my cousin Lucy briefly, and she has been working fourteen hours a day, six days a week-- I guess in that sense, she's got it tougher than I do. Of course, part of her job is that Ben Affleck flirts with her. It's hard for me to dredge up any pity. (I am hoping she'll pony up with a guest entry, because I got to hear the best Ben Affleck stories today..)

I taught another one of my classes yesterday. It was a challenge. They were antsy after their long day of school, and a few of them did not want to shut up. I did what someone suggested and threatened to throw a couple of them out, which made them be quiet for a little while. But I felt pretty bad afterwards all the same.

I'm not a disciplinarian by nature. I don't control grades, I can't award detentions. My threats don't exactly have a lot of force, but I need to do something for the kids who really want to be there. There are quite a few students who clearly value me and my time and the class as a resource. It's a shame that one or two troublemakers can derail the whole thing.

As I wrote in Mr. Ointy, after the ordeal was over, I stopped by the health food store and got some amazing organic plums and this lavender-infused organic blueberry chocolate bar. It was hippie food but it was delicious, and much better than going out and eating handfuls of Oreos or something.

In more cheerful news, I have the next four days (mostly) off for my birthday (which will be underway by the time you read this). I do have some tutoring on Saturday and Sunday mornings, but I have fun-filled activities planned for the rest of the weekend. I'll tell you about them when they're all over, since I don't want to jinx my birthday merriment.

Tonight at work was Shady Character night. (In between all the people wanting to commiserate about the war, of course. All the hippies assume that we, the baristas, are hippies as well. That's Berkeley for you. We just nodded and smiled at the customers, and had our real conversations among ourselves. Then we got depressed and blasted Frank Sinatra music instead.)

First, this guy came in who was clearly on something. He said weird things to us, like "Don't fuck on me, man. You don't gotta be like that." and asked us for ice cubes. Then he asked us not to call the cops on him, and started talking about all the gold jewelry he wasn't wearing.

He sat in the corner for a while, babbling to himself. Then he left, and a customer told me he reeked of alcohol--so that was the explanation. Then he came back again and said, "I ain't gonna preach no more, man" and started saying weird stuff to us again.

I knew I had to do something, because I am all In Charge and stuff, but I hate confrontation, especially confronting the shady characters who wander in our store and could get violent. Ry had gone to lunch, so it was just me and another girl. She's fairly assertive but all the same, you never know what might happen.

I asked him to leave, she asked him to leave, and eventually he left. It was rather anticlimactic, and I'm glad! (Plus, we didn't have to get the Boy to do our dirty work for us. Very empowering, right?)

Not an hour later, this other guy came in and tried to pull the change scam on me. He picked the wrong person to try that one on. The way it works is he tries to get change for a twenty, then takes the twenty back and asks for different change, until finally he gives you his twenty, plus your twenty, and asks you for "six fives and a ten" as if you can't do math. Nice try, buddy.

Anyway, I am glad that it's my birthday, and that I don't have to work (much) this weekend. I am glad I fixed my computer so that it doesn't crash every ten seconds. I am also glad I found my keys, which were lost for a while and had me nice and panicked. I am also glad I can watch BBC news, which is much less prone to infographics and ridiculous slogans ("IRAQ ATTACK II") than the American news channels.

Finally, a poll for you. With my new haircut, do I most resemble...

Stay safe, everyone.