Wednesday

Six A.M. Arise from bed to greet the day. Notice that as the seasons change six A.M. is pitch black. Get sort of depressed.
6:30-7:30-Drive my brother to his appointment. Exult in getting almost all green lights on the way back. Pat myself on the back for enjoying the simple pleasures of life. Think about someone else for a change. Somehow, my mind winds up making me the central figure in the scenario. Hard to overcome.

8:20 A.M. Awake from my attempt at taking a morning nap feeling like someone has hit me with a tire iron. Naps are pretty useless when you wake up. The benefit really doesn't come until three hours after or so. The initial feeling is that you've been drugged and someone may have made off your wallet/personal dignity.

S: I think we need to tighten our belts a little for a few months, so we can be prepared when your college loans start kicking in.
M: That whole class thing wasn't free. What a rip off.
S: No. No it wasn't.
M: I’m going to buy some cocaine and call some escorts.
S: Please don’t.
M: I’ll take your protest under consideration.

9 A.M. Walk to work on a breezy morning. Attempt to keep my headphones relatively fastened to my head as the duct and scotch tape start to loosen up.

9-4:30 Process interlibrary loans.

Q2: What would you be doing if you had enough money to do anything?
M: I'd probably be doing it poorly enough to get fired.
Q: Couldn't you just quit instead?
M: I'd prefer it that way.

5 P.M. Go to the gym and lift weight in order to try and aggravate my torn labrum enough to get out of moving our heavy furniture.

5:30-Fail to aggravate seriously, though minor pain ensues.


Probably the most fascinating thing at my job on any given day is my extreme fear of the telephone. When you work at a job in information delivery services the only time you get a call is when something has gone wrong. Thus, whenever the orange light is flashing I cringe. I'm not even sure what cringing entails, but I definitely do it. Sometimes I avoid checking the message for an hour, like a parent trying to let the baby cry itself back to sleep. Except, the phone message never disappears.
My favorite part is when I pick up the phone and hear that the message is some all campus voice mail to remind everyone of the upcoming badminton match up against a highly ranked opponent. Nothing thrills me like an all campus voice mail.

Then I always have to psyche myself up to call people back. As though I'm afraid the conversation is going to go poorly.

M: Hi. I'm Andrew Bertaina calling from American University.
Customer: What the hell is going on over there at the library?
M: I'm sorry sir. How can I help you exactly?
Customer: You can help me by transferring me to your supervisor, so I can get your ass canned.
M: I'm sorry you feel that way.

Actual Conversation:
M: Hi. I'm AB calling from AU ILL.
Customer: Can you help me fix x or y?
M: Sure. I'll send that over.
M: That was so easy.
Customer: What?
M: Nothing.

6:00 P.M. Conduct a brief argument over who is going to cook dinner.

6:30 P.M. Begin cooking dinner together. Feel shame. Compromise is for the losers.

This song is pretty. If I was wearing an eye glass and sitting at a balcony at the opera I would be hailed for having good taste in music. In fact, the song gave me chills performed live. As is, it just sort of seems like I might love Sara Mclachlan. Tomorrow I'll post some Metallica to feel good about myself. Note: I won't do that.