Okay so it's 11am on Monday morning and I'm fueling up with a cup of coffee that requires me to set the coffee maker to 2 cups in order to fill it. I never used to be a coffee drinker, I don't know that I would qualify as one even now. I've always been rather proud of the fact that I made it through four years of undergrad and an entire M.A. degree without coffee, except as an occasional social activity. However, in the past month coffee has become my dear friend. Granted coming so late to coffee as a means to alertness I can still get by with one cup for an entire day, but that one cup makes a world of difference.
You see I'm currently in the process of studying for a big test I have to take in November. I've been preparing since this past spring, but it's crunch time now and the ability to spend hours at a time studying without falling asleep is crucial to my success.
In addition to constant studying I have two part time jobs, I'm planning a wedding for my little sister's best friend who is like my other little sister, applying to doctoral programs for the fall of 2011 and attempting to maintain at a least a small semblance of a social life.
The wedding is October 9th, so it will be a relief when that is over. You see this all started with me offering to do the center pieces and somehow ended with me planning, well, everything. I believe the hall officially has me listed as the wedding planner. The bride whom I have known her entire life and love like a sister is currently in AZ and her mother's health has not been good for the last year, so I'm happy to be able to do this for their family, but it is definitely contributing to my stress levels.
I like both of my jobs, but having two part time jobs is stressful because you're constantly juggling your schedule. And even though almost by definition you need to have more than one part time job, each part time job you have tends to need you for the same hours because lets face it weekends are when most retail businesses need to most help. My first job is at a large corporate bookstore, which for legal reasons I don't think I'm allowed to name in a personal blog, so lets just say it's a Michigan based store and assume we all know what I'm talking about. My second job is at a small wine shoppe which only just opened this spring and I was lucky enough to get my foot in the door just as they were opening.
I really like my job at the bookstore, the customers are more often than not intolerable, but I really like the people I work with. I've worked in a couple of other retail stores before and by far my co-workers at the bookstore are the most interesting. They like to read (should be a given if you work in a bookstore, but you never do know), they're intelligent, and creative. This works nicely with my attempt to have a social life as I actually enjoy hanging out with my coworkers outside of work. Several of the people I work with at the bookstore are artists, my friend Katherine in particular is amazing and everyone should visit her website killmonkies.com. Her merchandise page in particular is great, she gave a couple of people at work her necklaces and now the store is practically a front for selling her jewelry, so check her out. She's also a very talented writer.
The wine shoppe is fine too, a bit more boring, but I'm happy to have the money so I can't complain
Anyway I am now done with my coffee and it is time to get to studying. It's Poe today so that at least will be fun, I like a good bit of Poe in the autumn as it gets me in the mood for Halloween.
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