here's roughly how I've spent the past two weeks:

Monday-Friday: wake up at 6am, stretching and treadmill for 30 minutes, shower, make lunch, go to temp job. get home around 6pm, sit for an hour doing nothing, eat dinner from 7-8pm (it really does take a whole hour for this since old folks are involved), GRE studying from 8pm-10pm (I am comically bad at math these days), stretch and sit-ups and push-ups, bed around 11pm. later on Friday nights. yes, the excitement level is high.

Saturdays and Sundays can involve a combination of studying, television, and escaping from the house, depending on the circumstances. however, the most recent Saturday (ie, yesterday) involved two parties: one, a birthday party for my 6 year old cousin; two, a party for people my age.

the birthday party was one of the most exhausting events I've attended in recent memory, mostly because it was at a toy store with a Chuck E. Cheese-variety play/party area, but with educational and kid-friendly activities instead of skee-ball and whack-a-mole. when I arrived, with Erin and her son, Erin and I stood dumbstruck for the first ten minutes, just taking in the insanity of around 100 kids under 10 years old running rampant with their sometimes pregnant mothers and always beleaguered-looking fathers in tow. but we soon took refuge with our relatives in the abandoned party room, which functioned as a house for eating and present unwrapping. the present unwrapping was the best part of the party for me since I always like watching little kids open presents. and Lily was so cute about it, she'd open any card first to see who'd given her the gift, attempting to read her classmate's scrawled signature, and at one point handing a card to an employee of the party place, politely asking, "I cannot read, can you tell me what this says?" sometimes kids are cute.

I was completely bushed after getting home from that party, so I napped before Erin came to pick me up for dinner before the big person party. dinner was with a few of her coworkers and it was fine. during dinner I developed a crush on one particular coworker of Erin's, but of course he has a girlfriend who is very cool and nice (we even got along so well that she peed in front of me in the bathroom after I clandestinely provided her with a ciggie). of course. but that didn't stop me from subtly flirting with him, or trying to bribe him to do stupid things for cash after I'd gotten soundly soused. in my state of inebriation I thought it was amusing to slur things like, "go climb that ladder over there. what do you mean, 'no??' COME ON!!! I'll give you dollar." but now I realize it was probably really obnoxious and unnecessary. what can I say? I'm just a natural charmer. and then I took three hits off a pipe (dumb) and was relegated to drinking water for the rest of the night, which, in retrospect, was a really good thing. all this staying in alone and not drinking every single weekend has really given me a pesky thirst for toxins once they're in my grasp and I'm out from under the gparents' potential gaze. ahh well. I yam what I yam.

in other news, I went on 3 interviews this past week. so far I've gotten one offer. it would be a really morally gratifying place to work, however, they're only offering $12/hour and I simply can't settle for that little. so it's fingers crossed for the other two places I interviewed. one is slightly related to my last job, and the other is for an organization that is so The Man it's not even funny. but I needs cash. and so, I am a whore for hire. but a pricey whore. and that's really all that matters.

I feel like I've probablly repeated myself in here, but I can't be bothered to double-check that. on a random note, we had chili for dinner and now all I can taste or smell is onions and chili taste. it's making me a little nuts. chili is not my relaxing bedtime smell of choice. on another random note, I still really miss Chicago.