So this is what it's like to have Saturday off...

I had something unusual today - a Saturday off in Baltimore.

About 2 years ago, I got an email from our department's manager asking if anyone was interested in regular "night and Saturday" overtime. At the time, I was working night shift already, but I volunteered for Saturdays. It turned out that the grad student they had working on Saturdays and at night at one of our satellite campuses had graduated, and they were replacing him with normal employees working overtime.

At first I hated it - I had no idea what I was doing, didn't know anyone, ect. But I've grown to like it -it's pretty quiet, most of the problems are of the "hit this button" or "the cable was unplugged" variety, I can do my homework, and I get time and half, which helps my "buy a house someday" fund.

I get holidays off, but most of the time I'm in NJ visiting the family on them.

But I recently got the summer schedule, and there were 2 non-holiday weekends we were closed -one of them being today. Other days have shorter hours. This has it's disadvantages - less money for Mad Anthony. But it does get me to have some of the other thing I'm always short of, time. I'll be visiting my parents the other weekend, but this one I stayed in Baltimore for.

I had a ton of stuff I hoped to get done. The biggest of these was cleaning out the Closet of Death - a closet that I keep a bunch of eBay stock, out-of-season clothing, and stuff I don't know what to do with. I'm hoping to get it organized, get some of the junk that's in my room into the closet, and then get the rest of my room organized.

I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked to, and I still have a bunch to do, but it looks better. Once I get enough stuff out of my room, I have a Baker's Rack from Target that I intend to use as a computer workbench. But that's a long way off - there is still a bunch of stuff I need to find room for that is currently located where I want to put the rack. I also have a ton of stuff I took out of the closet that I need to find a place for, a bunch that needs to go up on ebay, and some stuff to drag off to the trash.

But even though I didn't spend as much time cleaning a I imagined I would in my delusional dreams, I also got to do things I don't normally do, like get the early Sunday edition of the Baltimore Sun and read the sale ads while drinking coffee and eating a Dunkin' Donuts muffin - something that was a Saturday ritual for me until I started working on Saturdays. I got to go the gym, which usually opens after I'm at work and closes before I get back.

So it's nice not working on Saturday. But I doubt I'll feel that way when I get my next paycheck and it doesn't have any overtime on it...