The calm between the storm...

Last night was Friday night. As a 20-something single male, that means I should be out on the town, driving around in a sports car with a disturbingly flexible chick listening to dance music. But that's not where I was - instead, I was in the local Weis supermarket, stocking up on diet soda and lunchmeat.

Friday night is a great night to grocery shopping, because only losers who have nothing better to do go shopping on Friday night, so I can get in and out fast. But it was also one of few times I had to get it done. Today was the first day off I've had in 14 days, and it's also the last I will have for at least that long. Last week, I worked 27 hours of overtime. One day of it was fill-in coverage at one of our grad centers, but the rest was dong my normal job - setting up new computers, reinstalling/updating MacOS, and otherwise getting ready for the influx of new students and faculty at the college I work for.

This time of year always sucks working at a college. But this year is way worse, for a lot of reasons. We have not student workers, so there's more to do. We're replacing a lot more machines than we have in previous years. We have responsibilities we didn't before. Equipment was ordered late. New software that we haven't used before was required, and had issues.

I'm going into work tomorrow for a few hours to set up equipment. I'm guessing I'll probably be staying late several days this week. This weekend is move-in weekend for students - I'll be filling in on phones from 8:30-5 all four days (Friday-Monday). I'll also be doing online chat coverage from 5-9 3 of those days. And that's not including any extra time I need to spend doing my normal job. Also, our helpdesk manager asked if I'd be willing to fill in on phones the next week or two at night.

This is good. I like being busy. I also like making overtime. Between the 27 hours I put in this week, and the 31 I'm scheduled to work next weekend, I'll have made back most of the money I spent repairing the car that I hit last month.

Of course, it's depressing that after all of this work, I'll just be back where I was a month ago, and not any better off. Or at least not much better off. Especially since this will take a toll on my body - no exercise, lots of fast food - not to mention that I feel bad about not spending time with my cat - when I'm home and try to pet her, she bites me, probably because she's mad at me.

I spent my day off the way I spend most summer Saturdays - yard sales in the morning, a couple hours doing stuff around the house (including eBay packing and paying bills), a brief visit to the gym, a trip to Target to stock up on all the stuff I might need in the next few weeks, and then home. I'm going to try to mow the lawn tomorrow morning before work, because I have no idea when I'm going to be around again to mow it.

And I guess I won't be blogging a whole lot in the next few weeks either.