i should be sleeping right now. but my guitar was trying on all my dirty clothes and she and all her abandoned outfits are resting so peacefully and i don't want to disturb them..

but sara, why should you be sleeping? don't you always have fridays off?

yeah, i made it so long long ago. so what if i don't have to be at coconuts until ten thirty. i don't want the stress of being at work before a show. but there is no stress at work any more, except for the stress of excessive inactivity and boredom and i can only take the fumes of cleaning solutions so many times a week. but young h�l�ne has me working for her at three. and she was rotten about it, too. i walked in, punched in, said hello to eleni and started thinking about how i only have to be here for four hours and then not again until saturday. i am barely through my five o clock hello's when she begins to ask me for a favor. a "big big big big big big big BIG BIG biG big favor". the colossal size of this favor can mean only one thing. she doesn't want water, she doesn't want me to take a table, she certainly doesn't want to close for me, she wants me to work for her tomorrow. on my day off.

but i'm quick on the rebound, i apologise swiftly, and i move past her towards the safety of sidework with a "you know i have the show blah blah blah" [i know she knows i have the show, she left me a 99 bananas joke on the board*] and without a moment's hesitation, "is there anything we need? rice pudding? tar-tar sauce?" but, like so many times in that place, i turned around and was talking to no one. it's not personal, it's business.

[* 99 jokes is a game played in the show. it is one of many (though a number now diminishing) games i am present for but make no move in. her joke was. '99 bananas walk into a bar. the bartender says, 'we don't serve bananas here. the bananas say 'why not?' the bartender says, 'cause you're not appealing!' so of course, i was attempting to practice 99 jokes. i had to remind darlene several times of what a noun is. many things i picked up i started to try. most faltered out. 99 crackers was funny as soon as i said the first line. i think it ended up with 'because you're in atlanta, dawg' or something.. i was laughing too hard to be clever. one of liz' suggestions was megaphone. i came up with.

99 megaphones walk into a bar, the bartender sticks cotton in his ears and says, 'we don't serve megaphones here'. the sound of 99 angry megaphones collectively going, 'WHY NOOOOTTTT!?' shattered all the glasses in the bar and the bartender says, "that's why."

but it took me two minutes to think of and i couldn't get it out correctly. so that's why i don't do it on stage. hah.]

h�l�ne comes back in and is trying to get me to do to it but i'm assuring her it would be fine if there were only three people, just like i'm sure it'd be fine if we had only two people on the floor. she tells me about how she needs the day to go to melbourne to look for an apartment and says again i should go with her. i told her i figured that's what she needed it for, and she's crazy for thinking i would go, and i was sorry for not working for her, but i need the day to do things because it is my only day off.

she waits a few minutes.

"yeah. well. i was just asking if you would work for me because if you would work for me tomorrow.. i was gonna work a double on saturday so you didn't have to come in."

you underhanded worm. (read: female)

i stared blankly at the space she had just been talking in. friday off. saturday off. friday off where i have to be somewhere at tenthirty, start getting ready at eight, usually stop doing things by six.. or saturday, where i don't get home till five in the morning and then a full day off.. nothing..

"is there anyone working a double on saturday?"

"no, i don't believe so."

"who else is in at three?" aura's in at three.

"aura, what time do you usually get here?" three.

"so i can be first to go and get out of here sometime between five and sixthirty? you bet your oklahoman ass i'll work for you!"

okay. i didn't say that. but i am working for her. and she is from oklahoma. i can say that. and i can say i have saturday off.