The Lord taunts me. Maybe because I don't believe in Him. Sorry 'bout that, but HEY! QUIT IT!

I am now officially a Starving Grad Student. That would be fun enough, but in In August, ignoring the usual "rent food utilities", I was hit with The Perfect Financial Storm: insurance bills, prescriptions bills, school enrollment fees, book fees, credit card bills (I *swore* I'd never use another credit card, but during my depression... I bought things. 'cuz I wanted them. Also, there was no logic available to me at the time.), gym membership renewal, monthly therapist bill, individual training bill, prescription cat food and meds refill, and car repair bill.

The car repair was *especially* funny - the day I was ready to place an ad to sell the car, I started it up to take it to get detailed - and every single light on the dashboard lit up. Check Engine. ABS. Oil. Rear Lights. Brakes. NONE of these had been lit the day before. Off the car goes to the mechanic. It's the alternator. More bills.

So, yeah, needing money big-time. I started looking around for things to sell on craigslist or Ebay.

I have been searching for a job. One possible job which is in the early stages of maybe happening is kinda cool: the university often has classes taught once or twice a week by students who have expertise in a certain non-academic subject, such as judo (phys. ed. credit), or oragami (humanities credit), or scent, perfume, and candlemaking (fine arts credit). I proposed the idea of a ballroom dance class to both the phys. ed. and dance departments. The chair of the dance department was a snooty bitch hesitant, but the phys. ed. chair was all over it and wants to have a sit-down. The bad news is that this couldn't begin until next semester at the earliest, which means January, *if* it goes forward. The good news is that a student who runs a class becomes adjunct faculty for that semester and receives pay--usually something between $1,200 and $1,500.

Preliminary woot, right?

Then, within the last week after posting my car ad on craigslist and in the Chicago Reader, I've had several interested parties contact me. More preliminary woot, yeah?

And then.

As you may recall, I recently posted that I have a goofy-ass crush on my (married) Linguistics prof. After class today, he pulled me aside and said "Hey, listen, I know you're great with Macs and you know Microsoft Office and stuff. So, I've got this big research project I'm doing and I really need a research assistant and you were the first person I thought of. It would involve a lot of data entry of piles of interviews and papers in my office, but the department pays research assistants really well--about $1,500 a project. This would be the first of several projects if you're interested, plus you'd be credited in papers in academic journals, and it would reinforce what you're learning in class. AND, it'll help you learn what to expect from papers written by high-school students, so you'd have a big head-start on that. Wanna come hang out with me and make money?"

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The icon says it all.

I think I will work on several 'five things' responses tonight to take my mind off it all.