Payday!

I got paid today, finally---my first real paycheck in three months! I'd done a little estimating and figured that, after taxes and withholding and whatnot, my paycheck would be about $900. It turns out I was wrong---it's $899 and change. ("Fuck you, Uncle Sam!" I felt like roaring. "You owe me at least three coins!") The money comes just in time for me to pay rent, which will leave me (heavy sigh) $150 to live on for the next fifteen days. Next payday will be cooler. As it is, the money came just in time. I deposited it, and it'll be available tomorrow. Which is great because I'm out of money and almost out of food. In fact, I'm actually completely out of diet soda (which I'm been drinking until I can afford a water filter), and so tonight I'm drinking straight whiskey---a nice joining of desperation and celebration.

In additional celebration, tonight Turner Classic Movies is showing "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" as part of their monthlong Bette Davis festival. (I'm guessing this is the last movie.) About three years ago, when I first fell in love with New York, I saw it in on the big screen in a revival theater in Chelsea with my friend Ryan and a horde of highly appreciative, camp-loving gay men. What a perfect only-in-New-York experience that was! And now what a great night this is! I've come full circle, and I'm totally relaxed. Of course, that may be the Jim Beam Black talking.

By the way, I've decided to start taking the bus to work. It takes longer, but I can sit down the entire time, and I plan to start writing a book of some sort. More on this later.

LATER:

Turns out there are three more Bette Davis movies to come. They're not just bringing their Star of the Moth celebration down to the wire; they're slopping over into the next month. I'm not techinically OCD, but I may have to shut off the TV at midnight just to have traditional closure.