The grind is getting to me.

Tacking on an extra 25 hours to your regular full-time week can really make you feel overworked. After I get done with my regular job on Friday, I slap on an apron and head over to the cafe to work a full closing shift. Then, I work another full closing shift on Saturday night. And I top off my weekend of work by working an 8 hour mid-day shift on Sunday. How do I get through it?

It's the grinds.

There's coffee beans and grinds everywhere. I'm smelling coffee, I'm breathing coffee, there's coffee dust in the air. I'm convinced that my body is absorbing caffeine through osmosis. That's how I get through the weekend - the grind is getting to me.

Another thing about working at a cafe - there's a lot of cute customers that come by for coffee, but the difficulty level at flirting is pretty high. The problem is bringing into conversation the fact that this isn't my real job. That's not really something you can just blurt out...

"Hi, I'd like a medium latte."

"Sure, no problem. So how's the studying?"

"Oh, it's hard. But finals are almost done..."

"That's good. ...uh...I'm glad I don't have finals at my REAL JOB, where I'm an Associate Art Director of two magazines."

See? Not very smooth.