I wish I weren't dogsitting.

Because this morning I woke up early yet again. And I wasn't so tired until around 8 am, when I took a little siesta before heading out to work. I was craving a Diet Mountain Dew -- preferrably Diet Mountain Dew Code Red -- really bad. The only time I drink the stuff is when I was in college and extremely tired. Or else when I was tired driving back and forth from P-town and Eau Claire. Sadly, the coffee place on my way to work didn't have the Diet version -- they had the "real" stuff, but I don't like all the calories. So no Diet Mountain Dew for me. :(

In other news, I have many days of vacation! I am taking a day off in May when Katie will be here. I'm taking a day off in June to fly up to Providence, Rhode Island to go see my friend Jenny. And I'm taking seven days off in July -- stretching out over 12 and a half-ish days -- to go back to Wisconsin. I am sooooo looking forward to July now. No more Maryland questions, just fun up in the UP and then some travel to Eau Claire and Minneapolis/St. Paul, and more than likely a day trip down to Milwaukee to see the ILL gang and etc. at Marquette and then a trip up to Appleton to see Ellen and the mall. Yay. I am excited. And real pasties! Yum.

My enthusism for Maryland usually isn't this forced -- I think it's the tiredness that is getting to me. That and I'm still interested in living in Chicago. I should have applied for the job at the Newberry Library, even if it was essentially to be a genealogy librarian. I just see movies set there and it seems so nice. And there are so many very nice bloggers from Chicago. And they even have a community of sorts. Doesn't seem to be the case in Baltimore. Oh well, I've heard they're pretty far behind the times in most things. I would definitely say so with coffee shops. They don't really have a very wide-spread local chain. Just lots of Starbucks. What I wouldn't give to have some Alterra coffee. Or sit at the Alterra by the lake and enjoy the breeze of Lake Michigan and a cup of coffee. Sigh. Sometimes I'm surprised that I do miss Milwaukee. But I do.

Oh well, it's almost time for me to go home. I'm all by myself, so I'm booking out of here at five.

Hasta luego.