It's 10:25 p.m. as I write these opening words, and I'm writing them with a sense of freedom and a distinct lack of urgency. I get to sleep in tomorrow! Lately, if the thought had even crossed my mind to update the 'stake at this hour I'd have turned it away because I just didn't have time, but now that I'm back on Chucktime I have all the time in the world. I don't really even have anything to say tonight, but I'm so pleased at having so much time that I'm saying it anyway simply because I can. I'm like a kid on the first day of summer, but with clearer skin.

Tomorrow won't start for me until the leisurely hour of... Oh, I don't know... 7:00? 8:00? Something like that, something that would be lunchtime on my recent schedule. I won't be slapping the alarm and immediately standing up to keep from going back to sleep, then falling asleep anyway and waking up again as I begin to topple over. I'll get more than four hours of sleep, and then when I wake up fully rested for the first time in weeks I'll still have plenty of time to lounge around before I have to get out of the house. I figure I'll roll out late, have a few cups of coffee, maybe run out to buy and then read the paper, and then I'll start thinking about getting ready for my 10:00 meeting. You have no idea how decadent this plan feels.

And how 'bout that 10:00 meeting? It'll last all of two hours before I'm off the clock again, and in that short span of time I'll make more than I would for 8 hours on the phones at the old job. And that doesn't even take into account the mileage they'll be paying me just to get to the meeting. After that I have another meeting a long drive away from the first one (which means even more mileage), which should take about another two hours, which will mean that in just one day -- and not even a full one at that -- I'll make half a week's pay on the old gig's salary. And I won't even be working in either of these meetings; they're just a prelude to when I start working. Ahhh....

Get me: I'm gloating. Terribly unattractive, I know. It's a character flaw, and I promise I'm going to deal with it.

After all, now I've got time...