i worked a lot all week, many many hours, riding circles around downtown, which i now know quite well. 701 park ave, the hospital (3b ortho). 1530 7th street (call 35609 on the phone to the left of the elevator to get in). 1310 la salle, a hair salon. 800 nicollet (25th floor, with a view of the whole city). 527 marquette, the rand tower. 811 glenwood, the fancy modern furniture store. 315 washington, deja vu- a strip club. the best tippers are the strip clubs, the lonely hotel clerks, and people just hanging out in their apartments. the worst tippers are the well-groomed business people with $50 orders.

it was 90 degrees all week and humid, and i had to wear the black t-shirt with the store logo, and jeans because i don't have any suitable shorts. i walked out of the store into the oven and got on my bike and within a minute was soaked in sweat from head to toe, but i kept riding, throught the gridlock and construction and stupid pedestrians that won't get out of the way, and stupid cars that are too slow and big. but on my bike i can weave through the whole mess, between cars, up on the sidewalk, wrong way on a one way, through red lights, yellow lights, dodging cars, flying past the lines of cars during rush hour. hand over the bag, get the money, savor the air-conditioning for a few seconds, and then back on the street, to the store, get the next order. or, thankfully, there is no next order and i stand around and cool off and let the sweat dry.

my personal contest with myself is never to touch my feet to the ground until i get there. if i have to stop, i ride in a circle, or go between or through the obstacle. red lights are my nemesis. i usually just sail right through, or slow down until the light changes-- or if i have to, i balance, teetering precariously, until i'm about to fall over. putting my foot down is the ultimite defeat and i lean on my handlebars gasping for breath.

when i see real bicycle messangers, the ones delivering important documents and such, i feel slightly ashamed to be delivering a lowly sandwich to some lazy person who can't walk 10 blocks to the store.

i made about $140 this week in tips but spent some of it on food and coffee and a new cd already, so now i have $94. i'm going to put it in the bank, along with my paychecks, but i make more in tips every day. it feels like such a relief to be able to buy a $1 cup of coffee and not have it be my last dollar, or have to worry that i won't have enough for food. all the coffee i want!! what could be better...

gabe got a job too, at the astor cafe in st. anthony main, by the river. i spent most of the week when i wasn't working lying around the house complaining about how exhausted i was. but on wednesday we went over to isabelle's new house with seth and jade and dream boy, whose name is lance. we got in a heated discussion about whether technology will make books extinct, and other maddening ideas. lance is on the technology side. but he turned out to be really interesting and i liked him a lot, and it's so cute that he and jade found each other. and we all jumped on the trampoline and ate burnt veggie burgers.