Okay, this is just insane. Three times in the past ten days, I've been up at 7am or so. Four times, I've been up before 8:30. I had been assuming the sun just started in the middle of the sky, but apparently it takes a while for it to get there. This is severely disrupting my slacker lifestyle.

First, it was drum tracks for Lindsie a week and a half ago. Then, a job interview out in Arlington Heights. And yesterday, jury duty. This time, my panel actually was called, so we were escorted into a courtroom where a judge talked to us in very, very simple language about our responsibilities and whatnot, then proceeded to question us in random order. Basically, there were two groups of six each, and once both groups were filled, they had their jury. Lucky for me, once you're in the pipeline for one group, you can't cross over. So if you're seventh in line, and all six people in front of you qualify to serve, you're done, even if the other group rejects two, or even three, prospective jurors. That was more or less what transpired yesterday, so I wound up not hearing about a car accident way the hell in the southwest suburbs three years ago and got to leave by noon.

Today was the other pre-8:30 day, as I was handed what I like to call a "data wrangling" project late last week. This sort of thing had always been part of Plan B, except that the dearth of work in the last six months had me doubting that I could count on it. That seems to no longer be the case. If a one-off project and a proposal turn into an actual pipeline, I'll be able to breathe much easier on the voiceover and musical efforts, as well as keep a hand in activities that actually make me think, or at least think of something other than "what would sound good coming into this chorus?"

Meanwhile, the aforementioned slacker lifestyle was reinforced by a nice two-hour break this afternoon for the Manchester United - Real Madrid Champions League match. Wow, that was quite a game. Tommy Smyth pointed out that United actually got the 2-0 result they needed from the moment David Beckham, who was kept out of the starting lineup in a decision that the English papers will be tearing apart, entered the game. However, the balance of match belonged to Ronaldo for Madrid, enough that United winning the battle didn't win the war. Now United have to face U.S. keeper Kasey Keller in league play over the weekend, and if they falter, their hopes of any hardware this season could be dashed completely.