Today was the first day of Spring quarter at UCSD. I had two classes today, one at 9 AM, one at 3 PM. The five hours between classes is going to be annoying. At least five hours is substantial, so I can leave and come back if I need to attend to errands. But with a twenty-mile commute each way, I'll have to keep myself occupied on campus for the most part. At least it means I'll have plenty of time to study. Then Tuesday and Thursday I work all day, then wait for a 6:30 class.

It's especially frustrating that the course offerings are so paltry this quarter. It's bad enough having these time slots, but when the classes do little to advance me towards graduation, it really eats me up. The only class that clearly brings me closer to a degree is Meteorology, which looks to be as fun as it sounds, so God help me there. Words and their vicissitudes sounds like it could be interesting. The professor, judging from the first class, will either be fascinatingly eccentric, or simply maddening. I suppose I'll tough it out.

Going to grab a late-night bite to eat with my recently unemployed friend tonight. Calls me up tonight asking to borrow a not insubstatial sum of money. I'd seen it coming, but wasn't looking forward to it. He's my friend, and he's getting the money (it's not that much money, not enough that I'll miss it for a month, but substatial enough that if he welches on me, it'll hurt). He's loaned me similar sums back in my early gambling days, and I've loaned him money before. If he hadn't bounced a check to me before, and misled me in the past as to when previous loans would be repaid, I wouldn't think much of it. But I just worry that this won't be his last request. Of course, I feel sorry for him, but he was making a substantial amount of money for the last three years (a teacher's salary is actually quite substantial, if one has no dependents), and he'd been talking of quitting his job for some months, so should have been saving up. Oh, well.