Arthur - Not what the schedule board is meant to be used for

Elizabeth and her boyfriend Raymond Kim have a great big dry-erase scheduling thing on their refrigerator, which I presume is so that they can find time to spend together, or at least know where the other is if there's some question. Over the last couple of days, I've been using it to avoid dealing with him until I absolutely have to.

It's surprisingly easy. Someone managing a movie theater is just as likely to work nights as days, as I did the first three days this week. He, I deduce from the law books on the shelf, and certificates on the wall, is a lawyer who only this year graduated from law school and passed the bar. My lawyer friends from my old life often complained that the schedule for a new associate at a downtown firm was brutal, with the expectation being sixty or seventy billable hours a week. So most days, I've been leaving for a shift that starts at five or five-thirty PM well before he comes home, getting in at one-thirty. At that point, I turn on the TV (after discovering that they have the Extra Innings package and a DVR, I've been watching A's games on delay), fall asleep watching it, and still be out when Raymond leaves in the morning. He kissed my forehead as he was leaving Tuesday morning, which made me jerk enough to give him a bloody lip. He hasn't tried it the past couple days.

Elizabeth's job isn't terribly difficult - make sure the concession stand has plenty of candy, collect and count money after each set of shows goes in, cover whenever someone has to take a break, and lock up at the end of the night. I'm kind of lucky that everyone wears nametags; they may suddenly be wondering why Liz is a little distant, but I don't see that I'm looking like an idiot.

I met the Zoe Huston who called Elizabeth Sunday. She wanted to know what was up; she said she's known "me" since junior high and this is the first irresponsible thing she can remember. I said I ate some bad seafood and was sick as a dog for a week. Well, first I tried the truth, but it just seemed to sail right past her.

Raymond will probably be back in a half hour or so; hopefully I'll have come up with a plan by then.

-Art