Espresso espensive

    To celebrate my first full day back in Charleston, I ate out. Nothing fancy, but for lunch I had a few hot dogs at the hot dog stand on Glebe St., and for tea I had a scone and root beer (actually I didn't have tea at all). Later in the evening I was feeling a bit gloomy so I went out to the nearest coffee shop and got an espresso to cheer me up. Today's total meal budget came to $11.76 including the little tip I left at the pastry shop. Keeping that accounting in mind, I'm disinclined to eat out regularly, but I've got a soft spot for the espresso. If it weren't so expensive it'd make it into my routine two or three times a day. Alas, the most reasonable espresso in town I've run into is $1.60, which would come up to $24 a week and about $96 a month, if I actually wanted to have my coffee at Caviar and Bananas. Assuming I had my own espresso machine the cost per double would probably come to about 30 cents, but I'd also have no excuse not to indulge on weekends, so I would still end up spending $27 a month on coffee if I kept up the pace and didn't over-indulge. Sadly, that would be an enormous luxury cost, seeing that my income is currently slightly less than survivable until I manage to sneak in a weekend job. This is why I'm making a habit of budgeting everything in my mind now. Still, my parents have been enormously helpful even as I approach the age where I can be rightfully brushed off as a deadbeat. Hopefully my GPA will go up enough for me to accrue some state scholarships and get out of this college debt trap.
    Obviously I haven't updated my diary in half a month now. Personal issues got in the way and the things I had to vent were private and completely unrelated to Charleston. So things have been duly vented to their proper audience. The best outlet has been doodling with my friend Shelby over the break. We see each other so rarely and she always cheers me up. Now that we've both doodled ourselves out on each other (that didn't sound suggestive at all), I'm ready to come back and face the world.