Oh, fine, I'll get a job.

At 8 a.m. tomorrow, I will tap on the glass of the Barnes and Noble down the road and start my new career in retail by shadowing the manager as she opens the in-store Starbucks.

Yes, after a five-year hiatus plagued by journalism, I'm back in the coffee shop smock, brewin java.

I dropped off a few applications today and heard back from Barnes and Noble about half an hour later. (On a side note, if you're looking for part-time work, now's the time.) The guy practically hired me before asking how to pronounce my name. I'll start at $7 an hour, which is less than a third my old wage, but still better than their starting wage of $6.25. They gave me some credit for "related experience."

Oh, somewhere my pride is stinging a bit from dropping from news management to retail grunt, but:

1. I actually look forward to working without being a manager. There's something zen about simply taking orders and clocking out.
2. This obviously is temporary. The Athens paper said today they expect to make a decision in the next two days. I can't say I'm overconfident I'll get it, but it would be nice. I'm also supposed to be receiving a packet to do a critique of the Poughkeepsie, N.Y., paper. If they like it, they'll fly me out to interview for assistant city editor.
3. It's not so bad to say you work at B&N. That's one of those places that seems to hire hipsters and down-on-their-luck intelligentsia. Plus, I get a 30% discount and can borrow any book to read at home for free.
4. There's one thing that's a lot more shameful than taking on a retail job: Not doing a damn thing and waiting for a magic pot of money to land in your lap.

So anyway, I'm pretty stoked. If nothing else, I get some more coffee shop experience for my eventual business endeavor. And I can apparently catch up on some reading.