Spare Change

Yesterday I spent the whole day cleaning and moving us out of our summer house sit, then went with to Walmart with Paul on his nightly craft-services run for his current film at school. (Craft services is the snacks table on a film set.) Per the list he was given, we bought probably twenty-five 2-liter jugs of cola and Gatorade. That's a liter of high-fructose flavored liquid for every person on set.
After that, we stopped at Albertsons to visit the Coinstar machine. This is a machinge that guzzles all your change, counts it for you, and gives you cash. Normally the fee for this counting service is around 7%, which is almost enough to make me take my mom's advice and go get the little paper rolls from the bank and count it up myself. But NOW they've got this deal where they don't take any fee, if you are willing to take your cash in the form of an Amazon gift voucher. No problem--for students, 'tis the season to buy lots of books. Paul empties his pockets every night on whatever flat surface is nearest, so my bag-o-change was hefty. Going to the Coinstar is like opening up my piggy bank when I was a kid--it's a complete mystery how much you'll have. In this case, when all the clicking noises stopped, the screen showed $110! Definitely the most exciting part of my day.