June 18, 2002 | 9:43 AM

The reason I decided to get a second job for the summer is that I want to be able to decorate my apartment and purchase all the things I �need� for it (new record player, framed posters, shower curtain, etc.) without putting myself in the poor house.

So I got a gig working at a non-profit organization that promotes baroque and classical music. It�s just a couple of nights a week and I am proud that I have not faltered in my quest to never again work anywhere the mission of which is solely to make money. I am very excited to be a part of this association though, and I really thank my lucky stars that I have had such outstanding good luck since I left The Stupid Company as far as jobs are concerned.

My first night at my new summer job was yesterday. The evening consisted of sitting in a comfortable chair, snacking on pretzels and blue corn chips, listening to Bach, Beethoven, Mendelsohn, and Mozart, betwixt and between hearing a lecture on baroque and classical music given by one of Boston�s leading music historians.

I got paid to do this.

I would have gone for free.

No scratch that�I would have paid to listen to this guy talk. He was amazing.

I cannot believe how lucky I am that this job is so fucking awesome. The only thing that worries me is that all the other employees there are classical musicians or scholars and I happen to know an OK decent amount about classical music because my father was a huge fan and because I took a couple college courses, but I don�t have nearly the breadth of knowledge that these people have. When they would get into conversations about different composers, they would mention all of these ridiculously obscure people I had never even heard of and would speak in musical language that I couldn�t understand. It was fascinating and also kind of scary.

When my father was alive, there was always music playing in our house. If it wasn�t the Beatles it was Dizzy Gillespie or Beethoven.

My taste in �classical� music tends more toward the romantic period�Chopin, Schostokoitch, Schuman, Debussey. All those dreamy eyed codgers. Although I love Beethoven as well.

Anyway, after work I took a walk in the pouring rain while listening to Tom Waites Swordfish Trombones. It was almost 10:00 and pitch black out, except for when lightening would slash across the sky.

I arrived home tired and satisfied and made myself a cup of tea and passed out watching Law & Order.

It was indeed a very good night.