I've realized the best thing about this game: You can play for 2 minutes or 12 hours and still make progress, unlike Civ where when you sit down you know you want to dedicate a fair amount of time for it. Occasionally I'll turn on San Andreas for only 5 minutes- go up on a rooftop, pop some rival gang members, scoop up the ammo and cash, (and occasionally increase my pistol skill- hitman here I come), go home and save. Or I'll go driving around until I find a tag or two and that's all I'll do for a few days until I have free time to really sit down and play some missions.
One gripe- I'm trying to do this without cheats or hints (ok, I peeked a little) so I didn't know that the dancing side game in the Alhambra dance club doesn't do anything for you. Pool at least give you cash, playing basketball increases muscle, I thought dancing might increase sex appeal, so I played for a while, unlocked a few more difficult songs, and nothing. Maybe it factors into dating? I haven't gotten to that yet.