they weren't working on my project however. the only other person from my team was todd, who was busy testing the cd's downstairs. i did briefly chat with eliza who was hiding at home and was online using a temporary aim account, asked her a bunch of questions about her cellphone and her wireless plan. with so many people using cellphones, it's very easy to do research and to get good advice. originally i thought today would be a simple strategic come-in-and-go-out sort of day, i'd be done by noontime, or maybe 3pm at the latest. no such luck, i ended up staying the whole day, a full day from 9am to 5pm. todd and i got all the cd's burned on time with less than 20 minutes to spare for him to deliver the cd's to copley square for shipping. all i can say is thank god we had the 24x qps burner attached to my machine and the 20x yamaha attached to the mac dan's been using recently. the qps finally burned at 24x (it probably was the driver extension that i installed which did the trick), estimating about a minute per cd, versus the 5-7 minutes it'd take us before (when my own 8x provided a helping hand). i finished off a few more burns for ourselves and left the office with scott the only person remaining at work. i went downstairs to grab my running sneakers and proceeded to drive home.
when i left work i realized i haven't had breakfast or lunch yet. even though i had half a leftover salami and provolone sandwich in the refrigerator at work, i didn't want it because the bread was really hard and i had already scratched up the roof of my mouth during this whole week gnawing at these difficult office sandwiches.
driving down binney street i drove right past sam, walking in the direction of the t station. internal conflict! should i go straight home after an exhausting 8 hour weekend work day, or do i swing the car around and give him a ride? before i knew what i was doing, i was turning the car around and going back to pick him up. i figured if our roles were reversed, he'd do the same. there is however one problem, as sam revealed to me after a few minutes riding in the car: he doesn't know how to drive, doesn't have a license. it's rare for me to meet people who don't know how to drive. i grew up in a suburb culture where as soon as you turned 16, that week you'd go down to the registry of motor vehicles to get your driving permit. by 16.5, you'd have a legal license. but i could see how it happens. for instance, if you lived in the city, you'd probably never have a need to drive a car. as if the not being able to drive thing wasn't a big enough secret, sam also told me he can't ride a bicycle either. i dropped him off at harvard square and proceeded to drive home for real, maneuvering the vehicle in a haphazard way, avoiding pedestrians (it was really crowded in harvard square, everyone was out because it was a nice 60's degrees day), and narrowly avoiding going down a one way street. it's a miracle i made it back home in one piece, but to be honest, driving around was quite therapeutic, though i secretly wished i was on a motorcycle instead of in a car.
sam mentioned something in the car, how because i'm a salary employee, i don't make anymore money working on the weekends, or working more hours in general. i jokingly said, "know what sam? i do it because i care," and pointed at my heart. i think a lot of people at the company make personal sacrifices for the sake of the work. working long hours with no complaints about reimbursement is one of them, or maybe using personal equipment or software that the company doesn't have in order to finish a project. so that's why sometimes i resent the fact that we're treated like a number, how sometimes things are very by the book when there should be more grey areas. if the company's going to be managed like a real company with definite boundaries and structure and rules, then rules have to be set up for things like overtime or using personal equipment/software. as much as the company has rules to protect itself, employees must also have rules to protect ourselves, sort of like an employees' bill of rights. i still would rather prefer the old way, where things were done with a handshake and a wink.
when i got home i checked the answering machine and there was a message from manny asking me if i was interested in having wings tonight. this was an opportunity to finally get something to eat. i called him up and drove down to his place in medford, where we then went down to wing works to pick up our 24 pieces of medium wings along with a side order of onion rings. 
we talked about cellphone plans as well, along with condominium buying (manny was the first person i knew who bought his own place). he told me of his trip to london starting tomorrow, a stack of library borrowed london travel guides on his dining table. 
i haven't been to manny's place for quite some time now, probably over a year. he showed me his elephant statues rack, and demonstrated the sliding ikea lounging chair with the stylized ottoman. we had a clock to beat because he had to go to easter mass at 7pm at the catholic church next to where he lived. 
even though he usually doesn't eat an hour before going to church, he was able to rationalize that easter mass is different because the service is much longer. i was doing fine with my 12 wings until i balked with just two more wings to go. i finally just sort of chewed on them a little bit and tossed them away on the pile of discarded chicken bones lining the lid of the styrofoam box. approaching 7pm, manny when to church while i hopped back into my car and drove home.
i saw a great movie on showtime tonight, the believer about a jewish neo-nazi. i completely didn't plan on watching it, but i came across it while channel surfing and couldn't help but to watch the rest of the movie.