after finishing most of my pizza and throwing away the rest, i checked my voicemail via the cellphone. i returned the call of one of the mortgage brokers who wanted to know how my house financing was going. i called him, left a message on his machine, essentially explaining to him that i've already gone through and decided to go with cambridgeport savings bank for now, but if anything changes, i'd let him know. some people passed me as i was shouting out numbers into the cellphone, "the interest rate is something like 6.6%, compared to the 7% you quoted me on." it was very surreal, because suddenly i realized i was one of them. one of those obnoxious suits who's always on his cellphone talking to his broker or something, spewing forth numbers, annoying as hell. i became what i hated most. and for a brief moment, it felt kind of good in a self-loathing sort of way.
aside: in other home financing news, i've been informed i need three years worth of tax returns for the MHFA loan in order for them to check and see i'm really a first time home owner (how many twentysomethings own more than one property anyway, if any at all?), so i need to find my tax returns for 1999. thing is, i think that year i did it by hand, and i don't think i made any copies either (i know, experts always say to make copies, but what do they know). so i have to go down to the jfk building and to get a copy of my 1999 forms.
i finished my call and put away the cellphone. i then curled up on the bench and scribbled some thoughts into my journal. most of it was disgruntled rantings over my third forfeited weekend where i have to come into the office and work, and a long weekend no less. i don't blame anyone on my team, i'm just sort of unhappy with the situation, that's all. i don't want to be the hero all the time. there's no incentive for me, other than to finish the project so i don't have to work on it anymore ever again. i guess a biweekly paycheck is also some sort of incentive, but lines definitely have to be drawn. i would like to renegotiate my contract.
after work joel asked if i wanted to go to a last minute red sox game with him. unfortunately i had to decline his offer because i thought i was going to go running with eliza. little did i know, while i was still waiting upstairs for everyone to get out of a meeting, the meeting was already over and most everyone had left. close to 7pm i sort of realized this and went downstairs to confirm my suspicions. fortunately, klea was still there and offered me a ride to harvard square because she drove to work this morning. along the way, she invited me out for drinks with julie and dave at shay's in harvard square. she also tried to talk me out of buying my condo, because it was really expensive (almost the same price she pays for her 2 unit house in somerville, and their tenants pay for most of their mortgage) and she was afraid i wouldn't be able to pay the mortgage and live at the same time. ah, don't razzle my buyer's confidence! i think things will work out all right. it'll be rough in the beginning, but everyday i'm more excited about moving to my new place and all the wonderful potential this change will bring.
it took us a long time to find parking, driving around harvard square searching for a spot. i called julie to let her know where we were and what we were doing, leaving a voicemail message. minutes later she called back. i'd like to inform fellow readers that my cellphone was set for vibrate, and i sort of had it nestled near an inappropriate spot on my body. so you can imagine the shrieking that ensued when suddenly my phone was touching me in my inappropriate region. after about 20 minutes worth of looking, we suddenly came across a sweet parking right on church street. while klea went to get money, i went to the rendezvous site. that's where a woman approached me and asked, "do you know how to get to the red line?" "um...do you want bus or train?" i said. she looked confused, then gave a little laugh. "oh no! i meant, the red line bar." i told her i didn't know where that was. but then as i turned the corner, i saw this bar she was talking about.
julie was wearing a costume when i came in, i almost didn't recognize her at first, knew it had to be her because she was sitting next to dave. the costume was for some run she's doing this weekend. originally it was going to be a quick stop to have a drink, but seeing both julie and dave eating large burgers, i decided to order one myself along with a prerequisite glass of coke, no id check necessary.
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what took place: julie's announcement that she recently got a pair of red pants; klea and julie revealing that they find men's hands sexy especially if they're very strong, masculine hands. dave wasn't shy to mention he has sexy feet and hands, and we all compared our hands and i discovered i have large fingernails for hands my size; 
a discussion regarding the location of the new boston ikea store, whether it was going to be in the arsenal mall (wrong, a new target is going there though), the meadowglen mall (julie's favorite mall), and the assembly square mall (circle gets a square); we compared our cellphones, between klea, julie, and myself, we had three different nokia models; we watched the red sox game which was playing on a small tv at the other end of the bar. we couldn't see the score so julie listened to the game on her radio (red sox ended up losing to kansas city); klea and dave periodically leaving the table to go smoke outside; and klea talked about the people in the srm office and said a few things that made me embarassed.
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demonstrating decoy photography: in photo 1, dave shows perfect decoy form, allowing me to capture the drama that's happening behind him. in photo 2 dave shows us what not to do when you're a decoy, which is becoming too much of a distraction, thereby scaring the subjects behind him!