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if i close my eyes i can fall asleep in an instant. why? because i'm just going on fumes tonight, i am beyond tired. i had one of those really long days.

it all started last night, when i went to bed at 4am in the morning. i was already pretty tired to begin with, so when i lay down on my bed, i went out like a light. 2 hours later i was back up again. i had to drive my father to chinatown where he was taking a morning bus to new york city. after i dropped him off, instead of going back home to catch up on my sleep, i went to the office instead.

i parked the car in one of the srm reserved parking spaces (reserved for bosses, not for regular employees, unless you happen to be coming in during the weekend so you can work 40+ sans overtime pay) and stood out on binney street admiring the early morning sunrise. "hey!" i heard somebody shouting behind me. i decided to ignore whoever it was. "hey!" the voice shouted again. i turned around to see a man looking at me. i deliberating walked slowly towards him. "are you an employee of biogen?" he asked me in an accusatory tone of voice. "no," i said, interjecting a dramatic pause, "but i work at srm," pointing to the building with my thumb. "i came in early today to work," i added. "oh, okay! what were you doing just standing there?" he asked, less accusatory, slightly embarassed. "i was just taking some photos," i replied. he went back to his guard duty inside the building (surrounded by security monitors), i turned around and proceeded to walk around the building to the upstairs office. god, it's just too damn early to get yelled at! i can totally understand why he did it though, i was pretty suspicious, better be safe than sorry, but still, it just started off my very early morning saturday work day on the wrong foot.

i went into the office and felt the twinge of nostalgia. just like old times! nobody in the dark office, just my little work area in the corner illuminated by monitor glow and broken desklamp. it felt good to be so early at work with nobody around, very calming - at least that's how i rationalized coming in to work on a saturday morning at 7am. i started the work day nice and slow, went to the bathroom to enjoy a magazine, came out and dispensed a bottle of ginger ale from the restocked soda machine, moved my venus flytrap to the windowsill so it could get some real sun (still digesting that fly), downloaded some new tunes from audiogalaxy (i was in an xtc sort of mood today), and started debugging the broken code.

4 hours later todd arrived at the office, and an hour after that we had our cd's ready to be shipped out. i wasn't no time in quickly shutting down my computers and leaving the office to go back home so i resume my weekend, my life.

at home i toaster ovened a pizza and watched the first playoff game between the new jersey nets and the indiana pacers. the pacers ended up winning in jersey. i'd love to see the nets go down in the first round, which would leave the celtics on top in the eastern division. celtics against the sixers could be a battle, but i'm pretty confident in the c's and if they can defeat the sixers in the first round, i believe it's smooth sailing the rest of the way for the celtics, at least eastern conference wise.

after lunch i went to lie on the bed and watch the second game of a triple nba header this afternoon. it wasn't long before i drifted into unconsciousness. it was 3pm.

at 6pm i got a phone call. i was pretty angry, and when i checked the clock, i was thinking to myself, "who the hello would be calling me at 6am in the morning?" it was my friend gary, just calling to chat. "are you sleeping?" he asked. "yes, i am," i replied with my eyes closed, voice groggy. apparently he didn't get the message, and started to talk some more instead of apologize profusely and let me get back to sleep. being too polite, i didn't tell him, "gary good bye i'm going back to sleep!" but instead i laid down and talked, hoping he'd soon release me from our dialogue so i could go back to bed. our conversation did end, but only because i had another call coming through call waiting. it was my friend manny, asking if he could bring over my surprise gift from london and asking if i wanted to get some dinner. he came over with my gifts, a london underground t-shirt and several containers of chocolate covered bugs. i ate a chocolate covered cricket to show him i wasn't squeamish about eating bugs.

we went to the midwest grille on cambridge street for the brazilian meat buffet. there was a 20-30 minute wait, we arrived without reservations (that's how guys do things). we got the special meat buffet ($20/person), whereby waiters brandishing various meats on long metal skewers walk around the restaurant asking people if they'd like to try the pork loin or the lamb cutlet or the beef steak or the italian sausage, etc. their meats are very tasty, albeit a little too much seasoning with the salts, but nevertheless, just the perfect grille flavoring. it goes without saying that i ate a lot of meat tonight. we ended our meals with their only dessert selection, caramel covered flan ($4.50/each, pricey). the flan wasn't too good i thought, too hard. DURING DESSERT MY NEWLY FIXED NIKON 950 BROKE AGAIN! it started to make that horrible racketing sound i know and love so well. the bad news is my digital camera is broken again, but the good news is since i only recently had it fixed, it's still under the 180 days repair service warranty, and i can just send it back t nikon factory in melville, new york and get it repaired for free (as well as they should, the camera obviously wasn't fixed very well to begin with if it's breaking again).

manny drove me back home, where i immediately rush into the bathroom, the latest copy of entertainment weekly in my hand. it seems like everytime i have brazilian food, i end up getting sick afterwards. my brazilian eating days will be on an indefinite leave of absence. i can take a hint, my stomach just doesn't agree with brazilian cuisine. maybe it's the high meat content.