i was at the house stripping paint with my father after i woke up this morning. dare i say it, but stripping paint gives meaning to my seemingly empty life. zuka had come back to the house yesterday (got in with his copy of the house keys) after i left because all the remaining sheetrocks were gone from the kitchen. i hooked up the cable television to keep me company (ah, soothing magical funbox), learned how to make tiramisu and banana creme pie on the food network. i had my mask on today just to be safe, but my hands were really tired after all that manual labor. later in the afternoon my sister drove me (plus my mother and suhan) to salem to visit delande lighting (she went to school in beverly so she knew the area), where erin use to work, to check out some lightolier recessed lights. after getting a lot of my questions answered, i got some printouts and price quotes to take back with me. after dinner, i went to cambridge common to see rebecca off, this being her last week in boston. joel, elias, and elias' girlfriend amanda were all there besides rebecca. later christian showed up, i haven't seen him since i was laid off from screen house many years ago. i nursed a glass of coke before we all disbanded.