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today's one man show involved three costume changes and me running around the town of cambridge.

this is how i wake up in the mornings: not from my cellphone substituting as an alarm clock, but it's usually from a phone call. i have no phone in my bedroom so when my local landline phone rings, i have to jump out of bed and into the kitchen where the nearest phone is located. this is usually enough to jar me awake because in a small empty condo the ringing of the phone echoes loudly. this morning at about 11am it was the boston globe calling to ask if i want to subscribe to the papers. i handled it pretty well, i was polite despite the fact that i wanted nothing more than to scream into the receiver at the woman on the other end for disturbing my precious sleep.

around noon i had my first costume change, got into my running clothes. it around freezing temperature outside, but that's nothing, i've ran in 20 degrees temperature before, so this was child's play. it didn't matter that my body still ached from my weekend moving, i was determined to run today, pain or no pain. it'd been exactly one month since i last ran (with eliza), and without a running partner, it was easy to slack off when i wanted to. it was a pretty weak outing, i ran to the charles river, across the jfk bridge, then over the eliot bridge, and back. i'd run for about half a mile, then walk, then run for another half mile, then walk again. i didn't feel like pushing myself, and i've lost that runner's edge that i used to have, that drive to nudge myself just a little bit more when i started feeling tired. after an hour on the road i was so happy to be back in the warm embrace of the house. i immediately jumped in the shower.

my second costume change came after i spent an hour relaxing and making myself some lunch (does cereal count?). i got into my business wear and went to porter square. stepping outside i saw a homeless man with a shopping cart full of bottles and cans sleeping on the street corner. ah, this is sweet cambridge! this is what i've been missing living in belmont! i wasn't sure if he passed out or maybe he was taking a break (although the cold weather couldn't have been too pleasant). he was propped against the bumper of a car, so it wasn't like he just toppled over. anyway, i didn't want to disturb him and proceded on my way to porter square. i cashed a check at the fleet bank and bought a birthday present for my sister at joie de vivre. after some browsing, i got her a miniature viennese snowglobe with a piglet inside (she collects pigs). coming back, i stopped by this other boutique of uncommon gifts, but i didn't buy anything from there, although i'll probably come back another time.

when i came back home, it was time for my third and final costume change, i got into my jeans and my rugby shirt and went out into the backyard to rake the rest of the leaves. my neighbor steve got back home and we chatted briefly outside, he from his 2nd floor balcony deck, me at ground level. i finished raking and put the leaves into two disposable paper bags. it was kind of rough going because some parts of the ground still had snow so my hands were frozen and caked in dirt afterwards.

back inside, i spent some time replying to e-mails, while fixing another last minute programming bug that showed up on the rhode island project i'd been working on. my dinner consisted of nothing more than whatever i could throw into the microwave or heat over the stove in a pot from a can. i'm going to try and make something for dinner tomorrow night. i need the practice.