i was waking up early so i could get to the office by 8am and leave at 4pm to go garden shopping with julie. it's weird waking up early, it's like getting a headstart in the day. i didn't feel hurried like my usual mornings, when i have just 15-30 minutes to prepare for work. i watched some yoga zone, looked easy and peaceful but i knew if i did it it'd be difficult and painful. i wanted to eat some cereal but i had no milk in the house and it seemed too early to go to the supermarket. i just didn't have breakfast, grabbed some fruits, and left for work.
there was of course nobody in the office when i got there. i started right away with fixing some more little bugs for the presentation at 10am, whatever issues i can resolve the better. everyone who arrived for the meeting left soon afterwards, leaving me alone in the office once more. julie broke the bad news to me that she couldn't go shopping today (rowing class), so we postponed it until tomorrow. that meant i woke up early for nought, but i was determined to leave at 4pm regardless. an hour later the only other person in the office was carly, her second to last day. we started talking about music and what techniques to make a good mix cd, followed by 80's nostalgia, then straight to politics and one million reasons why bush and company should not be elected come november.
in the afternoon adam and i went to the children museum to check up on some user interface testing with little kids playing the games we've been slaving all week to build. security there was lax, we just walked right through the front entrance and into the museum, no questions asked. 
alex and james were there to monitor the testing and to ask the kids questions about the games. when we got there, a group of girls age 4-6 gathered around the touchscreen, pressing the buttons to get it to do something. one of the girls started crying, "i never get to play!" when she was elbowed out of the way by the others. 
i felt out of place at the museum, surrounded by so many children. it's not that i'm afraid of little kids, i'm just afraid of hurting them by saying something inappropriate that might scar them for life. someone has to teach me that children are tougher than they look. i left the museum and went back to the office, buying a buffalo chicken sandwich at finagle a bagel in the process.
kristine asked if we were going running and i told her 3pm. in hindsight, perhaps i should've gone alone, because that's what it felt like running with her. first she booked it from downtown crossing when we walked behind a group of slow bodies. i kept on walking. i was finally able to catch up with her at boston common. we ran together to the foot of the mass ave bridge before she turned back around, something about not putting in enough hours at work. i tried to convince her to continue running around the river, about how getting exercise makes for better employees, how we were almost halfway around the loop anyway, how she'd miss a chance at spotting the giant carp, but she was having none of it. so for the final half of the run i ran by myself, which was probably better anyway because i could go at my own pace (i went as fast as i could) even though my knees and shins won't be happy with that decision.
instead of going home at 4pm, i decided to stick it out to 6pm, put in 10 hours of work so tomorrow i only have to do 6 hours. 
the weather was so nice when i left work (temperature in the 70's), i had a yearning to ride the motorcycle, especially after seeing and hearing other riders, so i gave my parents a call when i got to porter square to see if i could retrieve the bike out of storage in belmont. i ended up having dinner with them, then riding the motorcycle back home to cambridge. the first ride of the season! tomorrow morning, the first ride to work for 2004!