work seems to go down a little bit easier on fridays. on mondays everything seem so hopeless, but on fridays salvation is close at hand. i can stand on friday's summit and the weather's so clear i can see all the way to the promise land of weekend. oh beautiful weekend! what the weekdays taketh, the weekend giveth. let the weekend turn that frown upside down! i want to wash with weekend, drink weekend, eat weekend, inject weekend into my vein, roll around in it, just go crazy.

i let myself out of work today at 5pm. my friend gary came over, whom i haven't seen since my departure back in february. i told him all about southeast asia then gave him a brief slideshow. he asked if i slept with any prostitutes and was disappointed when i said no, but said he wouldn't have either. he said he was really jealous of my trip, and that i should travel as much as possible while i can, because once i get a girlfriend, or worse (get married), i won't be able to go anywhere.

we went out to dinner at a beijing restaurant in watertown. like john travolta in get shorty, gary cruises around in a minivan. blowing cigarette smoke out the open window, he drove slow enough that people were continuously passing us but he didn't seem to care. in the backseat were stacks of religious books; apparently his new hobby is studying the bible code, and told me the exact day the world would end (in 40 years). i laughed and said we'd probably be close to death by then anyway. after dinner we went to porter square to get some drinks at dunkin' donuts. we sat outside and watched the stream of young people visiting the liquor store, before gary gave me a ride back home.