last night i had a nightmare.

i was at logan airport with the other developers. we were all going to our separate vacation destinations. i went to the counter but i didn't have anything to check in. afterwards, i realized i forgot my luggage because i was thinking to myself, i'm going to be in turkey for two weeks, what if i need to change my underwear? that's when it hit me: i left my suitcase at home! i went to this empty airport cafe that had a row of public telephones. i needed to call my father, he can deliver my suitcase to the airport. the place was empty except for one table where matthew mcguire, developer extraordinaire, was sitting down and having coffee with matthew eagar, a high school classmate of mine. matthew eagar i sort of walked over back in school in order to rise to a higher social circle. i've always felt pretty guilty about that, and i remember in his senior yearbook i even wrote down, sorry i was so mean to you matthew. twin matthews. anyway, i was trying to call but i didn't have any change. and it's not just a quarter anymore either ever since verizon jacked up the price of a single call to 50 cents. so i was thinking i have to call collect, and i was debating whether to call 1-800-COLLECT or 10-10-321. which one has the better commercial? they're all pretty annoying. i decided to get change for a dollar, because i think either way it's going to be expensive. i looked at my watch. i had 20 minutes left before my plane departs. sure, my father can drive here in time, but i'm start getting a wee bit worried. i went to a check in counter and handed over a flimsy, damp one dollar bill to a young african-american girl behind the counter. she scrutinized the dollar carefully and i felt a little bit embarassed because maybe i should've given her a crispier bill but i just wanted to get rid of that unwanted single. she accepted the bill and handed me four quarters.

that's when i woke up and i've never been so relieved in my life!

is it wrong to admit that i am secretly in love with the lente loco girl on univision? (okay, just add that to my list of other girls i am secretly in love with.) if you've seen the show, you know who i'm talking about. there's just something about her, i can't quite put my finger on it. after some internet research, i've uncovered her name: odalys garcia. everytime i see the show, i just want to (re)learn spanish just so i can understand what she's talking about.

all my wonderful plans of ordering online everything i need for my trip has gone down the tube. with the terrorist situation, with package deliveries on a delayed schedule, i can't be sure i'll get the things i want in time. so guess what? it's time for some old fashion shopping. during lunch i quickly ventured out to downtown crossing towards faneuil hall, where there's a rand mcnally travel store. i bought an eagle creek toiletry bag, to replace the one my parents lost last year on the plane when they went to china. i also got another book on turkey from barnes & noble, inside the seraglio by john freely, about the seedy underbelly of turkish sultanate.

downtown crossing felt weird. maybe it was just me, but i didn't feel safe with so many different people around. i felt like everyone was very suspicious of one another, and everyone seemed to be moving a lot faster, thousands of people moving with determination, no one just loitering around, everyone quickly do what they came to downtown crossing to do then going back to the relative safety of the office. i took some photos but didn't want to look too suspicious, so not too many. i did finally see where the new h&m store is, resembled a large cave entrance where inside was just this magnificent inventory of trendy fashionwear. i didn't have the courage to go in (besides, i was hungry, had to get food). another time, h&m, another time. i got a large beef sandwich from chacarero, bought a bouquet of irises for $5, then took the red line back to the office.

in other news, the sunflowers i bought last tuesday has a mild aphid infestation on one of the flowers. it's actually quite interesting, i don't mind it at all. i've been explaining to whoever will listen about the secret lives of aphids, how they reproduce asexually, how all the little aphids are actually clones of the bigger aphid, and that aphids are bugs and grow bigger not by metamorphosis but my molting into a bigger exoskeleton, that's why there are a bunch of empty shells.

after work, i went running with amanda and james (not before amanda and i were able to quickly finish off a metro crossword puzzle of course). james was very concerned that we don't run another asterisked run, which in my definition is anytime where you have to stop before you complete the 3 miles mark. did we do it? it depends on who you ask, in a very rashomon manner. i'm saying i certainly didn't, because i stopped for both james and amanda when i crossed the mass ave bridge (aka harvard bridge). amanda says her run isn't asterisked because she ran nonstop from beginning to end (which i believe, because i didn't see her stop, even though she didn't run her full potential). james says his run isn't asterisked either, even though i know for a fact that he stopped on at least one occasion (i consider stopping for a few seconds an asteriskable offense). anyway, running in the afternoon with the late sun casting a golden glow on everything, it was really beautiful, made me wish i had my camera with me (made me wish i had a smaller digital camera that i can carry instead of the relatively heavier nikon 950).