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OCT

11

2001

thursday. i wish time would stop. i don't want the end of the month to approach. deadline, be gone! i will be under this overwhelming sense of dread for the remaining few weeks. it doesn't feel good. when the smoke clears and the project is over, for better or worse, i need some personal time. i don't care that i used up all my vacation days. i think i will literally die if i can't get away from work when everything is over.

today during lunch i went to the galleria mall with christine and amanda. we each had a mission: christine had to get some new clothes for the ever growing carmen (keyword being "on sale"), amanda had to buy a black t-shirt for carrie (for the next time the office goes goth), and i had to purchase a thank you card for ayse's parents whom i stayed over at their house when i was in istanbul and who paid for our boating vacation in southern turkey (this, amongst the hundred other little things they did for us, forever grateful i am). i also went to cvs to buy a box of chocolate (which i shared with the ladies downstairs, earning further brownie points). at cvs, while browsing the candy aisle, amanda revealed to me that she doesn't floss everyday. i was horrified. flossing is the cornerstone of proper dental care. just brushing alone isn't going to stop plague build up, amanda! (i sound like a commercial) note to self, box of dental floss for amanda for christmas present...

after work, john and i went running around the charles river on this second day of indian summer. we ran from the front door of the office all the way around the usual river route and then back to the office. i never ran so far! however, if truth be known, i do consider the run slightly asterisked because we stopped to talk with john's old roommate baha, whom by sheer serendipity we happened to run into while we were running! it was funny seeing john make an u-turn to chase after baha, because she got so scared, thought some strange man was trying to grab her! a lovely young woman, if we had to stop (thereby asterisking the run), we couldn't have asked for a better reason.

we came back to the office and showered. i didn't realize this, but while i was away in turkey for two weeks, someone (most likely julie) instituted a thursday night drinking social gathering of current and former coworkers. tonight being thursday, we left for the designated watering hole, that being grendel's den in harvard square, both of us smelling fresh and clean, exactly the kind of sweet fragrance that drives the ladies wild.

when we got to said establishment (after first being carded by a young man who lacked the kind of proper front door enthusiasm that's required of people of his profession, not even having enough power to muster the energy to stand up, but instead carding us from the chair which he was sort of sagging in), we saw klea, julie, and mark sitting at a table. thus drinking, eating, and conversationing commenced throughout the night. later, our party was joined by roy, followed by eliza. during the course of the evening i had two cokes (whoa, slow down!) and a pastrami sandwich. the big news our ex-tsh coworkers had to tell us was they'd be moving to a new temporary office space next friday. this new office space is in fact right next to the galleria mall, which means we'll be next door neighbors. what a small world! my head is still spinning for this revelation. it's going to be weird but so much fun, a golden age of familiar places and friendly faces.

the table next to ours sat a group of curious women (and one guy) who caught sight of the nikon 950 and asked, "is that a digital camera?" i took a few minutes to show them the swivel lense design and give them the basics of a digital camera. i then took a souvenir photo of them and got an e-mail address to send the photo to.

when i left grendel's den for harvard station with julie, there were a group of teenagers dancing to a boombox (j.lo tune?), holding up a sign that said "we need $ for lesson." i told them i'd donate a dollar if i could take their photo. the spirit of young entrepreneurialism is alive and well! at least on the mean streets of cambridge, massachusetts!