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the first day after a long weekend always feels like a monday. thank god in actuality it's already tuesday. unfortunately, i have yet another delivery deadline on friday, so this much coveted four day work week is not really a blessing in disguise.

this morning was a cool 50 degrees, even though the forecast promised record breaking high temperatures. i would've taken the motorcycle to work but i decided that 50 degrees was a little too cold for riding, regardless of what the temperature might be at the end of the day. instead, i took the t, got to listen to some music and read a book.

my workload was light today, still riding the crest of that post-delivery calm. a little work here, a little work there.

by the afternoon the temperature had indeed jumped up to the 80's. i went out to a late lunch with eliza jones. we met outside and although she warned me, the loud orange company t-shirt she was wearing came as a bit of a shock. she had that on because what she wore earlier was too hot (temperature wise that is), and i know that eliza has some homeostasis issues so i accepted her decision to break open the emergency t. after she dropped off her tax returns (there was a crowd at the kendall square post office), we went to florentina, where i got the chicken string beans salad with capers plus a bottle of ibc root beer, while eliza got what appeared to be a caeser's salad plus snapple lemonade. we sat out on a wooden dock along the charles river, eating, chatting, enjoying the weather, threatening to push one another into the waters. by the time we started walking back to the office, i was still drinking my bottle of root beer, which looked suspiciously like an opened bottle of real beer, which, for those of you who don't, is something that's illegal to do in the state of massachusetts (and elsewhere as well). i joked about how funny it'd be if i got busted, or maybe they'd arrest me and take me to the police station, eliza having to go back to the office alone and tell everyone how i wouldn't be coming back to work because i was in jail. suddenly my police radar went off as i spied two motorcycle cops on the other side of the street. i quickly did a 180 turn, finished the rest of my root beer, and casually let the bottle slide out of my hand and onto the floor. who knows whether they would've busted me or not, but why take the chance? it wouldn't been a serious laugh riot if i did get a warning, a guy who doesn't drink getting hassled by the police for supposedly drinking.

today i finally took my venus flytrap plant out of its container, ready to face the world. some of the ladies downstairs were curious about the plant, and i let eliza prod one of them with the tip of a pen. snap! the jaws suddenly closed up! everyone lurched back in horror. it's not everyday you see a plant actually move, especially one that looks as menacing as the venus flytrap. i thought it was cute how eliza asked if she needed to clean off her pen, fearful that there might be poison on her writing instrument. i have to go around looking for insects to feed my plant now. it's actually sort of gruesome, because i like insects, and normally go out of my way not to hurt them (which is in direct contrast to the number of the times i tortured bugs as a child, i'm ashamed to admit). too bad we don't have ants anymore in the office. i could feed it small bits of raw meat but i heard that might be too nutritious for the venus flytrap and it could actually die from too much nutrients.


venus flytrap

opened...

immature...

...closed!

i left the office at 6pm with everyone on the project still at work (based on whether or not they were still logged onto aim). i felt sort of guilty, but there wasn't any reason for me to work more hours that what i'm suppose to work, and i don't think anyone would dare come to me and say, "oh tony, you haven't been putting in the hours, could you stay a little bit longer tonight?" whatever guilt i felt quickly disappeared when i walked outside in the 80's degrees weather, hands in my pocket, thinking about what mode of transportation i will use when i go to work tomorrow morning.

and finally, house financing news: my father helped me deliver the packet of mortgage papers to cambridgeport savings bank that i'd signed over the weekend. the mortgage wheels are spinning a little bit more. now, i wait.