i was in harvard square before the designated meeting time, cashing in my turbotax rebate check (actually, i didn't think i would ever see that money, but give it to those people, they're an honest lot). there was a fair taking place today, all the streets were closed, people were setting up booths and tables. whether it had anything to do with the walk for hunger or the fact that it was cinco de mayo, i'm not sure. i sat by the au bon pain wall, watching all the people go by, listening to my music, writing in my journal, then sinali showed up. the last time the three of us had brunch, it was in february on a slushy wet day in central square at mary chung's. the last time we all had dim sum together was even longer, 2 days before christmas. we sat and talked, caught up, she told me about her going to yale to get a political science phd degree, i told her about my little home purchase. two people at the cusp of major life changes!

soon laurie arrived and we hopped into her car. laurie, fresh from a week's vacation in ireland, was busy wiping her coffee stained shirt. the trip into chinatown was riddled with setbacks. memorial drive was completely shut down for summer sundays, and when we got into the city, major roads were blocked due to the walk for hunger event. we had to finally get to chinatown via route 93 south. almost like payback for all our troubles, we ended up finding a free streetside parking space (otherwise we'd have to pay the $9 weekend garage rate).

at china pearl our number was 66, an auspicious number that i was trying to convince laurie and sinali to that fact; besides being the number of my new house, 66 is also a good number in chinese numerology. after we had our dim sum, we went to go pay, and because they're trying to phase out the weekend dim sum discount cards, when i handed them my card to get stamped, they automatically gave us a discount, so we ended up saving some more money.

laurie drove us back to her place in cambridgeport via the mass turnpike so she could quickly change out of her coffee stained shirt. i got to see her latest plant collection addition, a large spiny aloe. that thing looks carnivorous! who'd think it contains a soothing jelly that relieves minor skin irritations? we took the subway one stop to harvard square, sinali going back to davis suqare, laurie heading off to work, and me going home to belmont. i took a few minutes to wander the fair a little bit, saw nothing interesting, and went back underground to wait for my bus.

i then spent the rest of the day lounging around at home, making myself useless, watching the celtics lose to the detriot pistons, eating a whole bag of sour creme potato chips, drinking two cans of soda, walked around in the backyard a little bit just to say i had some sun today, and then came back into the house to sleep under the warm afternoon rays slowly creeping across my bed.

my aunt lili invited us to a preemptive mother's day dinner at victoria's seafood restaurant on 1029 commonwealth ave in boston, in the heart of bu country. apparently the place is famous for its twin lobsters special for $12.95, and almost every table ordered it. the restaurant was packed, with people wait listed for 30 minutes. fortunately we had a reservation. the architecture of the restaurant is awkward with the waiting area in the middle of the restaurant, and close enough so that it felt like we were sitting next to the very same people who were waiting for us to finish up so they could have the table.

my evening is not over yet however. now i'm going to finally log in a few hours of reckless coding. how am i feeling right now? i could care less about the world. disgruntled doesn't even begin to describe it. i totally don't want to do it, and every minute i spend thinking about it just makes me angrier.