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julie had her second barbecue of the season tonight, but unfortunately it was raining (it didn't rain on her first barbecue, but it was cold and wet that night as well). that didn't stop her however, and it wasn't raining that hard anyway, just a pervasive mist. when i got there after walking to the porter square star market to get some garden burgers and a drink (the supermarket has aisles upon aisles stocked with beautiful women by the way). approaching her house, i could already smell the barbecue smoke, and came in around the back. lisa spagnolli, our old screen house coworker, was already there. soon eric hess, another former coworker, showed up as well. neither one i've seen in years. eric arrived and immediately started making his signature salad, while julie was outside in the rain cooking up the mahi mahi, the garden burgers, and the sun dried tomato sausages. lisa and i were satellites, hovering, chatting (most lisa, i took up my familiar role as party wallflower). when everything was ready, we ate. when we almost finished, julie's roommate kim came home, and brought over her boyfriend matt to share in the barbecue bounty. the theme of tonight seemed to be rhode island: lisa grew up in the italian district of federal hill, julie went to school at RISD and her boyfriend lives in rhode island, and eric grew up in seekonk (massachusetts), just across the state border from providence. i would've been bored and lost if it weren't for the fact that i was done in rhode island for the very first time this past weekend. there was much animated talk about water fire and the italians who live in providence. for dessert, julie made some chocolate biscotti.

when the barbecue was over, i walked home from davis square. it's actually not that far, which is surprising, since the subway ride from porter to davis seems to take a long time. i had my umbrella, my bag of hamburger buns which never got used, walking with my cellphone and listening to my voicemail. on my street in the dark i saw a snail crawling across the wet sidewalk.

earlier today, i painted the final coat of the railing. i used the tall stepladder instead of trying to balance myself on the ceiling beams, which worked a lot better and caused a lot less stress. after my bagel lunch, my father drove me down to microcenter to return that monitor kvm switch. i tried to find a cheap usb replacement but they didn't have any in stock. he bought a surge protector while i got a spool of blank cd's. driving through harvard square, it looked like the circus was in town with large graduation tents populating the landscape. when i got home, i went out running. today wasn't particularly warm (65 degrees) and the sky was overcasted as if it'd rain, but i had my best run to date, never felt exhausted enough to stop, went all the way around the river, the temperature was perfect and felt like an extension of my skin. i felt like i had enough endurance to go a few more miles and i actually sped up towards the end of the route. i came back home, where to my surprise, alex wong was sitting outside my house in his car like some creepy stalker. by coincidence he had just arrived and called me, and seeing that nobody answered the phone, he was about to leave when i go there. he came in for a little bit, ate some of my food, used my bathroom, before leaving.