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when i got to work this morning, alex and katrinka were chatting with the new project manager, carley from rhode island. i quietly asked adam if he knew about the offer katrinka and alex made me about working at squid. i wanted to make sure that when the news was announced, it wouldn't be a surprise for him. fortunately, he already knew what transpired on friday. so i went up to katrinka and told her that i'd accept their offer to become a full-time employee. minutes later, when we had our monday projects meeting, katrinka turned to me and told everyone i had some good news to announce. "i'm pregnant!" i shouted. then i told everyone the real news.

in the afternoon, kristine, alex, and i went running. alex almost didn't go because he thought he left his running clothes at home, but he had a spare pair of shorts and kristine lent him some socks. the weather was made for running, and today we did beacon hill again. hills are fun, they're a struggle to go up, but a breeze to come down, but it's this back and forth of hard and easy running that makes the route interesting. i noticed for the very first time that many of the steps leading up to these old brick beacon hill houses have metal boot scrapers, which don't serve any purpose today, but they add a certain historical charm to the neighborhood. when we came back, i slipped into wendy's to get a spicy chicken combo while alex and kristine went ahead back to the office.

later during the day i had a brief private talk with alex and katrinka about some other questions i had about the job, most importantly, if i could take a week off before i started as a permanent. they had no problems with that, which will allow me to go on some sort of adventure prior to my return to the working world.

i left the office at 6pm, commuting back to cambridge. all day long i was either thinking about the things i was going to buy with my first paycheck or where i'd go for my long deserving vacation. i just felt very happy to be a part of the action again, even though it'll be a few more weeks before i'm officially a full-time employee. something about having a job does something good for one's self-esteem i think. i never really felt down during the time i was unemployed, but let's face it, it's some what of a social stigma, whether people want to admit it or not. as an adult, you're expected to work for 4 or 5 decades before you're allowed to do nothing and just enjoy your life, or what's left of it after years of back breaking labor, be it physical or mental.

the train was slow, and stopped in harvard square for a while because something was happening down in alewife. i got off at harvard and walked home from there.

i ran into my next door neighbor renee leaving her house. we chatted outside on the sidewalk. she told me about her teenage son, whom she sent away to boarding school in vermont, and of course he doesn't like there and calls home often. she also told me about a new exercise studio in porter square that not only features yoga (it's not the bikram studio) but also taichi. she said i should go to the morning class before i go to work, and that the classes are for both men and women, and who knows, maybe i could meet a girl there. what is it about me? even total strangers can sense i need a girlfriend.

i thought long and hard about making something for dinner, but by the time i got home, it was close to 7pm, and after watching some baseball, it suddenly became 8pm, and i was in no mood to do any cooking after a day of work (especially cooking for just myself, if some special lady was over, that's a different story), so instead i just heated some campbell soup for dinner. so this is what it feels like to try to be a decent cook while holding a steady job. at least i work close to chinatown, next to all those fresh ingredients if i ever want to make something asian for dinner.

wanting to get a jump on my vacation research, i walked back to harvard square, sneering at the shadowy figures of smarty students crisscrossing the campus. i browsed some travel magazines at out of town news then went to both wordsworth and the coop, looking for good guide books on costa rica. i didn't find anything, and figured it'd be better to do it in reverse, find out what cheap vacation packages are available, then do the research for those destinations. i walked back home and called it an evening, but before ordering some costa rica travel guides from amazon.com. i love online shopping!