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AUG

03

2004

you really can drown out a lot of the world through work. i can see how some people can substitute a job for a social life. work is always there, it's a constant, you become familiar with it, you do a good job, the clients are happy, there's cause and effect. unlike life, which is always complex. maybe i'm just rambling. having to spend so much time with myself all day is not easy. i'm sick of me already. that, plus it's hot. i heard it might rain tonight. good. we need something to get rid of all this heat. it's not officially a heat wave, but i can't remember the last time we had a day that was less than 80 degrees.

this morning i went down to harvard square to clear up my account with the bank. i've done this before, it's not the first time my credit card number has been used without my permission. just like i imagined, the bank was air-conditioned, it felt pretty good. most of time spent there was listening to my customer service representative on the phone talking with somebody else within the company to remove the questionable charges. the strange thing is one of the $600 purchases got credited last night, almost like somebody was buying things with my credit card, only to return them weeks later. still, i can't just let mischievous elves play around with my money like that.

after that brief trip down to harvard square, i walked back home, savoring the minutes before i'd be thrown into the coding fire again. i had a minor local celebrity sighting, walked right by scott harshbarger, former state attorney general, former gubernatorial candidate. he had a smile on his face, like he was used to getting recognized (i've seen this look on a few other politicians), and was waiting for me to show signs of recognition, which i didn't. from that point on, 10am, i didn't set foot outside the house, confined to my bedroom. t-shirts dot the interior landscape, when i get too hot i just strip off, like a snake shedding its skin. i had a late breakfast of cocoa krispy cereal, almost poured water into the bowl instead of milk. shannon sent me to a nigella lawson gallery, and tried to get me to try online dating. todd said i could go work at the air-conditioned SRM office if i wanted to. 9 hours later, my brain starting to fry, i took a break to go have some dinner. my father had dropped by earlier with some food, i had a box of fried rice while watching SVU (the episode with the pedophile piano teacher), with some more ice cream for dessert.

i'm going to floss and brush my teeth, take a shower (to cool down), then head back into the bedroom for a few more hours of debugging.