i packed up my empty backpack this morning and headed out to quincy center. my mission: to meet up with a craig's list seller who was selling a used laptop. i called him the day before to confirm our appointment at a starbucks near the station at 1pm. it took me about an hour by subway to get from cambridge down to quincy. despite the fact that it makes jittery and irregular, i ordered a tall (AKA small) chai latte and proceeded to wait for my contact to show up. a man sat behind me reading a newspaper. i noticed his large duffle bag on the floor. i tapped him on the shoulder and asked, "excuse me, you wouldn't be jon, would you?" "sorry, no," he replied. awkward. now he must think i hang out in coffee bars on sunday afternoons soliciting anonymous men. so i wait. and wait. and wait. 20 minutes go by and i finally call. ringing. no answer. ringing. ringing. what kind of phone doesn't go straight to voice mail? i kept on trying, but each time i started to realize more and more that jon wasn't going to show up. was it all a scam? maybe he found another buyer. but at the very least he could've let me know so i wouldn't have to come down to quincy center on this cold and wet day just to get stood up. maybe it was too good to be true. $300 for a 1-month old intel core duo 15" laptop with DL dvd burner? then there was that one email i got from him sent at 1:30 in the morning. he also gave me a wrong phone number the second time he wrote back (off by a digit). disappointed, i finished my chai latte and headed back to the station.

so basically i traveled 14 miles to the other side of boston to drink a tall chai latte from starbucks before traveling another 14 miles to get back home. i don't even like starbucks!

oh, one more thing: anyone who does a google search for jon kalinoski of quincy massachusetts please be advised that the person you are searching for can not be trusted. if jon kalinoski promises to do something, chances are it's not going to happen. as a prospective employer, or a possible girlfriend, do you want a bad bad man like this in your company or in your life? just stay no to jon kalinoski of quincy massachusetts! you've been warned!

i managed to make it back home in time to catch the second half of the celtics hawks game. they were already in the lead going into halftime but the final 24 minutes of regulation basketball was pure payback by the celtics for being forced into a game 7 situation. they absolutely trounced the hawks, leading at one point by as much as 36 points. they definitely sent a message to the rest of the league that there's nothing wrong with the team, that their domination in the regular season looks to continue into the playoffs.

as evening approached, i first went to the cafe before going to belmont for dinner. afterwards i helped my father buy a new laptop. (the used one i almost bought today was supposed to go to him. we ended up going with dell, with the lowest end dell vostro. one of the big deciding factors was the specially sealed keyboard that prevents dust and spill damage. i also helped him pick out a gps. originally i wanted to get one for his birthday a few months back, but he didn't have any use for one in the dead of winter. now with camping season coming around soon, it'd be nice to have some fancy navigation system for those long drives to destinations unknown (we went with the garmin nuvi 650).

riding back home in the cold darkness (at least it wasn't raining anymore), i literally screamed my way back to cambridge, trying to fight off the onset of hypothermia from to the freezing temperature. i wonder if anyone on the streets heard my blood curdling howls. in another month, this will all be a bad dream once it warms up.

on another temperature note, it's freezing inside my house! ever since i shut off the furnace a few weeks ago, my place has been absolutely reptilian with all this cold-blooded heating. basically whatever the outside temperature is is also the temperature inside. fortunately i think my upstairs neighbors still have their heat on, so i get some of that residual warmth, which thankfully seems to be keeping my room temperature from dipping below 58 degrees. it's pretty sad, but once it gets dark, i retreat to my bedroom, where i have my toasty space heater.