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the roommate was gone when i woke up this morning. i overheard his boss telling him last night that he'd come pick him up around noontime so i didn't think he left for the office yet. maybe he went out to get some groceries. last night i noticed some dribbles by the toilet and there were fresh drops this morning. i'm too tired to have the talk with yet another chinese astrophysicist. he's only here for a month, as long as he doesn't purposely piss on the bathroom floor, i'm okay with it.

i got ready and left for boston. dan was back in town (back from brazil for the month for thanksgiving) and i was meeting him and the gang for lunch. the temperature was a little cold (40's) but i knew i'd warm up as soon as i started bicycling. i wore my new old navy fleece-lined quilted vest outside of my fleece hooded sweatshirt along with some gloves.

about 10 blocks out i either skipped the tip of my shoe on the road or hit a pothole, because i suddenly lost control of the bike. it also started to fish tail because of the added weight of the milk crate and i almost crashed. i pedaled to gain some traction but realized i wasn't moving. i peeked down and saw that the chain was loose. a broken chain? i did a quick calculation in my head, figuring out if i had time to take the subway into the city if the bike was in fact out of commission. luckily for me the chain was still intact, it was just off the forward chainrings. i pulled back the rear derailleur and hooked the chain back onto the rings (gloves off). with my hands covered in grease, i continued on my way.

i planned on getting into boston across the MIT bridge, but i took a wrong turn and found myself approaching the longfellow bridge instead. i made a wide detour to get back on track, pedaling across the shoreline of the charles river. over the bridge into boston, the bike lane suddenly disappeared and i was side by side in traffic with cars. from mass ave near the berklee music school i got onto bolyston street. trying to find a parking spot outside of the prudential building, i was surprised to discover all the nearby sign posts already taken up by locked bikes (2-3 per post). i did manage to find an empty post a little bit further down the street, across from the apple store.

i had 30 minutes to kill so i went to a walgreens to get something to drink and to get some change for lunch. i walked down to copley square to admire the view of the hancock tower next to the trinity church. i then walked back and went inside the prudential center. there was an information kiosk and i grabbed some boston-related pamphlets for my roommate. i called elias at 11:30, he told me they weren't heading out to lunch until noontime, and that dan was nowhere to be found. i waited downstairs for a few minutes before dan showed up.

i went with dan to check out from the lenox hotel next door. cymara and clarissa were in the room, clarissa a little bit taller and skinnier than the last time i saw her. riding the elevator back downstairs to the lobby, two upper class late middle-aged women entered the car. i caught a glimpse of the rock on one of their hands, a sparkler the size of a chestnut. i noticed her covering it up with the other hand, but i can't imagine that thing to be real. a chestnut!

i hitched a ride with dan, in their old car with new pennsylvania license plates. we parked outside the mary baker eddy library and went across the street to an indian restaurant. elias and mike were already eating inside. they grabbed a long table with plenty of room. there weren't too many people there when we arrived but the place soon filled up for the lunch buffet. the selection was a bit limited, but for less than $8 i'm not complaining.

after lunch, cymara took clarissa to run some errands, while i followed dan and the gang back to their jenzabar office. i'd never been in their workspace, and with a possible move in the near future, this would probably be my first and only time to see it. located on the 35 floor (the prudential tower has 52 floors total), it had a pretty good view of the city and beyond. i saw a few offices (mike - who was busy & yvonne) including elias' posh space with a window (alternate view).

a pair of doormen were admiring my take-a-look rearview mirror mounted on my glasses as i was unlocking my bicycle. not that it's any safer with bike lanes, but riding around in boston without them felt slightly more dangerous. fortunately it was daytime and the traffic wasn't too bad. i was trying to reach the skywalk by the intersection of beacon and arlington street so i could get onto the charles river bike path. i was about to cut into boston common when i saw a sign that said "no bikes allowed." so instead i went on the sidewalk up arlington street.

originally i planned on taking the path all the way into harvard square, but decided to cross the MIT bridge (AKA the harvard bridge [official name] AKA mass ave bridge) and cut back home that way because it was a few miles shorter (up windsor to hampshire-beacon). besides, i also had to make a pit stop at market basket to get a few things for my mother (half & half, cilantro). instead of parking out by somerville avenue, i parked closer to the supermarket, with the bike locked to a nearby iron-wrought fence.

i was so overheated by the time i made it to the cafe that i had to strip down to my t-shirt. i was also very tired because i kept on yawning. my mother told me my roommate and his advisor came to visit during lunch. my father had biked to the cafe, i forgot to ask him how it was. there was nobody home when i finally got back. i moved the bicycle into the basement because i wouldn't be using it for a few days. i saw my roommate's cigarette ashtray jar sitting out on my back porch.

i still don't know how i feel about the new bike seat. certainly i've put enough miles on it today to get a good feel. i guess i'll find out tomorrow by whether or not my ass hurts. a few times i've found myself sitting uncomfortably on the narrow part of the seat. maybe that means i need to move the seat a bit forward. i definitely like sitting on the gel padding near the back a lot more.

i used the bathroom and took a shower. my roommate was back when i got out, around 3:30. he told me he left this morning to explore the neighborhood. he didn't bring a map and got lost, walking all the way to davis square. his advisor came to pick him up around noontime to show him the office and then he walked back home. later in the early evening he took a nap. though it sounds like a good idea, taking a nap will just perpetuate his jet lag even more.