t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


my morning started with the sight of two police cruisers parked outside the entrance of my new office home. i immediately thought, did i forget to set the alarm last night when i left work? i went upstairs to see two policemen on the stairwell about to leave. apparently they weren't there for my office but the office next door.

during work elias informed me (via aim) that last night he went to the harvard observatory to watch the show. he said the lecture was interesting and the place was surprisingly crowded, to capacity, with curious amateur astronomers of all ages. after the lecture they set up the telescopes for viewing. the main one was focused on the ring nebula while two smallers had saturn and the andromeda galaxy in their sights. the lines for the viewing was long. ring nebula? saturn? andromeda? been there, done that! what a luxury it is to have my own telescope! i never have to share and i can watch a celestial object for as long as like without any interruptions. so i'm not really missing anything from having never gone to the harvard observatory before. i have seen my share of hot young stars and deepsky phenomenons.

when lunch time rolled around, i left with amanda for the food trucks. on the way there i noticed she was walking kind of funny. i thought maybe she was one of those superstitious types and was walking to avoid the cracks, but instead she was stepping on leaves on the sidewalk with a crunch of her hoochy shoes. we chose the old thai truck close by the akamai building, with me ordering the standard thai peanut chicken, while amanda got the vegetable pad thai. it was warm enough that we ate in a children playground on a chess table.

friday night i decided to go home early (i.e. go home at my formerly normal hour). i ventured downstairs to say good bye to everyone when a car pulled into the biogen parking lot. eyes locked, a glimmer of recognition, then complete realization over who it was behind the wheel of the car: joel oliveira! i knew he had returned to connecticut from san diego for the weekend, and earlier today i had even aim'ed him at home, so it came as quite a surprise to see him in person. he came in and saw the old screen house gang, before giving rebecca and i rides to our respective destinations.

my bus route goes by a star market, so usually midway through my bus commute home there are people onboard with bags of groceries. an interesting thing happened tonight. the bus gave a lurch and a bag of groceries toppled over onto the floor. i woman's voice shouted, "oh, my cheetos!" and i turned around just in time to see a bag of bright orange snacks spill into the aisle. i quickly turned back around. too late for the 3 seconds ground rule.

and finally, walking home from my bus stop, a car drove up behind me and man shouted "faggot" from the passenger side window. i was more startled than offended. i see it more of a compliment more than anything else. to be mistaken for a homosexual! i usually dress so sloppily, that to be mistaken for being a gay man is perhaps the highest fashion compliment anyone can give me, even if it is from cowardly homophobes who shout out epithets in the darkness of the night from a moving car! any other day i would've given chase, and from all the running i've been doing i would've at least been able to get close enough to get a license plate number. but wouldn't you know it, i wasn't wearing sensible running shoes, so i just laughed it off and figured it'd be a good story to tell.