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run with eliza
did i really wake up this morning and go meet eliza in the office so we could go run on the same day as the boston marathon on our final long weekend day (today was patriot's day, we had the day off)? yes i did. but it all happened so fast, afterwards when i got home and tried to remember the whole event, it was almost like it didn't happen. i just vaguely remember before and after the run, nothing much in between. of course i was the first person to arrive, 10 o'clock on the dot. when i got out of the bathroom after getting changed (i figured it was safer to do it in the bathroom than out the open, lot less awkward embarassing moments if someone should just happen to walk into the office while i was in midchange), eliza had arrived. this is how i know i'm deaf: i am easy startled. why? because i don't hear people coming. if i had my way, either everyone would wear squeaky shoes or a miniature cowbell around their neck. i surfed the web a little bit while eliza was in the bathroom transforming herself into pro-athlete eliza. we locked the office back up and started running.

originally i thought the weather would be a very uncomfortably warm freak spring, but as of this morning it was still a little cold and foggy, which is perfect for running. the fog was so thick i couldn't see the hancock or the prudential building. we stopped briefly before the mass ave bridge where i asked stretching eliza all sorts of questions about her soon-to-be new old mac. we stopped again at the duck bridge. running on the same day as the boston marathon is sort of weird. here we have one of the biggest marathon events in the world, and eliza and i are running our little 3 miles compared to their 26 miles, and yes it's true i could never run 26 miles, but still, i felt like i was running in the shadow of the marathon, which would actually be happening in a few hours a few blocks away.

when we got back to the office, we walked into rebecca and matthew having a staring contest. i think they were surprised to see eliza and i dressed for running on marathon day. they were giving off the vibes of a project in serious crunch mode. i felt both sympathetic and afraid at the same time. not like i haven't cut my teeth on my own project albatross. i just wanted to give them both a hug and whisper, "it's okay to cry on my shoulder." eliza handed me a spare apple she had packed in her bag. whether this was because i told her i was hungry when we ran i'm not sure, but i quickly devoured the fruit while drinking a cup of ice water. ah, that good old postrun feeling! endorphins, you are a bad bad man. later rebecca and matthew both left to go pick up lunch for the other members of their team, and eliza left shortly thereafter as well. i stayed in the office so i could let klea in when she arrived momentarily to do some patriot's day testing. she came, we had a chat about home ownership (as current owner and soon-to-be owner), and then i left to go home.

interlude
i got home and finally had a decent meal while watching the marathon coverage on television. since i've been running for about a year now, i can watch the marathon with newfound appreciate than i ever could before. when they announced the times, i'd calculate out the average speed of the fastest runners (about 5-6 minutes per mile). i watched with fascination as one of commentators said that the runners were running at their most relaxed, optimum level because their lips were quivering, absolutely no tension in their faces. so that's what the next level looks like! next run i make, there's going to be plenty of lips quivering. after both the men and the women winners crossed the finish line, i got a ride from my mother to the mt.auburn cemetery.

mt.auburn cemetery
at the cemetery i wandered around for a few hours taking photos of plants and birds. the place was alive with the cacophony of migrating spring birds. i could recognize a few calls but most were new to me. i climbed the tower and took some 24x snapshots of the boston skyline, still a bit hazing from the clearing fog. a mother and daughter visiting the cemetery gave me some printed photos of theirs in exchange for copies of whatever it was i shooting, which were storksbills (flowers) on a side of a dewy grassy hill glistening in the late afternoon sun (fyi: storkbills are so named because their seedcases look like stork's bills).


periwrinkle

spring
beauties

storksbills

fragrant
rhododendron


creeping buttercups (leaves)

creeping buttercups



state house &
greek orthodox
church(?)

necco silo
(candy factory)

citgo sign, christian
science building

alex's japanese photos
after passing out briefly in bed before dinner, i woke up to a plate of pasta (there was still bright sunlight outside), and then i drove to alex wong's house in malden. i have the hardest times getting to malden. on paper it's a simple matter of going down route 16 and connecting to route 60 in medford center. the thing is i always get lost and end up in everett or revere. it's as if the town of medford doesn't want people to know how to get to malden, and purposely don't have any signs or make them small enough to easily miss when you're driving. after about 40 minutes stuck in medford trying to find the connecting rotary to get to route 60, i finally found it and got to alex's apartment. he just recently got back from a vacation in japan, and i wanted to see all the digital photos he took, vicariously reliving his nipponese adventures. here now are some photo highlights from his trip (his final few albums i had to quickly skim over because it was getting late):


photos taken by alex wong