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i shattered one of the flourescent light bulb tubes when i was moving the light stand for the screen house logo into my basement. luckily i wasn't looking directly at it, because i heard a popping sound and suddenly i saw smoke from the escaping inert gas. there were shards of glass everywhere, in the bushes, on the steps, even in my hair. i came *that close* to being blinded by the remnants of screen house. once i got all the pieces into my basement, i plugged in the stand (the one good pair of lights still worked) and before me arose the vestige of my old company. it was definitely a weird moment. probably not in my wildest dreams did i think i would be the caretaker of the screen house logo sign. i went upstairs and a thought came to me: hey, i could probably sell it to some rich egomaniac who has the initials "sh" for his/her name. it'd definitely make a great conversation piece. oh, but how could i part with something of such a historical and sentimental value? i'm starting to have unemployment vision. it's that kind of vision where everything appears to be a money making opportunity, no matter how small the payoff.

my neighbor from across the street jeff introduced himself to me while i was moving. he told me a little bit about what he's been doing with his place, a federal style house built in 1807. and i thought my 100 year old house was old! for a 200 year old house though, it's in very good condition. he told me he was having an open house this sunday to show the first floor unit which he was planning on selling. i gave him a tour of my house, dazzling him with my intensely colored walls.

today, some more taping (music courtesy of lisa stansfield), but not a very productive day. just like yesterday, inside the house it was about 20 degrees cooler than outside. if i didn't ride the motorcycle (i went back and exchanged it for the car that was carrying the screen house logo), i would've never known how nice the weather was today. i spent a good chunk of time dealing with the at&t cable customer service. i wanted to get out of my "first 100 days free digital tv but afterwards $100/month cable bill" plan, wanted the bare minimum analog with just the basic cable channels, but i discovered analog isn't offered in my area (which means no matter what i do, i still have to "rent" their digital cable box for something like $8/month on top of my bill). i ended up going with the bronze digital package, which i think is still expensive, but it's as basic as i could get it. no premium channels, just a lot of cable channels.

laurie dropped by after work, bearing one of her spawned spider plants as a house warming present. i showed her my new home for the very first time. out of all the people that's visited, i probably wanted her to see the place more than anybody else, being that we're both now cambridge residents and also because she came with me one sunday to go see some open houses last year, back when i was still house shopping. the tour ended outside on the backyard porch, where we chatted for a while, about serious stuff mostly, like what's going to happen to people like us in the near future, with this sour economy. we watched fat squirrels scurrying about, smelled the smokey fragrance of my backyard neighbor's barbecue.

confession: for a brief moment today i was unexpectedly depressed. it happened before laurie came over, i was doing some taping, and then it suddenly hit me, "in a few more months i will be out of unemployment money and i will have no other sources of income." that realization coupled with the perception that a lot of people i know are moving out of the boston area ("boston is leaking!") made my day kind of somber. after a while the feeling went away. although my feet are firmly planted in reality, i must admit that i am an optimist. i'm very good at rationalizing myself out of a funk. things can be worse. there's no other direction to go but up. at least you have an [expensive] place to stay. at least you have your health. these are the things i think about. and before i know it, i'm back to my normal calm state. i'm 28 years old, i can't let something like unemployment and the possibility of not being able to pay my mortgage ruffle my feathers.

laurie and i had an early dinner at boca grande, walked back to the house, whereby she took off in her car and after throwing out the trash (including the recycleables) and having a chat with my other next door neighbor (the man with the white beard, i forgot his name, john?), i got onto my motorcycle and returned to belmont.

i caught parts of the second gubernatorial debate between shannon o'brien and mitt romney. say hello to your next new governor, people of massachusetts. i thought o'brien came off as an aggressive political robot trying desperately to get romney to slip up. romney on the other hand was ultracool, funny, witty, sincere looking, everything that o'brien isn't. as much as i want to vote democrat, o'brien is just a very weak candidate (reich was definitely the stronger democratic hopeful, but now democrats will have to suffer through another republican administration because they voted for a loser candidate instead in the primary). mitt romney -- today the governorship, tomorrow the presidency. i don't agree with a lot of republican policies but even i would support romney. he's more like a liberal republican anyway, as long as he doesn't touch a woman's right to choose, he might possibly get my vote.