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i spent the morning painting and the afternoon talking with a mortgage representative in newton.

i ate the rest of my clam sauce linguine for lunch, along with the three leftover buffalo wings from tuesday night. i watched paragraphy 175 on HBO, a 1999 documentary about german homosexuals during the nazi era, really interesting. the swelling from the multiple mosquito bites on my legs have gone down considerably, leaving itchy red welts in its place. i scratch it just enough so as to not break the skin and risk an infection. my mother went with me to newton, the nature of my visit was to lay down the groundwork to refinance my condo. if i get it, i can save a few hundred dollars from my monthly mortgage. from now until i get approved, i'll be keeping an eye on the daily fluctuation in the interest rates, getting ready to lock down some numbers at a moment's notice. i signed some papers, gave the guy some documents to copy (missing a few documents in the process which i have to track down), and gave him $250 for the appraisal. we came back around rush hour, but because we were going against the flow of traffic, we didn't get caught in any bumper to bumper congestion. we went back to belmont and awaited the return of my father and sister.


clover

rose

yellow ladybug

the whole family then went out to dinner at the 99 restaurant in fresh pond. i had the country fried chicken, which looked pretty good from the description but the actual entree was rather plain. i ended up leaving some chicken, which we took home in a doggy bag. afterwards, we went next door to kitchen etc. where i bought a wedding present for manny. i then got a ride home.

manny dropped by around midnight to deliver my wedding tuxedo he helped pick up earlier this evening. i wrote him a check for the rental amount (i didn't prepay like everyone else in the wedding party, sorry, i don't have $160 kicking around). the wedding rehearsal is late tomorrow afternoon, and manny was filling me in on the details. that's when he asked if i could drive the priest home. at first i thought he was joking, but then i realized he was serious. "where does the priest live?" i asked reluctantly. "johnston," manny said. johnston? funny, i don't remember any town in massachusetts named johnston. "johnston, rhode island," manny added. once again, i thought he was joking. once again, he was serious. "okay, wait, so i'm going to drive this priest down to rhode island, then i'm going to drive back, about two hours total...what about the rehearsal dinner? am i going to miss?" i said, as if saying it outloud would help me resolve the obvious schedule conflict. manny replied with a straight face, "we'll save some food for you." fucking bullshit! "okay, wait, so i'm going to miss the rehearsal dinner?" i asked, just to make sure i was hearing everything correctly. "um, yeah," manny replied, "it's expensive," and then as if trying to steer the conversation in a different direction, started talking about how they discussed it with the manager to get a group discount. apparently no one else can drive the priest back home (not manny, not manny's friend rich, not daisy, not daisy's father, not daisy's sister, not daisy's brother, none of the other parents, none of the other siblings), so i've been enlisted for this duty. first you have to understand i have no love for religious institutions of any kind, being a devote atheist. second, i'm driving down rhode island through weekend traffic, not sure what kind of mess that's going to be, and i heard it's going to be raining too. third, i have no car of my own, but manny told me i could borrow their buick. and finally, i'm going to missed dinner. i mean, this is god damn fucking bullshit, isn't it? but you know me with my hero complex, so after the initial period of seething incredulous anger, i grinned and said, "just save me some dessert, okay?"