i don't feel so well. i don't know whether it's because julie came over and she was sick with a runny nose and sneezing and maybe shared something more with me than just her company, or whether the aches in my body has something to do with the fact that i went running by myself during my lunch hour. maybe i can will myself to health, but i'm starting to feel a little feverish right now, so we'll see what happens tomorrow. honestly, there's a million ways that i could be infected. the train i ride every day is like a viral incubator, germs so thick i can practically see it. i'll just get an early night's rest, that's my cure-all.

my secret war against the commuters of boston continues. everything seems to happen on somerville avenue on my walk to porter square for some reason. something about that stretch of road that brings out my passive aggression. today, this tall guy was walking right on my heels. i knew he wanted to pass me, even though i wasn't very slow, but apparently too slow for him. so i purposely sped up, trying to make sure he would not overtake me. he quickened his pace as well, and because of his longer stride, eventually he did pass me, but i made sure it got real awkward by walking right behind him. i think he felt some creepiness and started to walk even faster, trying to put some distance between us. i would have none of it, and i nearly burst into a sprint trying to keep up with old bean pole. i make another enemy, but let it never be said that i go down without a fight. all that speed walking did something awful to my hamstring though (is that the ass muscle?), i'm feeling pretty sore tonight.

was i even at work? my shift went by so fast today, in the blink of an eye my work day of work. i had chinese pastries for lunch, and i went running. it's been a long time since i ran, the temperature sored to the 40's. i kept on unzipping the collar of my jacket, or taking off my gloves, or rolling up my sleeves, all attempts to regulate my body temperature. it got pretty warm, at times it felt downright summery, especially with the low-to-the-horizon winter sun casting a golden glow on everything. the route was icy, especially along the bridges (i ran down an icy overpass, scaring the hell out of two people who were slowly descending by grasping the side of the wall), before the on-ramp to the mass ave bridge, and the entire length of storrow drive. there's basically two kinds of ice: rugged ice, like craters, shaped by previous traffic, thawed and frozen repeatedly. those are actually easy to run over, just have to make sure you don't on awkwardly. i did slip a few times, but never fell, and i nearly twisted by ankle on a few occasions, but i survived relatively unscathed. the second type of ice is the kind that's formed from melted water, that completely transparent and coats the road in a thin layer of slipperiness. i don't even run on those, these are the dangerous ice, i try to either go around or jump over them if they're not too wide.

coming back from my run, i saw sara underwood, co-anchor of the 10pm news on local channel 38, getting coffee from the starbucks on the corner of charles street and beacon street. she was getting into a car and had that television smile. she's even prettier in person, if that's even possible. i've found my new heather kahn! later, i went to the nearest atm to cash in the rent check, soaked in sweat as i fished it out of the back pocket of my running pants. at the office today i worked on the diorama a little bit more, glueing together some balsam sticks to form a window frame. at the end of the day alex fixed the RFID reader by crimping the power connector, apparently it wasn't getting any electricity, that's why it wasn't working. speaking of electronics, and this has probably very little to do with the subject, but last night i bought some magnets online, those tiny rare earth magnets for 16 cents a pop. i bought 200, i'm going to be making limited edition fridge magnets sometime soon. in more unrelated news, my pop server finally started working again after over 40 hours of being down. this might very well be the final straw that will make me change my webhost provider, sharper web. when they're good, they're invisible, but when they're down, it's quite noticeable, and they're never apologetic, and there's never any explanation as to what happened. i'm kind of fed up with their lack of service, i'm going to start shopping around. i'm currently paying $20/month for 500mb of storage plus script and database access.

returning home, i originally planned on stopping by pearl in central square to get some more neon green felt, but as we arrived in kendall, the announcer told us the train would now express to harvard square. i took that as a sign from the gods of commuting that i should go straight home and don't even bother trying to get to central square.

julie was feeling under the weather, but she came by anyway, except we ordered pizza from topspeed pizzeria instead of cooking anything. she said everyone back at her place was sick, and because she only started to show symptoms today, there was a good chance she was contagious. disease, back off! while julie and i ate in the living room (sweet and spicy pizza, sausage with pepper rings), mike came back for his final night of studying before his last take-home final of the semester. after 24, after queer eye holiday special, after queer eye video special, julie left. threw out the trash, washed the dishes, and prepared for bed, tuesday, the end.