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after much fence sitting (over half a dozen e-mails were exchanged debating whether we should run or watch), amanda, mandy, meghan and i got changed into our running clothes and headed into park street to run the jpmorgan chase corporate challenge run. the weather was excellent for running, overcasted and cool. when we got there it was kind of crazy, thousands of people in their corporate t-shirts parked into camps through boston common (good photo ops, i just didn't have my digital camera -- fingers itching!). a lot of people were officially registered and had numbers on. we were just sort of crashing the race so we didn't have numbers (which meant we can't redeem them for t-shirts after the run, bummer) and were dressed in our usual unmatching raggedy running gear. when the race started it took a few minutes before we were actually running because there were so many people crowded together. when running actually started, it was sort of fun because 1) we were all much better than the average corporate runner, since we've been sort of inadvertedly training to run the 3 miles, and 2) because there were so many people, it became like a game dodging and weaving amongst the slower runners. the entire route, from the boston public common, down commonwealth avenue, to kenmore, and then back, is actually 3.5 miles, which will be the farthest i've ever ran. i wasn't very tired and i even managed to sprint the final few hundred yards to the finish line. after it was all over, the streets were littered with crushed paper cups and stations were set up to offer free water and food (fruit cups, popsicles, bananas). amanda stayed behind to go find her drinking buddies while mandy, meghan, and i took the t back to the office (where we left our bags).

"i'm over the [longfellow] bridge. what do i do now?"

that's how i was greeted by mark hickey over the phone, calling to ask for directions to our office, where he was making a visit to hand deliver his resume printed on better paper than the generic stuff we print everything else with. once there, i gave him a tour of the office. after a chat with john and me, mark left to go back to the design center, where he had more boxes of layoff stuff to bring home.

i think mark is the first other person i've met who got laid off from our old company. i've talked with a lot of other layoffers before, but he's actually the first i've met in person. kindred spirits, that's for sure. he definitely deserves to free some ram when he goes back to the former office.