when i got in this morning i remembered to bring my gps. i attached it to the special proprietary serial cable and ran the garmin mapsource cd-rom i got a few days ago (along with the gps -- but that's a whole other story!). after some initial fiddling, i was very easily able to upload maps into the garmin vista. surprisingly, each map unit is quite small, just a few hundred kilobytes at most (the vista has 32mb of storage -- i can probably upload an entire hemisphere). i uploaded maps of amsterdam, all of turkey, and most of asia (china, japan, taiwan). crazy high tech vacation, here i come! it scares me to think how technologically advance my trip will be. i'm taking digital photos, i use the power of satellites to track my global position, i have a small laptop to look at my photos and write my travelogue. the irony doesn't escape me, visiting one of the oldest cities in the world with a slew of the latest in gadgetry.
this morning i also dumped my grass finally. it was still alive, but barely, since i didn't bother watering it this week, and it was mostly the basal grass sheaths instead of any real substantial grass growth. i put that thing out of its misery, quite frankly. maybe in the near future i'll start up another rectangle of grass.
i have a list of things to do and things to buy and the few days i have remaining until my vacation i have to get them all done. so today, day 2, my mission was to get my snorkeling equipment. last night i went online and did a search for places around boston that sold snorkeling gear. the only place that i found was united divers in somerville, out of the sullivan square t stop. so during lunch i ventured out with a photocopied map of the place and the address. i took the red line to dtx, and then from dtx i took the orange line to sullivan square.
i found the place without too much trouble (as if the scuba diving mural on the side of the building didn't give it away). i actually used the position of the sun to determine which direction i should be walking in (i left the gps back at the office, hmmpf!). the guy who showed me which items to buy, mike, he was pretty darn helpful. i got:
- oceanic 4 window snorkeling mask
- oceanic response flex snorkel tube (black)
- cressi light fin (yellow)
- mesh equipment bag (free, cause i bought so much stuff)
so i returned to the office, clutching the mesh bag filled with snorkeling goodies. i wonder if anyone was curious to know what i was doing? before i got back i grabbed a salad from au bon pain.
at work sarah came by my desk and said if she could talk to me in private. that's never a good sign. i didn't think i was getting fired, maybe she was just concerned about my turkey trip and wanted to know if everything was all right. we found a private place to talk and she informed me that i'd be losing my current work space and moving to a new place in the office. i really love my current location. close to the entrance, private, plenty of sun. if i was to be moved in order for somebody higher on the totem pole to come and take my spot, i have no problems with that, but this place will be left empty. reason for moving? too much socializing with the office manager, even though no one's complained. i don't know, leaves me with a disgruntled feeling. i think if there was a problem with my socializing, maybe they should talk to me about it first before moving me. i feel like a child who has to be separate from the others because i've become unruly. even with the relocation, i can still be disruptive! when the clock struck 5pm today though, all i wanted to do was to leave the office as fast as possible. somehow some of the fun of work has been tarnished. i take solace in the fact that when it comes time to actually move me, i will fortunately not be here. my new space is definitely larger, albeit less private, albeit less sunny. who knows, maybe over time i will grow to love my new space. but for now, i will find comfort from the production department, which has also being displaced, it's travel weary members forced to become refugees once again and take up residence in new neighborhoods.
anyway, can't really deal with that right now, when i have bigger fish to fry!
i left work and went to porter square where there's a city sports that might carry life preservers. i get there and ask one salesperson and he tells me they don't carry them, and then i ask somebody behind the counter, and he says the same thing, but he adds that i might try toys'r'us, they sell those floatation armbands. uh, yeah, helpful advice, but not exactly what i'm searching for. still, not wanting to leave the store empty-handed (no! i am not suggesting shoplifting!), i bought a pair of swimming goggles.
i go home, and after dinner i'm surfing the web for places i might be able to buy life perservers here in boston. i go to rei (where i know they sell these things) and see that there's a store close by, one in reading, off of route 128, exit 40. checking the clock and seeing that i have about a hour, i jump into the car and speed off to said location. i get there, i go in, and it's this huge sporting department store, and there's an assortment of life preservers for me to try on and peruse. the woman who helped me, joan (25193), she was super helpful. i ended up getting a forest green life jacket (believe me, color had nothing to do with it, it was just the second cheapest floatation device they had!).
driving home, i was super opposite of road rage. i drove 10 miles above the speed limit and maintained my speed throughout. at one point i even had an unmarked police car follow behind me (thank god i wasn't driving fast enough to pull over). cars were passing me left and right, but i was so relaxed and so without any sort of rage or desire to get home as fast as possible. that was the highway. when i finally hit the thickly settled residential roads, my driving style suddenly shifted. i became more reckless. at one point there was a slow car in front of me and i pulled into the opposite lane to pass it, with oncoming traffic speeding towards me. i was seconds away from a full 40mph head-on collision! i even whispered to myself, whoa. i slowed down after that. just a few days before my vacation, wouldn't want to get into some serious car accident prior to leaving! i think i have enough problems, with the possible threat of terrorist attack looming ominously overhead.