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after lunch, paula and i went to the mall to check out the new imacs. they had two on display which we played with extensively. the lcd screen on a swivel arm is just really cool. 
from a certain angle, the screen seems to be floating on its own, suspended in midair. you can tilt it and turn it whichever way and angle you want. it's just cool and once you see it you know you want one. from a cost perspective, it's totally worth it. even if you bought a last year's model g4 for $1300 (between 400-500Mhz), the cost of buying a 15" flat panel lcd is $600, so you'd end up spending $100 more. the new imac comes with the 15" lcd attached, did i mention it swivels?, runs at 800Mhz, and comes with a superdrive that can burn both CD's and DVD's. all this for $1800! i'm very tempted to buy one this weekend. i'm through with clunky towers and desk hogging crt monitors. i want something designed so elegantly and simple, it virtually disappears. when you use the new imac, you don't even notice the computer's there.
when i got back from the mall carrie had some good news to tell me. i am being totally sarcastic of course, since it was actually bad news. the proposed schedule we sent to the client came back with revisions saying they wanted it at the end of this month instead of the beginning of march. this essentially eliminates a month of work time we thought we could have. after receiving the news, it felt like somebody died. suddenly everything became very serious. <insert anxiety attack here> "did you tell him the news?" €liza asked. maybe people were expecting some kind of reaction from me, but when i hear news like that (news of the bad kind), it's like, "hey, whatever, what can we do?" i don't feel anything. i think that's how i deal with crisis. you strip away your feelings, everything becomes clear, you just try to solve it. we'll see what happens tomorrow when we have a project meeting to discuss this new change.
i left work close to 7pm, went to the people's republik in central square for the weekly thursday night gathering. i was the first person there, the irony of which didn't escape me, being that i don't drink yet i am the first to arrive at the bar. "do you have any mineral water?" i asked the bartender. 
he gave me a look that said, "wrong place," so then i added, "do you have anything...anything non-alcoholic? like coke?" do you see how funny that is? i'm in a bar and i'm asking for something non-alcoholic! the very nature of the establishment is the business of alcohol! i got my coke and sat down, proceded to wait for everyone else to arrive. i tried drinking my coke with ice in the most sophisticated tough way i could, without the straw, sort of cradling it in my hand like a beer, squinting at the television, hunched over on my barstool. i felt like a fish out of water. i waited for about 30 minutes before joel showed up, holding a genuine beer in his hand. we chatted, waited for the others, eventually moved to a different table because the old bar ladies behind us were smoking up a storm. we left at 8pm, kind of guessing that we probably been stood up and that nobody else would be joining us for the evening. well! it's because i've been coming to these thursday night outings that i've missed the entire new season of charmed, with rose macgowan, whom i love. i have a feeling that i won't be missing any more charmed episodes.
joel and i ended up at the new central square wendy's. in honor of dave thomas' recent passing, i ordered myself the spicy chicken sandwich combo, biggie-sized of course. 
i asked for a minute maid orange soda, but the guy must've misheard me and gave me a large container of yellow lemonade. but that's okay. 
like i was telling joel, i'm a chameleon! you give me lemons i made lemonade all up in your face! ever changing, ever adapting, i'm a walking talking zartan for the year 2-0-0-2. the sandwich was just the way i remembered it when i use to hit wendy's in dtx at least once a week working at newmarket network back in 1996-1997. the fries however were soggy, and nobody bothered to sprinkle salt on them so they were bland. the fact that i biggie sized my fries meant that i had that much more soggy fries to finish, but luckily joel was helping me out in my quest to not waste food (unlike during lunch, when i had a whole lot of leftovers left on my plate).
after i finished eating, i took the t home while joel drove off in his jeep.