ah, january. it started off with a return back to work after a restful 10 day long holiday vacation. i was getting antsy to come back anyway, nothing much was happening during my time off. eliza jones brought her red pants force to the office. i was happy to see the return of game day after a long hiatus. i saw the resurgence of the celtics, they are definitely for real this season. i met laurie's new cat, and finally got to play scrabble with her, showcasing my limited vocabulary for a loss. amanda rawson and i meet up for 3 different nights which i think is the most times we've hung out in a single month! i had lunch at koreana, and then weeks later it burned down when i was trying to have a special koreana moment with klea. i went to the mfa (first time in a long time) with julie and we saw a cheerful movie about a defunct massachusetts prison for the criminally insane. speaking of movies, saw four others this month: royal tenebaums (lukewarm), brotherhood of the wolf (monica bellucci saved the film), orange county (loved it), and black hawk down (confused, but intrigued). royal tenebaums was seen as part of a rare afterwork office gathering, and an even rarer time that we'd all go out for something that didn't involve drinking of some sort (but you can argue that deeply salted popcorn is just as bad). january saw the introduction of the new lcd imac that paula and i made a special pilgrimage to the apple store just to see it. this month gave me an opportunity to reacquaint myself with bird photography. laurie and i went back to mary chung's. i had korean bbq with the fellows. rob house started working at srm. amy left the company for greener canadian pastures. john and i saw a 3d imax movie. alex and i went on a day trip to nyc. my parents went off to taipei again, a 10 day trip to take care of some family business. i went back to seeing some open houses, the market slowing reawakening like spring bulbs. tsh had another layoff (4th one, depending on who you talk to), the aftermath resulting in elias coming to work for srm for a few weeks. my mannequin dvd finally came. the patriots won the conference and are heading into the super bowl. and today, news of joel coming to work here too (as well as eliza hoover, which i already knew a week ago).

the weather today was nasty, started with snow but ended up becoming sleet. still, pretty to look at, just bad to move around in. during lunch there was some sort of mix up with my order and i ended up having to go downstairs to retrieve my teriyaki steak sub close to 2pm. not that i noticed that much really, i was too busy working. i had one of those days that went by really fast but i felt totally tired afterwards. close to the end of the day joel visited the office. i failed to make the connection that he was here on business and not just for the sake of visiting, as i discovered he was actually here to interview (all dressed up in his business casual interview outfit) and got a freelance gig for a few weeks working upstairs. that will mean by the middle of next week, there will be a total of six ex-screen house employees working at srm. that is just too crazy. not in my wildest dream did i ever think i'd see the day. not in my wildest dream did i ever think screen house would move just a few blocks away from where i work either, and that happened as well. words can't describe what i feel. we have our own little clique almost, and i'm always getting backsided comments about how srm is going to be a tsh clubhouse. i don't mind because it's sort of true.

i left work early-ish, before 6pm, and headed off to cvs, where without any surprise my drugs still weren't ready yet. disappointed, i went home. the weather made me happy though. i don't think i've enjoyed the winter as much as i have this season, or at least it's been a while. i really love the cold, feels like a big outdoor air conditioner. maybe memories of hot and humid summers still remain fresh in my mind. we probably got another month or so of winter before we transition into spring, so i'm savoring every single day of frigid weather. something about the winter air in the mornings that feels clean and crisp, i just want to breathe in deeply. i came home, had dinner, and then feel asleep in bed watching the conclusion of rose red, which i think is probably stephen king's worst miniseries.