my meetings ended at 1pm (unfortunately for todd and eliza, they had another meeting after that, poor todd, poor eliza!) and i went with barbara for a walk down to the mall, where we browsed a few stores, got food from the food court (she taco bell, me burger king), and then went out back, sat by the water, and ate our meal. it was the perfect lunch. something about eating by the water on a sunny day that brings out the peace in me. too bad i didn't bring my camera, there were so many photoworthy moments: the girl dangling her feet by the water, the mallard ducks, the canada geese, the paper napkins blowing into the water and how barbara and i leaned precariously over the edge (i had to hold her legs down) and luckily dredged them from the pool.
warm weather also makes people want to get their run on. amanda approached me and said she might go running today during lunch. that's her special way of asking me if i want to go. unfortunately she became overburdened with work and couldn't leave. nevertheless, i really wanted to enjoy today's weather as much as possible, and decided that i might go running after work, in the hour of daylight before sunset. i wasn't concerned about the fact that i ran yesterday, and it's not a good idea to run on consecutive days because your legs take a beating. i was never much of one to listening to rules however. i casually pitched the idea to eliza. that's my way of asking if she wanted to go. i was kind of surprised when she expressed some interest in actually doing it. so when work time was officially over, i went downstairs to meet up with her. she wore a pair of running shorts, i had on my frattish cancun t-shirt. i guess for her, 60 degrees is shorts weather (although technically when we left the office, the temperature had already crept down to 55 degrees, but still unseasonably warm). for me, shorts weather is around 40 degrees not including the wind chill. after work is the perfect time to run because it's at the end of the day and you can go straight home right afterwards and because if you time it just right, you can catch the sunset over the charles, see the boston skyline lit up by the descending sun.
before we left the office, i gave eliza a piece of gum. i find gum chewing really helps with the running because it gives me something to do. also, it's fun spitting things over the bridges and into the charles river!
eliza had a blister on her heel (from her run yesterday, all my fault) and because she couldn't find a bandaid in the office, we had to make a quick stop to the kendall convenience store to buy something for her ailing foot. we left with alex, would told us about his weekend 16 miles run. it'll be interesting to see if there's any hobbling in the office come monday morning. anyway, eliza and i ran to the store and since they didn't have any sample packs of bandaids (she should've just winona'ed a box underneath her shirt!), so opted for a role for bandage tape, paying with her two dollar and telling the cashier man to keep the change (money money!). i watched as she bandaged up her heel and then put some bandage on the inside of her one misbehaving sneaker.
since we were already at the base of the longfellow bridge, we decided to do our usual course in reverse, crossing the bridge first. the sun was already setting when we crossed over, a fuzzy patch of magenta in the sky where the sun should be. going down the path along storrow drive, we kept our eyes towards the sun, joking about the possibility of being blinded. no surprise, but there were a lot more people out running, seemed like everybody wanted to cash in on our one day of nice weather. the big joke theme today was stealing or doing the winona, and as we ran, i would point and tell eliza to steal that backpack or grab that bag. i would also instruct her to run between any couple that were walking hand and hand along the charles river. i also dazzled eliza with the hand puppet i had created during our belated mandatory staff only office meeting, talking to her briefly through my clenched fist. after we crossed the mass ave bridge, we stopped briefly so eliza could retape her blister, a little bit worse than when we first started. poor eliza! it's all my fault, it's true. first, she had to get supports for her aching foot, and now this blister. so we started to run again, and actually i discovered running the course in this opposite direction is bad if you want to see the boston skyline, because it was actually sort of behind us, at least the prudential and hancock tower along with the citgo sign (for me, that's what the boston skyline is all about). we ran, occasionally turning our head back to admire the lovely view (however, we did have a nice view of beacon hill and the financial district area of boston). we finally stopped running at the edwin land boulevard.
when we got back to the office, i didn't even bother showering, i changed my clothes and left (with paula, who walked with me briefly). walking down the sixth street path i noticed some sort of commotion happening below the marriott hotel, a bunch of firetrucks with their spinning siren lights parked along broadway street. i looked up at the building and saw a column of windows where the lights inside were flashing on and off in a sequence. it was pretty wild. (in the photos below, it's the second column of windows from the right side, it was blinking in a sequence, like a cascading light show. i'm zooming into a man standing at a window watching the activity down below).
total strangers love to ask me directions! what they don't realize is i have no sense of it! you think a guy who knows and gives good directions would need a gps? walking home from the bus stop, a lost cab driver pulled up beside me on the road and we exchanged this piece of dialogue:
cab driver: do you know housyn? me: housyn street? cab driver: no...housyn...do you know housyn? me: uh...you mean street?...or a person? cab driver: housyn! h-o-u-s-y-n. housyn. me: oh, i'm sorry, i don't know where that is... cab driver: okay, thank you! (driving off) i still don't know what he was asking for! |
and wouldn't you know it? as soon as i mentioned lip gloss girl, i haven't seen her on the bus since! i miss her nonsmiling face!
oh, and this morning before work i finally mailed off my broken nikon 950. it should be at nikon factory in a few days. then i will find out how much it's going to take to fix it, and whether or not i should just scrap that idea and buy a new camera (which i'm going to do anyway, regardless). i insured the camera for $450, which is the going rate for a refurbished 950. there was some discussion about my request because i told them it was a broken camera, and the woman filling my order wasn't sure if you could insure something that was already broken. but i got it insured nevertheless, $6, plus another $4 for the actual cost of shipping.