in our new wednesday morning timeslot, when the final call for any good news or tips of the week was going around the crowded makeshift office/meeting room filled with full time staff members, rebecca looked at me and i shook my head. i didn't want to share the news that i was under agreement to buy an apartment. i don't really see how being in debt for the next 30 years while trying to pay for the extortion rate mortgage is a good thing. sure, i'll have my own place, but you can very easily see it as a bad thing as well. i visibly cringe everytime i think how much of my monthly wage will be earmarked for mortgage and taxes and all those other goodies. i don't believe in jinxes, that's not the reason why i was reluctant to reveal my foray into home ownership. my main reason was i don't feel safe having the people who sign my paychecks know that i will now be absolutely dependent on my salary in order to foot the bill for this pricey real estate purchase. i've always took great comfort in knowing that at the drop of a hat, i could find myself unemployed by choice or chance, and suffer no lasting consequences. now, if i don't have a job, the bank forecloses on my new apartment, i'm going to find myself on the street, broke, homeless. okay, i'm being a little dramatic, but in these troubled economic times, only a crazy person would buy a house*. and i think in fact only crazy people do buy houses, at least people my age (as i was telling eliza jones). it's usually couples (i don't consider couples to be normal) or maybe singles with a large parental sponsorship in the form of down payment money or whatnot (i don't consider that the typical person either). regardless of the case, home buyers all have a tale to tell of how they ended up spending so much money to live in a place instead of just renting it like normal people. and yet another reason why i am reluctant to talk too much about the house is that right now i'm still in the early stages. no money has been exchanged other than my $1000 "offer to purchase" deposit, the home inspection isn't until monday, and my lawyer still hasn't gotten back to me. this is the embryonic stage of home ownership development. a lot of things could go wrong and i could be back visiting sunday open houses again. although i'm pretty confident this will be a smooth ride (smooth like expensively debilitating), and unless something happens, it'll be a little bit over two months before i'll be living in a new apartment.

it's kind of funny. i want to keep the news a secret, but by writing about it, a lot of people will know, and those who don't will hear it from those who do. the details of my life are an open source code, the very nature of my existence is entertainment for the masses. i have no secrets, not anymore.

today i was super busy at work. all those people who wrote and congratulated me on my prospective house purchase, thank you and i'm sorry i wasn't able to respond. however, i was able to sneak a few minutes from my busy schedule to make some phone calls, and i made an appointment for a home inspection on monday afternoon. this will give me a chance to finally take some photos of the place. it's kind of weird, i've been to several dozen open houses since august, taking photos of the inside of strangers' homes. my house hunting expeditions are well documented, so it's very ironic that the one house i decide to finally buy, i end up not taking a single photo of the place (other than a photo outside the house on a sunday afternoon).

i spent another day in the coding cave with michael, he smashing away on his pc, me brutalizing the keyboard of my mac. i was so busy i ordered the office lunch after a very long hiatus. i got the same thing michael did, salami with provolone. wasn't bad, a large sandwich though, i only ate half, put the remainder in the small dorm refrigerator with have upstairs.

after work, around 6pm, eliza and i went out running. with each day another step closer to full-blown spring, the days are getting lighter instead of darker. today was somewhere in the 50's, not the warmest of days, but better than the freezing rain of 24 hours ago. around this time is a nice period to go running because the sun is just setting and the view of boston across the charles river makes me want to bring a camera with me when i go. all that beauty, wasted if you don't capture it somehow, preserve the memory forever! as an added bonus, there was a nearly full moon in the sky which grew increasingly brighter as the sun went down.

speaking of preserving memories, you might notice a dearth of people photos on my weblog in recent weeks, if not months. let me tell you, people do not like to be photographed! especially by me! now that they know anything i take might very well go up on the website! that's the price of immortality i suppose. if i write about you, if your photo appears on these pages, you will live on forever. when we are long gone, people will look upon this weblog and read about you, and your memories will live on, and you will live on eternally. i feel like peckers in that eponymous john waters film. i need more photogenic friends. the closest path to my heart is by not being shy in front of my camera lens!

it's a difference experience running with eliza. i am very sure that she can easily overtake me in terms of speed even though she's constantly joking about her lack thereof. i know a thoroughbred when i meet one, and when i'm sort of slowing down she's all about speeding up. her swimming and running regimen, that's a double threat. i'm only running, i should take up another sport in order to compete. how about frenetic cage dancing?

* when i say house i mean a condominium/apartment. i am not buying a house, but i am buying a home. just wanted to clarify.