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JUL

11

2002

morning run
by morning i mean 10:30am. the outside temperature was in the 60's with a very strong and cold breeze. it felt more like early spring or late autumn instead of summer. this however is perfect running weather, and i knew it, even though in my mind i was trying to rationalize myself into thinking that it wasn't. i warmed up right away and actually wished it could've been even colder, purposely running in the shade to avoid the heat. i did 3 miles once more, stopped only once at the belmont public library to get a pass to the museum of fine arts and browse the new fiction aisles for something to read. after 5 minutes of searching i gave up trying to find something worthy of my time and ran the rest of the way home. at one point i started to cramp up, but i just sort of grit my teeth and continued running, and eventually the pain went away. i was hoping i'd bump into that girl i've been seeing during my morning runs, but unfortunately i left my house a little later than usual and didn't bump into her (although i saw someone who might look like her off in the distance).

getting laid off, it runs in the family
after my run, after my shower, i checked my e-mail and saw that my sister wrote me a message. "i just got laid off. don't tell mom and dad." i immediately wrote her back, "you better tell them or i will." at least she got laid off and not fired, which means she can collect unemployment. she completely stole my thunder though. i figured i'd be the only one in the family laid off and unemployed, and that i'd get all the special attention afforded to someone of that ilk, but now i'm not that special anymore. i gave my sister a few hours to spill the beans to my parents before i broke the news. she still hadn't told them yet, so i became the harbinger of bad news.

in case you were curious, some of my other errands...
called mass general hospital to arrangement an appointment to see a doctor about getting that wart removed from my right temple. whoever it is won't be my usual doctor because my usual doctor takes the summer off. about this wart: i've had it since 4th grade. i like to think it all started when someone accidently burned me with the lit end of a cigarette when i was a little kid. how many more reasons do people need to stop smoking? ever since then, i've had a wart where the burn mark use to be. slowly, over the years, this wart has grown, until now i feel like i'd like to get it professionally removed instead of waiting to see what would happen if i let that thing mature for another decade or two.

and then later, i took another underwater disposable camera to nanor's for processing. say what you will about the instant gratification of digital photography, but i think waiting for your film to get developed can be just as fun. this roll i'm picking up tomorrow contains photos i took three years ago when i went to cancun with claudio and mayu (the most relaxing vacation i've ever had). it also has a few photos of my walden pond trip with julie last week.

i am in love. her name is catalina.
i am in love. her name is catalina. she is a sofa. her measurements are 94" W x 37" H X 41" D. i actually saw photos of her online before actually seeing her for myself on the showroom floor. she was even more curvaceous than what i remember from the photo, and only seeing her live could i know the softness of her cushions. this is what her manufacturer (la-z-boy incoporated) says about her:

"catalina" introduces a bold, whimsical sense of contemporary style into la-z-boy's american home collection. luxurious, loose back pillows are set against a curvaceous camelback frame. sweeping rolled arms flow into the front rail and continue into gracefully tapered wood legs.

those gracefully tapered wood legs send shivers up my spine. she comes dressed in whatever color fabric of my own personally choosing. it shouldn't be a surprise that i've already selected, it's either going to be cayenne, this red velvet material, or strawberry, a red shiny material akin to synthetic silk ($70 more but i think it's worth it). i imagine myself cradled across her length falling sleep watching television in the living room and i get goosebumps. catalina doesn't come cheap however. it's going to take $1300 out of my own pocket plus 8 weeks of waiting before catalina can arrive at my house.

(i went to the la-z-boy showroom in burlington today, saw some couches, maybe found out that i really like, might be too expensive, i'm going to do some comparison shopping, but i might just have to take a hit on this household item, it's not everyday you fall in love with a sofa.)

workmen's progress, day two
i continue to be very happy with the work that my team of brazilian construction guys have been doing at the place. sure, the place is a mess, with sheet rock dust covering just about everything, but these guys seem to be pretty meticulous when it comes to details, which is the best kind of contractors. last night they stripped off the entire ceiling of the living room, leaving nothing but the old-style thin wooden planks inside all the walls. bear in mind that this house is 100 years old, before the invention of sheet rocks, where the only way to secure a wall or a ceiling is by creating a dense wall of wood beams before covering it up with a cheap sheet rock-like substitute. the workers have also plastered the seams and nailheads of any newly created walls, which sort of reminds me of the surface of a ritz cracker.

i'm worried about the fact that since they can only work at nights, after their regular contract job is all done, that my neighbors might complain about the noises, because there's a lot of hammering and cutting and ripping down. hopefully most of that is over now, right now it seems there's just small stuff left. i so much want to be loved by my neighbors!

i received my first unemployment check
got my very first unemployment check in the mail today, suitable for framing. it feels so weird though. the past few weeks, when i haven't been doing house stuff, i've really been just having fun. hanging out with friends, enjoying the weather, living a pretty good life. and then out of the blue, through my mail slot on the floor of the foyer comes this check essentially paying me for the all the work i've been doing! this unemployment business is just too easy. i haven't been this happy since i received my $300 george bush check last summer.

korean barbecue
when the construction guys showed up at 7:30pm (their truck broke down again, i hope they don't think the project is cursed somehow), my father and i left the house to meet up with my mother, sister, and aunt (the one visiting from taipei) to go out to dinner. we decided to go to the apollo grille in chinatown based on my recommendation. it's funny, if you were to ask me what my favorite restaurants are in chinatown, i would never say the apollo, despite the fact that i've probably gone there more often than a lot of other chinese restaurants in the area. it's just one of the few places that has korean barbecue, and most of the time when i go there, it's not so crowded that i can't get a table. so dinner, three plates of raw meat (beef and pork), a lot of sashimi, a lot of sushi.

finally, i became reacquainted with an old macintosh game, a japanese import called macigame. back in college, my roommates and i use to compete with one another to see who could get the highest score (claudio, manny, yung-hsin, you know what i'm talking about!). those were the days! not only is the game simply addictive, but you can also change the tiles as well, and it's pretty easy to design your own too. between snood and macigame, when will i find the time to look for a job?