i was dreaming about amanda rawson. we were hiding in a cave somewhere in the future. not knowing if there were any other survivors in this post-apocalyptic world, we decided to make out instead.

i woke up too soon.

a noontime pick-up was delayed until 2pm. manny was driving down to new jersey to deliver his sister's collegiate possessions, and i was going with him, with the promise of an ikea visit. i watched television until manny's arrival, saw trading spaces: boys vs. girls, a kid's version of trading spaces, down to the perky host who will occasionally help out in the projects, two flamboyant designers, and the "reveals" at the end of the show. if you like trading spaces, you owe it to yourself to catch this for-kids version next saturday.

when manny finally arrived, larry was in the front seat, manny was giving him a ride to his sister's daisy's place in the back bay. the rest of the car was filled with boxes and bags. i squeezed myself into a small clearing in the backseat. we first made a quick stop to the south station post office, where manny had to buy stamps for daisy who was still sending out wedding invitations with about two weeks left before the actual date. from there we made went to daisy's place, manny and larry going inside while i kept a watch on the car (parked illegally in front of a fire hydrant). i had my ibook, and just for kicks i decided to turn it on, fire up istumbler, see if i could detect any wireless networks in the area. I COULDN'T BELIEVE MY EYES. there were no less than 5 visible networks detected. i tried one of them. "password needed." i tried another. BINGO. oh my god i am surfing the web for FREE on someone else's wireless network. oh my god. oh my god. when manny came back out, i showed him what i was doing, and he was instantly impressed, said he wanted to go wireless as well.

manny drove, stopping only once at the charleston rest stop (massachusetts) to get some rest (room) and some food (macdonalds). i was able to stay awake the whole trip despite only having slept for 5 hours last night. i'll admit that there were a few times when i had to rest my eyes briefly, but my fears that manny would fall asleep (he only had 4 hours of sleep) and crash the car as soon as i fell asleep kept my awake. when we actually got to new jersey, i saw a male pheasant by the side of the road, the second time in my life where i've seen a wild pheasant. traffic was heavy down at the meadowlands, the nets was hosting the 4th game of the eastern conference finals versus the pistons (jersey would later win the game, sweeping the detriot).

we didn't actually get to jersey city until 8:30pm. manny, his mother, his two sisters and i all went out for thai food. i almost spit out my food when manny told us that daisy was taking 6 weeks off for the wedding, while he was taking only 4 weeks off (the hawaiian honeymoon is 2 weeks). maricar drove us all back home before driving back to her place. i took a shower then went to sleep on the top bunk of manny's sisters' room, manny sleeping on the bottom bunk.