she gathered up her stuff and together we left for harvard square. the streets were lined with construction workers on their breakfast break. in this new politically correct world order, they no longer cat call or maybe any comments, 
but it's still impossible to stop them from leering. i was helpless to defend mandy from wandering eyes, the situation exacerbated by the fact that she was carrying her yoga mat (you know what they say about chicks who do yoga). we parted ways at harvard station, the last i'll see mandy (so i thought) until she comes back to boston next week. i gave john rogaris a quick call to make sure he got the paperwork for the closing, then took the subway into the financial district, where i bumped into brian on the train, leaving his boyfriend's place and heading into BU. he asked if dan was already married, and whether or not he was in brazil.
john's office was on broad street, former street of screen house (before we moved to the boston design center), and the walk downtown through the financial district was a nostalgic one. i called john to make sure he was there, but when i got just the voicemail, i hung out in one of the plazas beneath the shadow of the custom house tower until john called me back. i went upstairs to a little mini-belmont high school reunion. the closing went fast, i just had to sign a stack of legal documents, and in-between signatures, 
john and i would be catching up. i'm actually lucky to have gotten him when i did, these are his final days at the company, venturing out to start his own law firm. he revealed to me that most of his clients are chinese (his cellphone is filled with chinese names), and when they're not on big cases, they do mortgage closings as a steady source of income. after i wrote out a check and john made me copies of all the paperwork i signed, he walked me outside and we said our good byes.
i walked to the squid office and continued with my work from yesterday. i got messaged from mandy telling me that she's actually going to be at south station later in the afternoon, waiting for her bus, so we made plans to hang out, maybe get some bubble ice tea. i ate two bananas while i worked, giving me the energy to go running during lunch.
i got changed out of my business outfit and into my running gear. i left the office with alex and kristine, who both had already ran yesterday. unlike them, i try not to run on consecutive days, to allow my legs some time to heal between runs. the weather was warm but dry, and there was a strong breeze, which was nice. i bumped into debra may again, who didn't recognize me in my circa 1992 macworld boston t-shirt and contact lenses. we cut through downtown crossing, across boston common, then to the charles river, down storrow drive in the direction of MIT, stopping at an exercise relay station. they ran at a light pace, which is good because it's not bad on the knees and allows us to chat throughout the whole run, but slow compared to my usual one man pace. i guess now i know where i stand on the running spectrum, i run to exhaustion when i'm by myself, using up as much energy as possible going as fast as possible, so it was nice to take a break from all that hard running. we did some chin ups and pull ups at the relay station, alex and kristine doing some sit-ups on the soft grass while i did some bicycle crunches on the hard asphalt. coming back, i had so much energy left that i went crazy, chasing piegons, jumping every so often to touch a leaf up in a tree, pick up broken branches and smash them against tree trunks, or stomping on twigs. when we arrived at boston common, we ran up a hill, and i proceeded to run in zig zags and circles, finally feeling that familiar sensation of utter exhaustion.
back at the office, i saw that mandy had left two message on my voicemail. i headed out to south station to meet up with her. 
she was hiding in the "bookstore," we located one another via cellphone. she had just had lunch with christine and dio, two former srm designers like herself. 
we walked to chinatown to get some bubble ice tea, i helping her carry some of her bags. we hung out for about an hour in the upstairs chinese dinery, mandy seeing a mouse scurrying across the floor and feeling humbled surrounded by so many asians. she almost gave the patrons a taste of "girls gone wild" when she was fixing the string of her linen halter top. we walked back to the bus depot where she was catching her 5pm bus to southern massachusetts. after a warm farewell embrace, i watched as mandy disappeared up the escalator.
adam and i were the last people to leave the office. downstairs, michelle came by to pick adam up, zella (with biting teeth) in a baby seat in the back. 
i got back home a little bit before 7pm, making soup from a can for dinner, calling up joel to make plans to visit the museum of science tonight where they were having a star party upstairs to watch the closest earthly approach by mars in 60,000 years. joel and sean got here at 9:30pm, we went to the museum, but the placed was packed with people and traffic, and the clouds were rolling in anyway, so we decided to bail. it was probably for the better anyway, we didn't have to risk getting conjunctivitis peering into a stranger's telescopic instrument, surrounded by astronerds who get off on the stars. i promised them as soon as i buy a portable power source, i'll invite them out to do some less congested star and planet gazing.