early this morning i drove renata to her aunt sally's house in watertown so she could pick up her spare keys. her aunt sally wasn't home (still out from a night of clubbing, i'm joking of course), but her aunt tina was there to get her the keys. from there a quick stop at renata's place so she could shower and change into some clean clothes (i was in the living room watching clay pigeons), before i drove her to school, where she had to get ready for her kids next week. she was very appreciative and kept on thanking me throughout the whole trip. i came back to cambridge where i parked the car and then took the t into boston, alerting alex via instant messaging that i was going to be a little bit late for work. i introduced myself to my new next door neighbors, jen and franz. they asked about the area, i told them it was a great place, very quiet and nice. i didn't get to the office until 11:30am, carrying with me a package of chocolate chip cookies that i'd been eating on the run, my breakfast, my lunch.

i didn't go back out until 3pm, took a short walk to chinatown to buy some pastries ($1.20) and a cup of carambola pearl tea ($3). when i came back, tom asked me for my e-mail address, which i was more than happy to give him. "it's been nice working with you," he said. i hesitated, slightly confused. "today's my last day here," he explained. i suddenly realized what he was telling me. like some horrible deja vu, this was the second time where i've been at a company that's let tom go. i've myself been through so many layoffs (although usually i am the recipient) that i was sort of numb to the whole news. what can you say, really? and just like that, he was gone.

alex and i went running at 4pm, minus kristine, who took half the day off to refinance her car. i didn't have the unfettered energy of our very first run on wednesday, but what i lacked in liveliness i made up for in speed, both of us running at about my usual gallop. we went along my old kendall square based charles river route, down the mass ave bridge, across the longfellow. somehow the path seemed shorter, although the vast quantity of "visual distractions" might've something to do with it. coming back, we even ran through downtown crossing, rudely dodging people left and right like an obstacle course.

back at the office, katrinka told me about the seahorses she and brian have been raising at home, and thought about what to raise in the office salt water tank now that puff the pufferfish has dead. people started to head out, james, then alex, then katrinka & brian. i was the next to go at 6pm, leaving adam behind in the office. i almost fell asleep on the commute back home, many days of 4 hours sleep finally taking a toll on me.

when i got home, i quickly fell asleep on the couch watching the red sox game (versus the yankees, red sox would eventually win, 10-5, now they're only 3.5 games behind our nemesis). i slept some more in the bedroom, before waking up at around midnight to make dinner, soup from a can again. mike lee, who earlier today had left a message on my cellphone about possibly moving in tonight, is missing in action once again.