this was the start of an off-key monday which really had its origin from last night, when i had a bout of insomnia and didn't go to sleep until after 4am. i wasn't stressed, but i learned not to think before i go to bed and i think i was guilty of that, so suddenly my mind wasn't fuzzy anymore. i got a rule when i can't sleep: i wake up and do something else, no point suffering in bed. i watched some television, played a little "no one lives forever," and read that siege of stalingrad book. i'm at the part where the russians surround the german army, it's starting to get muy muy exciting.
i went to work, taking the subway instead of the bike, since the weather looked like it might rain. at the office, it was work work work until noon, then we had a projects meeting. "finishing up kiosk 3, working on kiosk 1 for the rest of the week," was my piece of info that i shared with the rest of the class. once the meeting was over, i grabbed my bag and left the office to get some lunch. i went to the taiwan cafe, where they have these $6/plate lunch specials. i went in and immediately said "one, please" in mandarin to the man standing near the doorway. turns out he didn't work there, i touched his shoulder and said, "oh, i'm sorry," in english, two korean girls waiting behind us in line giggling at my social faux pas. i always order the dish with the little chili pepper icon whenever i go to asian restaurants (i like a little kick in my food), and today was no exception. 
i figured i wanted something exotic, so i got the "sesame oil hip flowers," which is chinese euphemism for pork intestines. i also ordered a plate of smelling tofu, but the waitress told me they were out today (no!). when my order finally arrived, it looked nothing like i imagined it. it looked and tasted like a big plate of liver, sliced in such a way to resemble flowers in the broadest of definition. here on a monday afternoon in chinatown, i was experiencing my own private fear factor. not wanting anything to go to waste, i ended up eating everything, but it was a real struggle downing so much pork intestines. after lunch, i went to a chinese supermarket and got some candy to cover up the taste of pig guts in my mouth.
i left work close to 6pm, wanted to get home early enough to go running. it didn't strike me odd that i was the first person to leave the office, and no one said anything, since i'm a freelancer and i can set my own strange hours. once i got home i changed into my running clothes and checked the time. 5:30pm. what the? no no, that's when i left the house, how can it still be 5:30pm? i checked a few other clocks in my house, to make sure it wasn't just an anomaly. so guess what happened? i left work an hour early! the new computer i was using must've had the wrong system time. i spent the whole day thinking it was an hour later when in fact it was an hour earlier.
as soon as i stepped out, it started to rain. this of course brought a smile to my face. while most people would rather avoid being soaked in a rainstorm, i welcome the opportunity when i'm out running. i took a certain sick pleasure in seeing people dodging the sudden downpour. i sped along the charles river in the rain, taking off the saturated t-shirt, slowly to a walk at one point when i started to cramp up, strands of wet hair covering my eyes, my running shoes squishy with rain water. when i got home i noticed mike was home, inside his bedroom with the door closed. i took a shower and watched some news in the living room, my hand around a cold can of soda. mike came out, ordered some chinese food, and when it arrived, he left to go have takeout dinner at his girlfriend's place.
andrew came by close to 9pm. bringing with him dinner in the form of cajun spiced salmon steaks. we cooked up some rice and the fish and ate while watching the conclusion of the red sox victory over the devil rays. we also watched some monday night football, dallas cowboys against the new york giants, before he went back home.