i went out briefly during the afternoon to get a vietnamese sandwich for lunch. kristine and dana were making fried eggplants in the kitchen area. total coincidence, but i ran into joe lunny on the streets of chinatown (former screen house coworker), he having just been located to a nearby office after being in quincy, so i'm probably going to see him all the time now.
alex and i went running at 2pm. i should've probably taken it easy, having ran yesterday, and with some leg pains, but the opportunity to go outside and enjoy the brisk weather was too good to pass up. i know i promised to take my camera, but i left it in the office, which was a good thing, since there wasn't any good photo opportunities, unlike yesterday. i came back, sweaty, and since there's no shower at work, i waited until i dried off naturally before going into the bathroom and changing back into my civilian clothes.
there was a ruckus at work over kristine's toe socks. dana and i were sort of freaked out by them, they sort of look like fingers, and asked kristine if she had problems putting them on since unlike fingers, toes aren't as dextrous. we also talked about people who don't have arms and have to go through life using their mouth and feet. kristine demonstrated her foot writing skills and managed to spell out what she said was her last name on a piece of paper on the floor.
alex and katrinka approached me about "my schedule," which sounded ominous as they escorted me into the private front office to talk. they were getting a lot of work coming in within the next few weeks and wanted to know when i was going on my one week vacation prior to starting as a permanent. the blocked off the week of october 20th for me to take my leave of absence. sensing they were in serious need of coding work though, i told them my vacation time wasn't set in stone, and as long as i was able to take a week off this year, i wouldn't mind postponing it. we ended deciding that the week of november 10th would be vacation time for me. this is great because it'll give me a few more weeks to prepare, and more time to figure out where exactly i want to go. it'll definitely be a warm place though, it'd be nice to escape the new england winter for a chance. this means that i will become a full-time employee by the middle of next week, which for some reason is making me anxious. i sort of like what i have now, i'm in this weird limbo state where i work down at the squid office but i could just as easily work at home, or take a day off without needing permission. once i become a full-time employee though, i'm locked into the working world, i become a company man, and things like coming in to work on time and working my 40 hours per week will become important. this is essentially is my last week as a free man. i feel sad! but i can't remain free forever, and my limited career as a freelancer is just way too hard, i know my limitations, and i don't work well at home.
i left to head down to fenway 13 for the pre-screening. i saw maura waiting outside the theatre for andrew, they were also here for kill bill as well. after a brief chat, i went inside to get some food (popcorn and coke, the usual), before eliza showed up. by the time we went in, there was already a long line for the movie. eliza left to get some food, taking the movie pass with her so she could get back in. when they started to allow people into the screening room, i was left standing outside because they wouldn't let me in without the pass. when eliza came back, we were finally both allowed to go in, sitting next to andrew and maura all the way in the back of the theatre, which wasn't bad since the movie screen was so big. in front of us sat a familiar looking guy, but i wasn't sure if it was really him, so i just shouted "vallencourt!" and sure enough, it was marc vallencourt, another former screen house coworker. the past few days i've been bumping into old colleagues left and right! before the movie started, there was a raffle for such prices as tickets to the circus or crockpot. out of the hundreds of people in the audience, eliza actually got her number called. the prize: tickets to good charlotte, which she declined to accept, to the cheers of some theatre patrons. we sat in a lucky section, because minutes later the guy sitting directly in front of us got his number called as well, followed by the guy diagonally behind us.
(don't worry, no spoilers!) 
kill bill totally lives up to the hype, after all these years of waiting for quentin tarantino's next movie, this is the perfect present. the fact that it's coming in two installments (eliza didn't realize this) makes it that much better, despite the wait. i will definitely get this movie on dvd, no doubt. it's a movie lover's dream film, tarantino is a cinematic sponge, cramming this movie with elements from a bunch of different genres, including samurai films, toho godzilla flicks, anime, western, a touch of de palma, as well the trademark tarantino free form chronology and penchant for ultra-violence. and what a bloodbath it is! especially since most of the fights are knife fights, with samurai swords no less, so expect wall to wall dismemberment. the movie's so gory it was front cover on the latest issue of the horror magazine fangoria, which i will read cover to cover again after seeing the movie. it's ironic i went with eliza, who in the past has told me about her low threshold for violence. the fact that she was twitching to every splash of bloodshed made me twitch as well! there's also so many cool details in the film, little things that show its a labor of love, several nods to the fans as well, including starting off the movie with that famous "revenge is a dish best served cold" quote attributed to "ancient klingon proverb." daryl hannah is also in this movie too, hope this film does to her film career what pulp fiction did for travolta, she's quite hot as one of the viper assassins. and lucy liu, though normally i'm not a fan of hers, did quite well for her role. and UMA THURMAN! 
man, what a role! she's the epicenter this whole seismic cinematic shake of a film is grounded on, and she totally carries the film, she totally has that magical screen presence that makes you want to watch her. eliza also remarked how our mutual acquaintance mandy bears a slight resemble to uma, something my mother noticed as well when she saw a photo of mandy a while back. uma's knife fight with vivica a. fox at the start of the movie totally sucks you into the film and the sword fight with a legion of similarly armed gang members is the best "one person fighting a bunch of people" fight scene i've seen since the gunkata fighting in equilibrium. neo fighting 100 agent smiths in matrix reloaded? yawn. watch this fight scene and you'll know how a real 1-against-100 onslaught is supposed to be done. prediction: there will be a surge in the sales of samurai swords and yellow leather jumpsuits. i really must see the movie again, at least one more time if not more. it's just as good as pirates of the caribbean, but in a different violent and hip way.
after the movie, we ran into andrew and maura outside, as well as joel and shaun and sara. everyone scattered, leaving eliza and i to walk to brown sugar for some late night thai. 
i led the way and i also got us lost as well. finally eliza had to ask a woman for directions, at which point we realized we were just a block away from the restaurant and would've found it anyway without assistance. this evening's endeavour is now asterisked! we had about 30 minutes to eat before they closed, eliza went with some drunken noodles served with tofu while i had the mango chicken curry. note to self: mangos, good by themselves, not so good when used in cooking, which taste sour. i should've gone with the red curry instead, next time.
after settling our bill (the waitress was in a slight rush to see us out since they were closing), we walked back to eliza's car, where she was gracious enough to drive me all the way home back north of the charles river (she lives south of the river) to cambridge. i rewarded her with several flash assisted driving photos, dangerously blinding her temporarily in the process while she negotiated the busy streets of boston and cambridge.