i went to bed at 1am last night. that may sound late to some people, but you have to know that i don't usually go to sleep until 2-3am. so last night was an early night for me (fell asleep reading my caterpillar book), and when i woke up this morning, i'd logged 9 hours of sleep. it's really great the amount of sleep i get when i don't have to commute to work. the downside is the transition from sleeping state to working state is immediate; as soon as i'm out of bed, the first thing i do is to turn on my computer. i programmed for 4 hours before uploading another version of the code for the client to bug test. my sister came over to bake a cake for our father's birthday tomorrow. later my mother and suhan's mother came over to help. i left them all at my place when i went to a client meeting in central square. my former boss alex was supposed to show up as well but he forgot about the meeting. it went quick, and we were done after an hour, me leaving with a list of things to fix.

i went down to the mass college of arts near longwood for the beaver no seikatsu exhibit by shintaro miyake. i wasn't quite sure what it was, something about a performance artist who dresses up as a beaver and builds a den. i only went because i love beavers and it sounded interesting, but it was actually sort of boring, and i didn't see any performance (just some photos of past performances hanging from the wall along with some art). apparently the exhibit was in conjunction with the harvard zoology department, who set up a little room with beaver information, including an actual stuffed beaver behind a glass case. it was a great place to people watch with all sorts of artsy types mingling together, but by myself i felt a little self-conscious, and after snapping a few photos, i left and grabbed the green line back to park street (it was for free, i slipped on the train through a side door without paying).

the subway ride back to porter square was a bit surreal. first, i was squeezed between two women, one reading karl marx (so cambridge), the other an attractive gigantess browsing an issue of newsweek. a man came onboard tugging a pit bull on a barbed leash. there was an uneasy rustle as people eyed the dog with some apprehension. the dog seemed friendly enough, whipping people with its tail, but seemed a bit hyper. a woman came onboard, a rather busty female wearing a distracting v-neck sweater, and apparently she knew the man because she started playing with his dog. the pit bull was chewing on a wet tennis ball that would occasionally drop out of its mouth and it'd chase after it, plowing through people in the process. when the couple finally sat down opposite me, i knew i had to take a photo otherwise i would kick myself forever.

when i came back to the house everyone had left but the place smelled like a bread shop and my mother had tidied up my place as well. i thought it was weird that my brita water pitcher was sitting outside, until i looked inside the fridge to see a big cake sitting on one of the shelves. julie came over in the evening to make dinner, some sort of peanut curry with shrimps. the jumbo shrimps she used ended up being slightly undercooked and we both had to microwave our meal.