i realized today that figuring out what's wrong with the body is a lot like debugging a program. the body is an application and occasionally errors pop up. in order to fix the bug, the doctor/programmer has to know the symptoms. 
telling the doctor/programmer something is broken is not very helpful. being able to reproduce the bug is essential to fixing it. i told my doctor about the mysterious chest pain, and also the mysterious leg pains. the leg stuff he was stumped, but because i had more info about the chest discomfort, he had a better sense of what could be wrong. it didn't seem to be anything serious like an aneurysm because that would really hurt. he said it was probably a muscle or bone issue, and told me to come back in a month. that seems to be his answer to a lot of my mysterious problems.
as for the physical, he took my blood pressure again (the nurse already did it before i went to the examination room) and listened to my chest. he said if my chest pain doesn't clear up, he may get me to take a chest x-ray. as for my blood pressure, it was a bit high, so we decided to up my diovan dosage to 160mg.
with that, my annual physical was over. he didn't even do any blood tests, said he'd do them when i returned for my follow-up appointment next month. actually, i'm supposed to get them done a few days beforehand, so i'll need to come to the hospital at least 2 more times. basically, today was kind of a waste of time. also i didn't tell him that my health insurance is currently in flux again, and by july i may be switching my insurance again and might not be able to go to MGH anymore. something to look forward to.
it was actually hotter today than yesterday, with the official boston temperature at 94°F. despite the heat, 
i was compelled to be outside as much as possible. after lunch (bacon egg english muffin sandwich with a smoothie), i went to the community garden to water my plants. along the way i bumped into my neighbor ed, drinking a can of soda in his wife beater, standing out on the sidewalk in front of his house. we chatted about nothing in particular. he said hello to some other neighbors, and told me all the harvard kids were graduating tomorrow.
when i got back home i checked online, and sure enough, harvard's commencement is scheduled for tomorrow morning. i actually thought it wouldn't be until the first week of june (like it was last year). the sudden increase of well-dressed people walking around the neighborhood should've clued me in. i decided to head down to the square to look for photo ops.
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i took a circuitous route, down beacon and kirkland street. i was hoping to get some shots of bicyclists, especially the occasional lady bikers with their stylish riding outfits. that'll be my summer long project since i live right next to a main biking thoroughfare linking somerville-cambridge to boston.
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when i got to harvard campus, they were in the midst of their class day event, which is like an informal commencement before the actual graduation ceremony tomorrow. there's normally a guest speaker, 
with conan o'brien and will ferrell being past choices. this year however they got christiane amanpour, CNN's chief foreign correspondent. even though there were signs stating the seats were for people with tickets, amanpour seemed like a tough draw so there were plenty of empty chairs to be had. 
i congregated with most of the other event crasher, on the steps of the widener library. the oppressive heat might've also had something to do with the small crowd, and i watched as people desperately crowded watering stations dotting the campus. i imagine also plenty of students ditching class day to go to the beach on this last year before they officially leave the safe confines of academia and into the real world.
i wanted to hear amanpour speak, but the parade of warm-up speakers and award ceremonies were so boring, i decided to leave instead.
at some point today i also planted a few cosmos and zinnia seeds.
the highlight of the day was game 5 between the magic and the celtics in orlando. i fixed myself another chicken caesar salad and parked in front of the tv for the rest of the evening. once again, there was no cheering tonight. the celtics had the lead at the start of the game, and the magic committed a bunch of turnovers, but they started making their 3-pointers, and celtics were missing their shots and not making any offensive rebounds, basically a recipe for disaster. even then, the celtics came as close as 6 points, before the game entered the asterisked territory.
first perkins is ejected for 2 frivolous technicals. then big baby davis is essentially sucker-punched in the face with dwight howard's elbow and suffers a concussion (he may miss the rest of the series, if not more). then some other celtics player suffered another concussion (i actually didn't believe it, because from the replay he might've faked it because he wasn't playing very well). i have to believe based on all this overwhelming evidence that the games are fixed. the referees are under pressure from the commissioner to extend the series into a game 6 or 7 in order to maximize ad revenues. celtics have to play angry friday night back in boston, and they must retaliate against dwight howard's "accidental" elbows with some "accidental" elbows of their own. in game 4 howard nearly gave kevin garnett a concussion with an elbow to the back of the head. i would *love* to see a celtics player elbow him in face. of course the best retaliation is to just eliminate the magic from the playoffs, but celtics nation demands satisfaction!