i'm all packed up for new york city, i could leave right now if that was the case. i have a tendency to overpack, so i've been trying to make an effort to bring just the bare minimum. i brought 3 t-shirts, 3 underwears, 3 pairs of socks, 2 long-sleeved pullovers, and a pair of columbia travel khakis. later i changed the khakis out with a pair of stretch dress pants, my favorite pants from china. the khakis are super comfortable, but they're also a little light, and if it gets cold in the evenings, i'd like to have some warmer pants. i will wear jeans tomorrow morning when i leave for south station, and those will be my 2nd pair of pants.

i also debated whether i should bring my chargers (canon and fuji), and ended up taking them just in case. i packed a canvas grocery bag as well, in case i buy something and it won't fit in my backpack. as far as camera equipment, for my canon i'm packing my 18-200mm, my 28mm, and my 10-22mm. i'm also bringing my fuji 3D camera. i'm carrying all my camera equipment in my mountainsmith daypack, which will just barely fit the dSLR (bulging). i'll carry my daypack during the day, with my camera out, so it won't feel as heavy.

i drove my mother to the waltham OSJL in the early afternoon after i arrived in belmont and had some beef broth soup and leftover ribs for lunch. the toyota has just been sitting in the driveway all winter long, and in that time, the breaks have gotten a little soft. i never noticed it because from my motorcycle experience i naturally break soft (you never want to break hard, because that leads to skidding or even getting thrown off your bike), but i noticed it today. i also got a chance to use the newly replaced wipers, and they were awesome, wiped the windshield clean, not a smudge or speck of fluid in sight. i must've gotten used to old wipers.

i got some suet cakes for the feeder while my mother was in search of pink yarn for a partially-completed hat she was knitting. unfortunately they were all out of the yarn she wanted. she left with some boxes of stash tea. we got a footlong chicken teriyaki sandwich from the subway next door for a late lunch.

when we got back my sister was dropping off hailey. after dinner i biked back home. today's temperature was in the 60's, and i only wore my light jacket. thankfully the temperature was still in the upper 50's for my ride home, wasn't cold at all.

i dashed steve a quick e-mail, said his weekend package was on his doorstep, that was going away for the week (didn't say where), and that i had a mexican nutritionist staying at my place for 2 months. i didn't tell him that she's already been here 2 months, maybe that's something he already figured out, but my upstairs neighbors are so oblivious to the going ons of their downstairs neighbor, that it'd be very surprising if they did know anything.

while i was packing, i also filled the aquarium tank (it lost over 2 gallons of water due to evaporation), put away the dishes, threw out the trash, and watered my plants. i'm most worried about my plants, as i didn't leave karen with any instructions on taking care of them, but i wouldn't trust her to do it either (without making a mess). i just watered everything to capacity, and hope that when i get back on thursday everything will still be okay.

i'm waking up at 5:30am to get ready for my 7am departure from south station via megabus. i bought the tickets late wednesday night: $17 to new york, $21 coming back. i'm going to use the bathroom, take a shower, and get to bed early tonight. whether i get some sleep or not is a different story, but i'll definitely sleep on the bus as well. hope it's not crowded, but i can't imagine a monday morning bus to be jam-packed with people.