Waiting and Wegmans [Sunday 15]

Got up in Brookline at 7 in the morning, way too early since I went to sleep at 2am. Tried going back to sleep, unsuccessfully for about an hour or so before actually getting up and getting ready to head back home. AD and ND were going to RD's place (the one with the family, in Brookline) for breakfast and I tagged along with them -- I don't want to miss opportunities to meet new people.

RD lives with his wife and two kids, and holds a faculty position in one of the hospitals as a pretty senior researcher. We talked and teased the young kids, RD's daughter who's 5 is really proud she discovered several gymnastics moves all by herself (and is going to start playing soccer), and that she can almost (almost, almost) read musical notation. She played us a few (two) songs on her baby-sized piano which is one of the cutest things that has happened to me recently. We teased her by talking all professional by asking if she knew who her class teacher was going to be next year, and the importance of having a good teacher -- I teased ND that he was talking as if we were talking about her PI, since ND works in the research field. We had avocado-egg sandwiches, I got caught up with RD and hopefully gave him a sense of my self. He drove me to the Green Line shuttle.

The journey back home was miserable and took almost two hours where it would have otherwise taken 45 minutes on a bike, and a little slower on foot. It's almost as if the Orange like knows I'm using it and is deliberately a minute or two slow so I exactly miss the bus in Sullivan. I ended up waiting for almost an hour for 101 bus. This is a test of patience, I've realized, taking public transport in Boston, and I intend to ace this one. After finally getting on the bus, I realized I didn't have the house keys on me when I got home, so I waited for half-hour, maybe an hour for roommates to show up. Since no one did, decided to make a better use of the time by doing groceries at wegmans. Put Totally Tintin podcast on and went on a relaxing grocery trip.

So many people shopping for others (for those services). Realized that the concept of 'work only in the field you love' is not only an awful advice it can be actually harmful -- I really enjoy shopping but because I use it as a time to unwind and explore the possibilities. If I took it up as a job (because after all I enjoy doing it) not only would I start hating it, I'd also not be doing very well career-wise since my skills are elsewhere. Something to ponder upon. Didn't get anything particularly this time around, except a few french rolls and other fresh-baked rolls (they were so fresh they were still warm and steamy), and a container of Wegman's premium Sorbet. Really shocked by the variety of flavors Wegman's has for in-brand frozen-treats (icecream, sorbet, other stuff) section. Had to take a screenshot and send it to folks. Saw a cute woman there, and I felt warm and smiley all throughout. Could also have been the fact that the thick-warm jacket was still on indoors, but please she was cute so lets give her the credit okay.

Walked back against the wind fierce as any wind I've faced recently, had trouble walking properly, what with a plastic bag in one of my hands acting as a parachute. Figured roommate was still not back from haircut (this is roommate PK), so just stayed outside our door. After 40 minutes roommate PK was back and we went in, only to discover roommate AL had been inside throughout -- what a fool I am! Roommate PK was back and recovered from the party, roommate BB was back from Maine, and roommate AL was in-house. It was a nice gathering, figured out the grocery-location and had the french-bed and cheeses with olives for an early dinner.

Semi-roommate I came in the evening and we watched a bunch of episodes of The Office as we got caught up on the events of last night. I tried making a roasted-eggplant dip, which failed terribly because I didn't realize you were supposed to peel the burnt husk of the eggplant before you blended it. Still kinda' edible, might use it as a dip for lame chips soon. Roommate PK cooked chicken and rice. His chicken skills have really upgraded, he puts cloves of spices and yogurt in there to thicken it up. Tasted droplets of it. Roommate AL bought Old School movie and got us to watch it -- a reasonably good movie really, not sure if it would go well with female audiences and honestly not at all a date movie. We also watched couple of more scenes of the other Will Farell movie from yesterday.

Worked out, cleaned up, got everything set up, and all ready to go to bed. Started with the new checklist today, added the extra tasks and everything but didn't end up doing any of the new tasks because I added them in the evening and didn't have the time or the resources to complete them.

Pushups are getting easier and if I can stabilize at doing 90 within 10 minutes, will try on increasing the count as well as diversity of exercises. I've not done any kind of cardio in a long while, considering making the walk to and from Davis (the commute one) part of my workout routine so I can kill two birds with the same stone.

Read a few more pages of the Quest for God (Genghis Khan) book. I wish I were more disciplined with bookreading. There was a time where I would go through multiple books over the same day. My problem must be that I cannot portion out good books so either have to go through them in a single read or not read at all. If the portioning thing I'm practicing right now works out, will increase the page count to be a lot more reasonable (reading 2 pages right now), and carry books everywhere with me. Want to get to a place where I'm finishing about 1 book a week without compromising on any of my other activities.