at 7:30am i left my house after a quick breakfast of cereal and started walking towards WGBH on western avenue across the charles river behind harvard business school. i cut through harvard square, all abuzz with police cars and fire engines and ambulances. too cool for school i paid no attention, but looked across a police barricade tape just in time to hear an explosion and watch something blast down an alley way, shooting out thick smoke. "must be a bomb scare, they're detonating something," was the first thing i thought to myself; later i found out that was exactly what happened. i crossed the charles river, walked over storrow drive, and cut through harvard business school; i don't remember ever setting foot on this campus before.

i arrived at WGBH earlier than expected, so i went to the 7-11 down the street to get something to drink and buy some beef jerky, before coming back again. i asked for doug and gave the security guard his extension. doug brought me into the office, had me fill out some forms, then once ally arrived (the other paid volunteer), he told us what we'd be doing for the next few days. i got the gig through my neighbor dennis, helping out with setting up some exhibits at the boston public library and the museum of afro-american history. on the 200th birthday of famed boston abolitionist william lloyd garrison (publisher of the anti-slavery newspaper, the liberator), the city is gearing up for the anniversary.

doug drove ally and me to the museum of afro-american history first. squid country safari did some work for the museum a long time ago, and i felt a twinge of nostalgia when i saw their names on a credit plaque. the exhibit rooms were closed so we could put up the new displays. photos and captions had just arrived from the vendor, printed on a thick foam stock, suitable for taping onto the empty panels zig-zagging around the perimeter of the rooms. while ally and doug cataloged the assets to see what we have and don't have, i went around numbering the panels with stickies.

next we went to the boston public library (BPL), where we were building the exhibit in one of the two high-ceiling exhibit rooms. the place was nicely air-conditioned and large enough to run laps. doug and tyler were here the previous day, so a lot of prep work were already done. we started to put things on the boards, figuring things out as we went, like maximum and minimum heights of displays, the distances between objects, and even how much sticky tape to use and in what configuration. i came up with the idea of using cardboard shims of some exact width so we can use them as guides in positioning the assets. it felt very egyptian for some reason, using simple technology to build something very complex and uniform. there were also elements of yoga as well, as ally and i would press our cardboard shims onto the wall (sometimes balancing on a step ladder, or maybe tiptoed), holding our positions for as long as half a minute, while doug stripped off the adhesive backs of the sticky tapes and then tape the panels onto the walls. we breaked for lunch (doug's treat), eating out in the inner courtyard of the BPL. we went back to work, finishing off around 4pm. doug offered us a ride back to cambridge, but i decided to stay behind in back bay and look for eliza, who called me the night before about getting together.

i called eliza's cellphone but there was no answer, so i sat outside the BPL and peoplewatched for the next hour. when she did call me back, i found out she was actually at home today with a day off. she said she'd come into the city and meet me. i ended up walking to park street to do more people watching, before i finally met up with eliza at downtown crossing. after a brief peek at H&M, we went to the boston common theatre to buy tickets for must love dogs then walked to nearby chinatown for dinner. we went to apollo grille hoping they'd carry korean box lunch specials even though it was the evening already; the waitress told us that wouldn't be possible. so instead we both had tempura, i had the shrimp while eliza went with vegetables, along with some spicy tuna sushi.

we got out of dinner early, and had time to wander into the park and catch a glimpse of shakespeare on the common, hamlet being this summer's performance. i was surprised to see the large crowd, figured people would have better things to do on a perfect friday evening then go listen to early modern english be spoken on stage. eliza dug her camera out of her purse and took some photos, a rare occasion. we returned to the movie theatre to find the place already packed. in screening room 14 we found seats all the way in the back.

i'm a sucker for romantic comedies. it's the same formula everytime but i don't care, i just can't resist. boy meets girl, they're perfect for each other, but a series of events happen that seem to drive boy and girl totally apart, although in the end they always get back together again, happily ever after, the end. if life was a movie, i'd rather live in a romantic comedy versus any other cinema genre. what more can you ask out of life than a little love and some laughs? so when must love dogs came out, even though my guy friends would scoff at such a silly movie, i was secretly thinking about seeing it. verdict? although entertaining, the movie feels too much like a sitcom. how so? hard to explain, but maybe the snappy dialogue that ends in punchline after punchline reminds me of an episode of friends than seeing a movie. nobody's quite normal in the film, everyone's quirky in a funny way, and scenes seem to play out for cheap laughs or the occasional heartstring tugs. the movie follows the romantic comedy formula, i'm not even sure if it's worth summarizing. diane lane and john cusack play recently divorced singles looking to find love again. both try internet dating and find each other, but of course, they don't hit it off right away. one thing leads to another, yadda yadda, need i say more? john cusack does not look good in this movie. he looks like he'd been crying the night before and woke up all bloated. he's definitely looking pudgy, not the thin cusack we've come to know and love. diane lane on the other hand, she's got enough chemistry for two. even if she was paired next to a rock, audiences would still find it a sexy match. which is a good thing, because i didn't believe the chemistry between cusack and lane. should you go see the movie? only if you're a sucker for the romantic comedies like i am. it's definitely a feel good movie, nobody dies, there are no car chases (unless you count the race against time frantic night driving trying to find a place that sells condoms), and even though some hearts are broken, they're mended by movie's end.

after the movie, eliza went off to catch her bus while i grabbed the red line back to cambridge. i showered as soon as i got home (close to midnight). i was so tired that as soon as i laid down on the couch i was already plunging into unconsciousness. hanging up "paintings" doesn't seem like hard work but for some reason it drained me. i woke up at 5am to brush my teeth and stumble into my bedroom to sleep some more.