2002-03-10 - 11:38 p.m.

While you folks at Diaryland aren't going to be able to read this until Sunday night, as I write it, it is Saturday night, 11:19, and I am in bed 1 of room 311 of Hostelling International: Boston. My feet hurt, my legs hurt, my neck hurts, my eyes are achingly tired, I'm getting up at 7:30 tomorrow morning, I have $3.71 left for this trip, and 5 destinations to get to for a dollar ride on the T to each one.

And I feel fucking great.

As most of my readers will recall from one of my last entries, I'm moving to Boston. And when I say "I'm moving to Boston," I mean exactly two weeks from today, I hope to be living in Maine no longer. And—other than the one where I actually move, of course—this will probably prove to be the most important weekend in my life in a very long time.

The day started very early for me. Up at 7:30 AM, I stumbled into my bathroom, glancing, as I passed it, at the fold-out bed in my living room that held Mark and Angie, friends of my roommate, and their dog Snoop. Mark is someone most of my regular readers will remember, because he's the janitor guy who fixed a flat tire on my bike, only to leave me back-brakeless and flying over my handlebars last summer.

After showering, getting dressed, and grabbing my pre-packed backpack for the trip, I strolled down the road toward the bus stop.

The morning had an amazing feel to it. A gray fog floated in the air, close enough that you could feel engulfed in it, like the sky didn't exist, and all there was above was miles of light gray, while on the ground you could still see for miles. Or at least as far as that bend in the road where it just becomes trees.

The bus ride went fairly well. The movies were "Mrs. Winterbourne," which I slept through (though, to be fair, at that time in the morning, I would have slept through any movie), and "Bubble Boy," which was better than I expected, but still not that great. Plus, they edited in this loud, painful engine backfiring noise every time they said "poontang," which was a lot in one scene.

But other than that and the annoying old lady with the grating voice who sat next to me from Portland to Boston (about two hours), the ride went well, and we got to South Station on time.

From there I had one hour to get here, Hostelling International, and back to South Station in time to catch the commuter rail train to take me to a job interview in Norwood.

And I just have to say, goddamn am I good at this public transit thing. Trains I needed to catch seemed to just be sitting where they needed to be, waiting for me to come along and board so they could finally leave. I arrived at the HI, checked in, and was back on the green line by 2:10. The train to Norwood left in 25 minutes.

I was back at South Station in 15.

So far, the trip had gone just as planned.

Again, right on time, we pulled into the Route 128 stop. As far as I knew, all I had to do was go outside, walk 3/4 of a mile down University Ave. (which, incidentally, is the road that station is situated on), and I would be where I needed to be for the interview.

To think, this would be the tricky part.

I couldn't find my way outside.

This was crazy! Me, a person who can't get lost in Boston when he's *trying,* couldn't find my way out of this building.

I managed to turn myself around a bunch of times until I was in the middle of a parking garage. This was when I saw my first EXIT sign. But this was not the exit I wanted. This was a bit, long, slow exit for people with vehicles. Not being one of those people... I followed the signs anyway. I figured I'd find a way out eventually.

And I did. Took me a bit, but I managed to get outside, only to realize the door I'd *almost* tried at the beginning was the actual one I wanted. That's okay. I'll know next time.

So then I walked down University Ave., toward my destination. After about five minutes of walking on this poorly marked road, I realized I was not on University Ave., but Blue Hill Drive, heading west instead of south (not that I knew which cardinal direction I was supposed to be going).

Getting back to the road I wanted, I started running. After the 3/4 of a mile the guy on the phone told me it would be, I looked over at the nearest building to see how close I was to the 575 I was supposed to be on. 177 University Ave.

Shit.

So after 2 1/4 miles, I actually got where I was supposed to be, and after running almost the whole way, I was only 5 minutes late.

I arrived at the place, dressed up in my dark red, long-sleeved, button-up dress shirt, dark gray pleated slacks, black socks, black shoes, and black silk tie, and was greeted by Don, the man who was interviewing me, in faded jeans, old sneakers, and an old, dark blue work shirt over a gray T-shirt that appeared to have a diagram of a toilet on it. Apparently, that's the dress code. Finally, a job where I can dress comfortably.

Don and I discussed the job, and before he'd even given me the tour, told me that, based on the experience listed on my resume, I'd probably be making at least $13/hr. Quite a step up from my current $7.75/hr I'm making right now for, essentially, a more difficult version of the same job, but later in the day.

Then he gave me the tour. Which went basically like this (don't worry if you don't know what most of these things I'm talking about are, pay more attention to the context):

Don: "This is our research department…"
Me: "Hey, I see you use the Bisys/DSI system, too. That's what we use."
Don: "This is our AS/400…"
Me: (this time not actually saying anything, but nodding in recognition, because I did know what it was, even though I didn't have anything to say about it.)
Don: "Here's where we do our sorting. We have two NCR 7780s, and two IBM 3391s, but we're trying to phase out the 3391s."
Me: (keep in mind, the job I'm applying for is to run these sorters full time) "Oh, good, because I use the 7780s every day at work, for sorting and power encoding."
Don: "Really! Well, we're just about to start using them for power encoding soon, and we'll have to send our other operators away for special training. Looks like you'll already be ahead of the game."

This went on for the whole interview and tour. Practically everything they do now or are preparing to start doing is what I already do every day at work, right down to the particular brand of proximity key scan they use to unlock the doors.

So right there, my weekend had gotten to a great start. I'd write more, but this is getting long, I've been writing for just over an hour, and I have to be up in seven. So good night, and my next installment will be about either the Great Big Sea concert, or the apartments I'm going to look at tomorrow.