So, Friday night after work Nik and I walked out together into the drizzle and he said "Do you want to ride the subway with me to 42nd St.?" and I said "Do you want to walk with me to 42nd St.? C'mon, it's barely raining at all!" and he said "No, I really think I'm getting sick, and don't much want to walk in the rain," so I agreed to take the subway.

For some reason, I have it firmly in my head that the most appalling, hedonistic thing that one can possibly do is take the subway to or from the van rather than walking the 21 blocks. I put it on a par with lolling on the divan and eating bonbons as you send your children out into the snow to sell matches for food.

I never claimed to be sensible, especially since I have been known to take a bus for two blocks (long blocks!) in the past. I think it has something to do with the fact that the subway is two blocks (long blocks!) away, which equals six short blocks, and if I'm going to walk six blocks anyway, I might as well walk the other fifteen.

Anyway, we took the train, and I got off at 42nd St. and kissed him and told him that I'd see him the next day at 3p or so, because I was coming into work.

So yesterday, Nik called me and told me that he was taking a sick day, he felt so awful, and he must have felt very awful, because he has been working there for three years and has never once taken a sick day. And anyway, he wanted to tell me so that I wouldn't call him at work, and he thought that maybe we shouldn't go out that night.

Now, we had had no plans for last night, but I always call him on Saturday morning with a suggestion for Saturday night, except for last weekend, where he actually suggested Saturday's movie on Friday night, all by himself!

Do you think maybe he has noticed that we're dating? O, probably not.

So he asks me what I'm going to be doing all day, and I reminded him that I was going into work! "Did you tell me that?" "Like about five times! Plus, when I got off the subway last night I said that I would be in around 3p!" "Wow, that just shows you how out of it I was!"

So, because I didn't have to leave work when Nik did, I wandered in at 5.30p, stopping first at Virgin to pick up Ani DiFranco's new album, "Up Up Up Up Up Up". So I'm puttering around, listening to my new album (which is great, of course) and just getting settled in and starting to get some work done, when the fire alarm goes off. "O brother," I thought, "Some fool opened that door you're not supposed to open and set off the alarm!" and strolled casually up to the front desk.

"Alright, who set the lab on fire?" I joked.

Then I noticed everyone running out the door with their coats on, and I smelled this bad burny chemical smell, and I realized that this was a real fire alarm, so I ran back to my desk and grabbed my Da's leather jacket (that's not getting burnt up no matter what!) and my bag and my new Ani DiFranco cd (well, I'd only had it for half and hour or so!) and my other cds, and decided that everything else could happily burn, and left.

We were down there for half an hour before the firemen came, telling each other stories about how slowly people left. Apparently, half the lab, when Maryann came round and told everyone to get out now, went to their lockers, got their coats and their bags, hung up their lab coats, locked their lockers, and punched out!

My favourite, though, was that one of the doctors didn't take his coat, but did stop to make a cup of tea!

It was, thankfully a lovely evening to be hanging out on the street. Cool, but not too cold, and very foggy and nice. The fire trucks finally came, four of them, and 42 firemen got out, 21 of them going upstairs and the other 21 hanging out on the street with piles of equipment.

Have I mentioned before how much I love firemen? I do, I think they're so hot, pardon the pun. When I was working at Love Creek they used to come in once a month to check that we were up to code, and they were all so good looking, I would just swoon.

Big handsome men who run into burning buildings to save people, what could be better! I like those fetish outfits they wear, too.

Anyway, anyway, they were upstairs for 45 minutes and came back down without finding anything. Which was weird, because there definitely was a smell, and, apparently, smoke as well, but maybe whatever it was burned itself out before they got there.

So I went back upstairs at 7.15, sat down at my desk, called Nik and said "Boy you sure picked the right day to call in sick!"

Today's horoscope:
You can build in more helpful habit patterns. Analyze and alter some of your automatic, emotional reactions and assumptions.

One year ago today:
"I had an affair with him in Canada 23 years ago!"

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Last Updated Sun 24 January 13:16:09 1999