Highlands

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The other day I was dreaming about a rally for L’Orange Merde, where I went to create a disturbance with Natasha Lyonne, Julio, & Annemarie at a Virgin megastore that sold only Bowie vinyl in Manhattan.

It’s a cold Sunday in January. I got home a little over an hour ago. Bill & I shuffled off to Highlands NJ along with my former roommate William Charas to see our dear friend Connie Poulakos off to California. Connie has been ill for a number of years and I don’t think I had seen her in maybe 14 years. I am leaving room for error but that was the best of my recollection.

Connie’s sister Jennifer has been flying back and forth from the West Coast looking after Connie, but reality has set in and the fact is Connie can’t be alone, Jennifer can’t keep the trips so it’s best for them to sell Connie’s house in the Highlands and use the money from the sale for Connie to stay in an assisted living facility closer to Jennifer.

There were about 50 friends and family members gathered to say Bon Voyage. It was a nice luncheon afternoon and the food was quite good. I hadn’t seen some of those friends in years, Connie’s quite popular and always had a good mix of people visiting her on Portland Road.

A favorite story of mine that I sometimes tell involved a bunch of friends staying at Connie’s overnight. Music playing, people dancing. I step out on Connie’s balcony and start to play the assorted wind chimes hanging on the deck. I thought it sounded good but I couldn’t tell really as the music was that loud.

The next morning, Connie sees a neighbor and says that she hoped that we did not disturb them with the volume of the music that was played the night before. The neighbor said no, they were not disturbed and in fact, they enjoyed watching the guy doing Tai Chi on the balcony. Connie wondered who that was and I explained that it was probably me playing the wind chimes which looked like a Tai Chi exercise.

There are a few stories like that some with me not coming off so good. Nothing bad but me being awkward and clumsy that I am just not in the mood to get into.

It’s been a slow winter Sunday in January. A drag for sure but Connie’s party was a welcome distraction if not a bittersweet farewell. It was good to see William again. We lived together at 127 Jane Street in Weehawken for 11 years. I mentioned to William that during those 11 years, each year for 50 weeks we got along fine. Those other two weeks though were sometimes filled with discontent and antagonism.

And it wasn’t two consecutive weeks, just a few days here and there. Sometimes William and I were like oil and water and other times just fine. We have a history that I think we were both happy to revisit this afternoon.

Walkies

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Today was a bit of a heavy day, being a Thursday. My daily routine has been disrupted and the holiday season has scrambled it even more. I was annoyed with Bill and I was annoyed with Mike. And it was all on me since they really didn’t do anything.

I love Bill, and he drives me up the fucking wall and when he is not around to do just that, I fall into despair and then he shows up and once again I am driven up the wall by a man who drives a bus.

And Mike, who had crashed early, was not answering his phone, and voice mail was not an option since it seems that he has a full mailbox and has to delete some of the messages. And it was all my interpretation of what was happening or not happening which turned my neuroses up to 11.

Things got better of course, no thanks to me but thanks to communication. To tell you the truth I think both Bill and Mike are still oblivious as to how I was feeling. Maybe Mike more than Bill since Bill has known me for a long time, and we’re entering into our 25th year together. Mike knows me of a sliver of that time and he’s only really seen my good side.

Bill is on the road tomorrow for some day trippers and so I will hang out with Mike in Jersey City. I think it’s good to think of someone that is not me. It’s usually Bill but tomorrow it will me Mike’s turn.

Bill and I walked around Hoboken this afternoon. We shot some video. I had Bill be the cameraman and where I would shoot in increments of a few minutes, Bill recorded almost non-stop. I did not have the loquaciousness that I sometimes do when walking alone and I deferred to Bill or I would like to think I did.

I have no idea what Bill recorded since I haven’t seen it yet. I also created another YouTube channel, @JohnOTOOLE-p3x is the address. I just sent the new address/account to Bill so he can send the video he recorded this afternoon and I could review it.

Perhaps I will record video of Mike tomorrow. He recited some poetry to me a while back and it was quite good and I do have a plan to include it in this thing that I am working on at some point this year.

The video recording Bill and I have done the past couple of days were inspired by Rand & Lisa’s jaunts around Hoboken as well as other places. It won’t be these videos that are only a few seconds long and looped in repetition.

Some people post them for some reason, perhaps they think it’s cute but I think it’s maddening. The only people that get a pass for those types of posts (I am hesitant to call them videos) would be my niece and her daughter.

Everyone else should be shunned until they know better. I am only writing that since I just saw Dan McLear on a social media post that exact maddening thing.