Monthly Archives: September 2006

Wicked Game

Busy day, running from station to station, person to person. Like a
maniac mind you. Barely had time to pack up Earl’s gifts and send them
out. I hope he likes. I tried to budget myself on his gifts but if you
know me, you know me and budgets. Mutually incompatible. Not for lack
of trying. Just hard to figure out, or even put into words, so I won’t
even go there.

It was a non stop day, hardly anytime to sit and catch my breath or
smoke a cigarette, which affects breathing as we all know. I’ve been
chatting with a certain someone who seems to be screwing his way
around an Ivy League college. Good for him as long as he plays safe.
he says he does and I believe him. Now that the boy has wheels, heaven
help the man on the prowl.

I write this in a halfhearted attempt to at least have something
written for the blog since I don’t know what condition or state of
mind I will be in. So Earl’s present, a t-shirt, some buttons, a CD I
bought and two CD’s I burned that Juan made me and are very cool, and
some hip magazines for the herbivore rock and roll fan. Apparently
there’s a niche for non carnivore rock and rollers. Who knew?

Bill is coming tonight and will meet my coworkers. Bill is dressing to
impress. I tried to dissuade him, but he insisted. I don’t mind. He
looked smashing when leaving the apartment this morning. Me? I’m in a
nice old navy short sleeved shirt, nice retro pattern and black
wrangler trousers that I bought on Bergenline Avenue in the spring. I
would’ve suited up, but I knew I’d be running around like a chicken
without it’s head. A free range chicken, at that.

I have no idea how many words I’ve written. This is, according to the
word press counter, the 365th entry. But it’s really not. I’m still
a bit off, and though I started this on October 7th of last year, it
hasn’t been a non stop thrill, there has been some entries when I was
ill, some oldies and goodies and a whole mish mosh of what the hell is
that? Someone is smoking in the office and it isn’t me. That’s all I can
muster for now.

That was yesterday. I was unable to finish the blog, good old number 365 since I got home obscenely late and three sheets to the wind. The party was good. On my way to the party I had planned to meet Bill when I got a phone call from a frantic Felicia who insisted that I go to her apartment first. I texted Bill and let him know that we could meet there. Bill didn’t get the text though. He called me and I filled him in as I sat in Felicia’s expensive apartment in Chelsea. I had a quick beer while Felicia ran around the apartment with her little yapping dogs trailing behind her. She wasn’t going to make it to the club on time so she gave me some posters to put up and told me she’d meet me there. I let with the posters and walked over to the bar, once again, calling Bill and letting him know what was now happening.

I was the first one from McMann and Tate to arrive, and I set about telling the caterer where to put the food as I put up posters. The coworkers arrived and that’s when it all went boozy. I sort of forgotten what hard partiers the British could be. It turned out to be a success. Felicia got the credit, I did the work. It was fine though. Boozy talk with coworkers that I’d never really spoken to in depth. I didn’t make it to the after party. Time flew and I was having fun. Bill was a hit with the coworkers and he dug them as well. Everyone was on their best behavior.

I hung out with a really nice client and asked if I could sleep on the floor of his hotel room. He said he had twin beds and I could sleep in the other one. It sounded like a good idea but as 2:30 Am approached, catholic guilt took over and I decided to spend forty dollars on a cab back to Bokeyland. At 4:00AM I accidentally broke a bottle of Bill’s Peppermint Oil, which crashed on the floor, and I was overcome with the smell of peppermint, which still lingers almost a day later. Woke up later than usual which was fine since most of my coworkers were trashed as well. I walked into the office around 10:00AM, one of the first in. Most everyone else was in worse shape than I was. Now I’m home, chilling out. That’s it for now. The 365th entry is anticlimactic. I’ll go one more about that some other time.

Coal to Diamonds

Man it’s been busy at work. A lot of running around, a lot of bruised egos, a lot of nonsense, which I am able to avoid mostly. I just keep running around, and running away from the strife. Felicia and Linda keep butting heads, but at least this time, they’re not alternately whispering in my ear about how much one detests the other. Tomorrow night is an office party, which Bill is attending as my guest. I gave him the heads up already that they are a rowdy and crazy bunch that I work with. He seems fine with that.

I don’t know what to expect since I’ve never attended a party with these people. I’ve had exactly one drink once a few months ago after work when someone was leaving, but this time it’s the office en masse and his or her spouses, and me with mine. It’s costing the company some bucks that’s for sure. I will see if the better halves are actually the better half. I guess I’ll have to find time to write during the day since the party isn’t scheduled to end until midnight, not that I will be there until then. NFW. I have to get home and then go to sleep for a few hours and then back to work again. It’s not bad at all, considering it’s only a four day week for me.

Amiable Alan has been quite busy and hasn’t had much time to talk or hang out. That’s the job, he’s in production, producing in his amiable style. He’s a real sweetheart though, I hope he can make it to the party, although he’s been hemming and hawing about how he might not be able to due to some circumstances in his life. If it’s like any other office party that I’ve been to, its more than likely the people that talk to each other all day will continue to do so into the morning, perhaps enhanced chatter with alcohol breath.

On the way home, I stopped off and picked up some cool buttons for my nephew Earl’s birthday. 16 years old, and I hope he likes the Ramones, Bob Marley, and Nirvana pins that I bought. All three bands/people are defunct due to dead members. I got on the trains at the World Trade Center and was actually able to have a seat, so I read the New Yorker piece by Woody Allen which was really funny. A return to form.

I got off in Hoboken and ran into my friend Donna Lispenard. Donna lives diagonally across the street from McSwells. She and I share September 12 as a birthday but she doesn’t recognize that day since she became a Jehovah’s Witness. She cooled to me somewhat though we do exchange pleasantries when we see each other on the street. She had me over for Thanksgiving and other holiday dinners in the past, she’s a fantastic cook, but that fell by the wayside when Jehovah entered the picture.

Donna greeted me with a hug and a kiss, and we chatted. She asked me to walk with her towards her car where she told me about a fire in her apartment building. She chastised me for not calling her to see if she was alright when I told her I read about it, but she’s on the second floor and the fire was on the fifth. Her apartment wasn’t damaged but she can’t live there at the moment, so she’s staying with some Jehovah’s Witnesses in Jersey City. It turns out her well to do friend Paul, was growing herb in his apartment.

Seriously growing herb, fifty pounds worth when the apartment caught fire. He’s vanished, being well to do he probably fled the country. Donna asked me what kind of sentence would he get if he turned up, and I said probably twenty years, since he was growing and it wasn’t for personal consumption, it was with intent to distribute. And with a school a few blocks away, who knows? It would depend on the prosecutor and the judge actually.

I walked Donna to her car, it was parked in a dark area. She berated me again for not calling, and I told her that I could have lied and said that I tried calling but since she wasn’t living there she didn’t get the call. She laughed and thanked me as she got into her car.

Interesting note. The counter on this blog says I’ve written 364 entries, which I know can’t be true since the first entry was on October 7. Tomorrow is September 28. Dig the new math.