Hopelessly banal with a slathering of ennui | johnozed

Well it’s a Sunday. I’m enjoying the new method of posting, whenever I want, not chained to the 500 words a day paradigm. Been there, done that for over 7 years. A change was needed for sure. And it’s been creatively liberating I think. Of course you might think otherwise but since only a handful of you ever comment, I will just have to guess that that handful are simpatico somewhat.

Things have been going on, mostly good. Been working at Maxwell’s, wearing the same clothes I wore way back when. People still come in, last night the restaurant was packed and I had a few groups of people waiting about 20 minutes for a table. One of the remarked that they were fine with the wait since at another restaurant the wait was an hour and a half.

People have been generally behaving, no need to bounce though I did have to have some words with a customer who was holding the men’s room door open. A very stupid man who didn’t seem that much younger than me, you’d think he had sense but then again getting older does not necessarily mean getting any smarter. And when alcohol enters the picture common sense isn’t so common.

Both Friday night and Saturday night I came home, tired enough to fall asleep or so I thought. Friday night was the worst, not much sleep at all, tossing and turning and waking up more tired than I was when I went to bed. Saturday was supposed to be better, I took an alprazolam but all it did was make me feel ambivalent about not being able to sleep properly. It could be that we need a new bed and for that, the timing is terribly off.

I am back to some weekend things that I did last year and I’m enjoying it. I never knew that being a transplant courier could be so rewarding and exciting, not to mention the satisfaction of the ones relieving the transplant. Yesterday was my return to the roller skates and after the previous night’s bout of insomnia it wasn’t as insurmountable as I had thought.

Last night as I waited for the alprazolam to kick in I watched the Coachella streaming footage. New Order was on and they were pretty good with a new bass player and 2nd guitarist alongside Barney, Steven and Gillian. I watched for a few numbers including Isolation from the Joy Division days. Isolation is one of the few Joy Division songs I like. I figured out my relationship with Joy Division the other day, I just never really liked Ian Curtis’ voice. The music is fine but I do prefer New Order and don’t mind Barney singing the odd Joy Division song, but Ian Curtis? No thanks.

Lots of friends love Joy Division but to them I keep my dislike a secret. I make no secret of my dislike for Antony Hegarty’s singing and can only think of one song he sang that I actually like, and that is the cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘I Was Young When I Left Home’.

A Sunday night at home, good TV tonight. I’m satisfied. Hopefully sleep will follow.

So many ideas come at me when I am about to go to sleep. Unfortunately I don’t write them down, I just hope I will remember them in the morning. I sort of do remember the ideas from last night. One was about writing a play, simple enough. I even had an idea for a plot but that is what has fallen by the wayside. It was almost like a Pinter play but also more than likely stems from watching a biopic on Sean O’Casey yesterday on St. Patrick’s Day. So scenes from The Plough and the Stars wound up in my head.

Or at least the movie version scene of The Plough & the Stars as shown in the movie. I do remember something else which could be related to the play I was thinking about before drifting off, about a relationship between a very tall man and a very short woman. I wrote Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Shirley Temple. Of course Shirley Temple did grow to the full height of an adult, so I was merely using her height as a child to put as a reference. This is why I keep a notepad next to my bed on the nightstand. ♫ Between the click of the light and the start of the dream ♪

Perhaps they’ll come back to my head again tonight, or soon. Saturday into Sunday I slept exceptionally well, waking up happy and with a smile on my face which is not the norm around here for me. I had hoped for the same last night but apparently you can’t force these things and though I did sleep relatively well, I woke up tired and in need of more sleep than I achieved. Speaking to Bill later on, he suggested I just go back to sleep. That was a very good idea which I took under consideration.

But having had a few cups of coffee after showering earlier allowed just about five minutes of eyes being closed. I was also active already, having put a bunch of old clothes in a bag to be collected by a cystic fibrosis organization on the front steps of my building. I lay in bed reading some more of Barney Hoskyns Led Zeppelin book which is a great book. Now I am just killing tome before I go out later this afternoon.

Bill is managing a staged reading of Shakespeare’s The War of The Roses tonight and put me on the list. I make it a point to see all the plays Bill is involved in and this is the latest. We invited Juan to come along and he said he was interested but said it would be best if he met me at the theater since he will be running around, or perhaps still in Philadelphia. Once we heard that plan Bill and I realized that Juan will probably not show up at all, which is fine.

Yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day and around the Hoboken/New York City area it was St. Patrick’s weekend. I didn’t go out much on Saturday since it still resembles amateur night for drinkers. There was a plan to go to Maxwell’s and have a pint and some Shepherds’ Pie but looking in my wallet I realized that it would be smarter to get a few cans of Guinness and make dinner at home. And I did not make Shepherds’ Pie.