Posts Tagged ‘Casey Chasm’

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The Pressure Of Life (Takes the Weight Off the Body)

Friday, August 14th, 2009

OK, back to the present day. The past few weeks have been quite stressful for me. Job loss, staying home climbing the walls, planes and helicopters crashing nearby.

Plus my people skills have been non-existent. Going to the supermarket would leave me enraged. Crossing the street was a matter of life or death with me tempting fate.

Not that I was trying to get hit by a car, but rather looking for trouble as a pedestrian yelling at and sometimes smacking the trunk of a car as it rolled through a stop sign.

The sort of thing that occasionally winds up with someone getting shot and since I do not own a gun, the person who might get shot would be me.

I discussed this with Casey Chasm who is fleeing Hoboken with the missus at the end of the month since Hoboken is so bleedin’ expensive. He’s been unemployed longer than I’ve been and went through similar feelings.

He recommended a prescription for Xanax. I’ve used Xanax back in the day, usually from Susan Sled’s pillbox hat. Didn’t do much for me 19 years ago, but it was for recreational purposes then, and foolishly so.

Now I had an actual reason.

Casey suggested seeing his doctor and since the doctor I used a few years ago has quite a flaky schedule I called up Casey’s MD and got an appointment for the same day.

So following Casey’s well timed advice I went and had an EKG, and some lung capacity tests and they were fine. Of course the discussion about quitting cigarettes came up and it will be discussed further once I get my blood work done next week.

I do like the doctor though, and his staff were very nice as well. So after picking up the prescription, I took one. The recommended dosage was 2 a day, but 1 was enough. Plus it was late afternoon. Within about 20 minutes, things started to get warm, edginess fading.

Ran into the funniest girl alive, Meghan and her daughter Ruby. All very pleasant, even more pleasant than usual. And I still had a sense of humor. Walked around with Meghan and Ruby, saw Jim at the Guitar Bar where Jim was putting stuff in the car for the Guitar Bar Summer Camp show at the Frozen Monkey Cafe.

Jim & Ruby drove up there, Meghan and I walked up. I was feeling generally pretty good and Meghan was feeling pretty much the same way.

I decided not to stay to watch the kids playing whatever it is they were going to play. A few weeks ago all I needed to hear was the opening notes to Sweet Child of Mine by Guns & Roses to get me out of there.

I opted to go to the supermarket to see if my murderous rage was suppressed enough. On the way there I talked on the phone to my sister in law Elaine since my new doctor asked me for info on my brother Frank’s stroke in 2007.

Got the info and headed into the store which was crowded and staffed with the usual belligerent people. This time it didn’t bother me. It didn’t bother me either when on the express line someone ahead of me had 20 items instead of the limit of 15.

Had a light supper when I came home, a few hours later, a walk around Hoboken once again with Julio. And that was pleasant, none of the weight of the world on my shoulders.

I know that weight is still there but not crushing me like it’s been lately.

I could have used a Xanax the other night when I went to the Yankee game with Bill. That didn’t go as well as I had hoped.

I was pretty much miserable and Bill had a feeling that was going to happen. Overall that was a bad night. Sitting in the bleachers with no back support, my neck was stiff and I was wearing an older pair of glasses that I thought looked better but with a weaker prescription, I couldn’t focus on much at all.

Bill enjoyed himself despite me. And it made for an uncomfortable ride home.

I can be quite an asshole sometimes. Hopefully now I’ll have a better grip on that.

Today I’m going into Greg Stevens office to do some coconut work, then heading across town to see the play that Bill has been stage managing the past few weeks.

I think this weekend or early next week, I’ll have a return trip to Lodi, a family friend passed away this morning. Back to the social milieu of wakes and funerals.

Bill & his friend Kirk

Bill & his friend Kirk

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Young and Dancing

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Here I am again, on Bill’s Mac. I’m lucky since he doesn’t mind. Of course my hours using his Mac are limited but that’s ok.

Right now it’s a beautiful warm day, a nice breeze is blowing through the open window.

So today was my first day of being unemployed. Not so bad so far. I mean, the weather has held up nicely.

I did go into the office again. Met Greg Stevens and the head honcho from the Los Angeles office. Nice guy the head honcho is.

They may be taking me on, but that will have to be discussed with their next meetings I suppose. I filed my unemployment claim while I was in the office.

Vivek was in, looking better than he did yesterday. I am still with the program that Vivek suggested, getting financed bajo la mesa. We’ll see how that works out. It could be a decent thing and all I can do is count on their hopelessness when I’m not in.

The deckchairs still need to be arranged.

I did have a scare on the way home, saw Abby in Hoboken talking on his cell on Washington Street. I knew it was him and lucky my bus rolled on by so there was no contact at all, plus his head is so far up his ass all he would be able to see is his lower intestine and not me.

Last night was nice, I watched True Blood and wow! Of course I can’t give anything away. I’m sure when Annemarie shows up we’ll watch an episode or two since she’s now into it from watching the DVD’s of the first season.

Tonight I’ll watch Weeds and Nurse Jackie I guess.

I have a few invites for the 4th of July on Saturday. I was invited to Rand’s sister’s house in Weehawken, as well as one of the neo-cons having a party on his boat in Port Liberte in Jersey City.

I think I’ll be sticking with Jim and Meghan and their Super girls and see Conor Oberst and Jenny Lewis at Battery Park City. That’s in the afternoon so I would have sometime between then and the fireworks at night.

This year the fireworks are going to be on the Hudson River, in honor of Henry Hudson discovering something that was already there and well known. And it was a mistake on Henry’s part, thinking it might be a passage to China.

I guess anywhere in Hoboken would be a good spot to watch the fireworks.

Tonight Bill and I are having a ‘date’ so to speak. Just another nice little dinner. It’s because of that, that I had to take a raincheck from Casey Chasm who was hanging out tonight and invited me over.

I have to meet up with him and the missus before they blow this Popsicle stand of Hoboken. Also have to talk to Rand about a new computer since mine is definitely on the way out. I’m sure we will cross paths the next couple of days.

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Kids

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

Well today turned out to be quite alright. Greg Stevens returned, no longer working for my company. That would make it 3 employees and there’s only 2 left and I’m the one who’s getting paid.

The day started out threatening to rain but it turned out not to happen despite people walking with open umbrellas, not wanting to be caught, no way, no how.

Very good New Yorker last week. Reading about exotic animals who were brought into this country, mainly Florida, then when they got to be too much to deal with, were released into the wild.

So there is a population explosion of Burmese pythons slithering about down there. Yet another reason, not to go to Florida. Never liked snakes and I’ve never touched one. Same thing with guns. Never liked them and never touched one.

Guns and snakes, two things not to give me for a present. Hope you kept the receipt just in case.

I was a bit busy dealing with Vivek’s business partner on the phone, getting things done for Greg Stevens, and the usual maintenance of the office, which included booking conference rooms and all three were reserved.

That made the conservatives a bit upset since they usually just take any room that’s available and leave it messy. But like Annemarie said, it’s job security to clean up after these do nothings.

One of the conservatives was mouthing off about how President Obama is going to release so ‘terrorists’ in this country. Of course he was stoking the fire, making it sound like Khalid Sheik Mohammad would be selling fresh Kalkalash from a food truck outside the office.

It actually means that they will be tried and held in US prisons and they will stay there if guilty and likely deported if not guilty. This one guy looks like Senator Boehner and seems to get all of his information from Fuck Snooze.

Last night Bill was off doing his reading series and I was home while a maelstrom raged outside. I watched Heroes which was ok. It was mainly about Sylar and it was a bit of a let down. I knew he wouldn’t do anything to Rebel Micah, and his scenes involving Ellen Greene as his mother were good.

But he seems to be going off the deep end in a mostly boring way. And Hiro is really quite annoying, mostly through his Japanese accent. I don’t mind the subtitles but he sounds like a moron most of the time when he’s speaking. Peke pani?

Tonight promises to be quite mellow which is always welcomed. Board of Education election was today and I usually don’t vote in those since I don’t have any kids. But Sheilah Scully asked that I vote, well asked me and her other Facebook friends, so I did.

The polling place is only a hundred yards from my apartment so it was no big deal. I voted for the Kids First slate.

Also moved Casey Chasm closer to my former co-worker, Austin. Perhaps they’ll work something out. I know Casey and the Missus read this here blog, so I hope they realize that the people I work with do not know anything about this here blog. Ya heard?

Really diggin’ that one song from MGMT, which happens to be the title of today’s entry. t

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Posted in Whats for lunch? | 4 Comments »

Time to Pretend

Monday, April 20th, 2009

After a beautiful weekend weather wise, it’s a definite downer today. Sheets of rain again. It’s supposed to be like this until Wednesday, with the drying out (or so they say) on Thursday.

Last night Bill and I watched a documentary on Leonard Bernstein. Bill had never seen it before, for me it was the second time I think. Bill told me his father had issues with Leonard Bernstein and really had problems with West Side Story.

He felt it was demeaning towards Puerto Ricans, which is too bad since the message is quite powerful and the music of course is still amazing 50 years later.

Then it was bedtime for Bill and eventually me. We never go to bed at the same time.

Didn’t want to wake up and go to work, not in this weather. But I had to of course. Bill was up and running as I shuffled past, making my way into the shower. He was out the door by the time I got out. Had some coffee and cereal and was smart enough to wear an rain coat.

Rode to work, almost done with last week’s New Yorker, making me almost up to date.

After a good talk with my sister yesterday about job security, I decided that picking up used tissues is not beneath me, especially if it means I will still have a job.

So for me, it was picking up snot rags and washing coffee cups that people couldn’t wash for themselves with a smile on my face. I had to get over the fact that the used tissue in the empty tissue box stayed on the conference table most of last week, and the one who put it there simply could not see the two trash cans in the same room.

Yep, that’s how it’s going to be until February 28, 2010.

Casey Chasm was due in today and it was a good thing I cleaned up the conference room. Casey invented something and got it patented. Such a thing it makes you wonder, why hadn’t anyone invent something like this before?

I told Vivek about it a few weeks ago and asked if he’d be interested in meeting with Casey. Vivek said yes, Casey was into it, so it was all about trying to pin Vivek down. Today was the day he was able to be pinned.

I didn’t have any clear idea on what would transpire. Perhaps Vivek would pull out a check book right then and there. That didn’t happen.

What Vivek did was give Casey some good advice on marketing and business presentation. Good advice for free. There is still more work to be done for Casey but he now has an idea in the direction he should be headed in.

Now I’m trying to get Casey together with a former co-worker who has some good ideas on marketing. I’m just putting them together, hopefully they could work things out.

Also today was the Boston Marathon, which my niece Meghan ran in Hooray for Meghan De Carlo, my niece who finished the Boston Marathon with an Official time of 3:19:31! Excellent time, much, much better than I could ever do. Perhaps riding my bicycle I’d keep up, but without wheels she would leave me in the dust.

The whole family is proud of her for this accomplishment. If she runs in the New York City marathon, I will be on the sidelines, egging her on.

All in all, an interesting, out of the ordinary day.

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Posted in Whats for lunch? | 3 Comments »

Hang On To Your Ego

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

Home earlier than usual. It was sanctioned, I put in the word that I would be out of the office from 1:30 this afternoon. I said I had an appointment to tend to. They didn’t ask any questions, but still I will explain it tomorrow somehow.

I made sure everything was taken care of and in any event, if they really needed me, I was just a phone call away. They’ve called me before when I was out of the office so today wouldn’t be any different.

Bill won a raffle last week at his office cafeteria, a lunch for him and his loved one. Not any lunch you see, something with metal utensils, cloth napkins, nice china and a bottle of wine to go with the rack of lamb, salmon and rice and veggies.

I walked out of my office building into a maelstrom, snow and rain flying in all directions. Still I persevered and made it to Bill’s building on time. He came down and met me and we rode the elevator to whatever floor the cafeteria was on.

Bill spoke to the woman who runs the cafeteria and she told us to sit anywhere we’d like. Bill found a prime position which allowed him to show me off to various co-workers. It was fun to meet them, most all of them mentioned that Bill was crazy. In a good way of course, since if he was crazy in a bad way I doubt if they would say things like that in front of him. They were a fun group.

Mmmmmm.....

Mmmmmm.....

The food was excellent, not your standard cafeteria fare. Rack of lamb, salmon, rice and veggies. I never had salmon before, I generally avoid eating fish, but it turns out salmon is good. I liked it. Can’t say I would go out of my way to order it, but if given the opportunity I would have it again.

Sadly there was no dessert. But who am I to complain after a nice lunch, as well as a couple of glasses with white wine? It was a lovely way to have lunch with my lovely man.

When I left the office at 1:30 I told Greg Stevens and Tom Chin I was heading out and they both said, ‘OK, see you tomorrow’. Since I was a block away from the bus terminal I decided to head on home. I got in the queue for the bus and settled into the last row and cracked open The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell. It’s due today and I would like to finish it on time.

Midway through the slaughter of the Pequot tribe the cellphone rang. It was Casey Chasm. He was apologetic though his voice belied stress. Homeboy is under the gun with studying for the NY Bar exam, and just was laid off, and on top of that, Mrs. Chasm expecting.

I told him it was perfectly understandable. He said how sorry he was to leave like that, he thought it was ok. He had read the blog from Monday you see. What’s done is done and I’m sure he will ace the Bar exam.

I heard from Pedro last night, he had some gruesome details about the chimpanzee attack in Connecticut that were initially reported according to him that weren’t reported since. That the chimp on a rampage bit off the poor woman’s hands, as well as her face.

He said he had heard it on a local Connecticut news station. It is a gruesome story in any event, and it’s happened before. If you Google chimp attacks you’ll see a page full of gross reports. I did look it up to see if what Pedro said was true but couldn’t find anything about that.

Sort of unrelated, but about 12 years ago I heard on the news of a medical study that stated 1 out of every 100 men are immune to HIV.

It was announced at the top of the news hour and reported on and then never mentioned again after that one time. A bit like hearing what Pedro heard about the chimp attack.

Totally unrelated, so far in the past 2 weeks there have been 3 small earthquakes in the Morristown area. I felt the first tremor a few weeks ago, and since then there have been 2 more, less than the original 3.0. It kind of makes me think, is another one, perhaps stronger coming down the way?

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21809-lunch-with-bill-004

Clink!

Clink!

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Posted in Whats for lunch? | 3 Comments »

E-Pro

Monday, February 16th, 2009

It’s a Monday again, but it’s a federal holiday, Presidents Day. I have the day off but still I write at the usual time. Been active today, don’t know about busy. Active is better but it creates the image of exercise. I don’t exercise.

I don’t even consider riding my bicycle 40 miles exercise. I call it bike riding. I couldn’t fall asleep last night, been drinking a lot of juice so I thought maybe the sugar in the orange juice was keeping me awake but upon reflection I would say it was more than likely, the Cuisinart coffee maker Bill got me for Valentine’s Day.

I drank a lot of coffee, all in the name of making sure the coffee maker was working properly. I think I drank more than 10 cups. I know I made 2 pots and each pot is 10 cups so you do the math while I sit here vibrating. I do like the coffee maker though, I like it very much.

I’m sure Bill was nervous getting me the present, since a few years ago I was a bit sniffy about an expensive sauce pan he bought for my birthday a couple of years ago. In fact, I was so sniffy I didn’t use it for a year, just kept it in the cupboard still in the box.

I resolved never to behave like that again and to be grateful for whatever it is I got. It has now gained a position in my pantheon of cookware, and it is now the ‘special’ sauce pan.

So either because of the sugar in the orange juice or all the coffee I was up until 1:30 watching From G’s to Gents on VH1. It’s about taking some thugs and thug wannabes and turning them into what passes for gentlemen on VH1.

Farnsworth Bentley is the host and the final judge on whether these hoodlums from around the country, (including Union City) have what it takes to be a gent. They also get 100k if they make it to the end. It was mindless entertainment and perfect for someone who couldn’t fall asleep.

Then I fell asleep and woke up around 7:30, coffee pot a brewing and since I didn’t have to go to work today, I went back to bed, waking up at around 9:00. I showered and after watching the second half of A Hard Days Night on IFC I went out, bought some bagels, the papers and was able to get a haircut.

It wasn’t too crowded at Mr. L’s but apparently I got there at the right time since midway through my haircut, the place got crowded. Tony worked his magic, earning his tip by trimming the goatee and reducing the gray hair, as well as trimming eye brows, ear hair and nose hair. Above and beyond the call of duty.

They were watching Angels with Dirty Faces on TCM. Tony remarked about how well dressed everyone was back then, mentioning that even when they would show footage from baseball games the men were all dressed in suits and ties, not to mention hats, which seem to be coming back.

I was home soon enough in time to head out to have lunch with Casey Chasm. He suggested McSwells, but they weren’t open. I suggested the Malibu diner which was adequate. It was good catching up with Casey who is going to be a father and also studying for the New York Bar exam next week.

He’s nervous about the whole thing and I tried to reassure him. It was good to see him, both of us doing a rapid recent history much like one of those 5 minute date things you see in the movies. I did think it was odd when he left almost immediately after getting the check.

Lunch was on me as was planned, but I figured we’d walk afterwards, he back to his law books and me to Shop Rite but he was fast out of there. The man has got the Bar review on his mind.

I wound up walking alongside the viaduct, past the 5 screen movie theater under construction, past the recently completed and still quite vacant mini-mall and past 3 fire fighters who were doing some kind of training in the northwest quadrant of Hoboken.

I walked into Shop Rite which is much larger than the A&P a block away from my apartment. Shop Rite is maybe a 20 minute walk which is cumbersome if you’re carrying a few bags of groceries. That was basically my day. Really nothing much else to report so I think I’ll just stop it here.

Or here.

Or maybe even….here.

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