Tag Archives: Driving

The Perfect Kiss

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Well today was better than yesterday and that’s good. Nice to start off on a positive note. Ending on a positive note is another matter entirely.

The mellowness was from the fact that Vivek and Sanjay were in India and not coming back to the States until Wednesday, meaning they won’t be in until Thursday which is my last day of the week I think.

I say I think because I think Vivek is expecting me to work 5 days a week, which will be nice to get that money again, and also it means that the cleaning of the hallway will be done on Saturday or Sunday.

That’s not so bad. We shall see when Vivek returns.

I had a good talk with Greg Stevens and he was totally supportive of my situation, having dealt with Vivek for a number of years. His advice was very much the same as Annemarie’s and Harpy’s, hang in there. I don’t have much choice but to hang in there.

I’ve been hanging in there for so long that I am considered well hung.

Tomorrow I’m supposed to be going to Avenel with Abby. For what, I don’t know. He’s supposed to be picking me up here in Hoboken so that saves me a commute. That should make for an interesting experience.

I was planning on writing the other day about my driving experiences. I’m giving it a shot tonight. In 1981, a friend of mine, Derry Pedovitch and I had an idea to move to Los Angeles.

Derry had family there and he made arrangements to stay in Canoga Park. Derry had a van and we decided to drive Route 80 to Utah, then whatever highway would take us to Southern California.

It wasn’t that pleasant a trip. The northern route was dull, it took most of a day to get through Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Turnpike was a four lane highway, two lanes going east and west.

We made it through to Ohio and parked in a campground in the middle of the night. We were on the road the next day, looking at nothing but corn as we drove though Indiana, Illinois and Iowa.

We slept in Nebraska and I got into a fight with Derry almost abandoning me in Nebraska when the van’s cassette player ate one of my tapes. After that we made it to Utah, sleeping in Beaver.

Then it was onto Southern California, getting a room in Alhambra after sitting in traffic for a few hours. In Canoga Park I found Derry’s family were nice, a little rough around the edges though.

We realized once we got there that everyone travels to Los Angeles to start all over again and we weren’t so special. It was a weird couple of weeks that also included a trip to Las Vegas were I lost all the money I had.

That was also the last time I gambled, not counting playing the lottery. It was one of the stupider weekends in my life.

Our money and dreams were depleted and we headed back to New Jersey, driving the same route, only this time it was nonstop.

I went back to work, and eventually got Derry his job back in the same warehouse. 6000 miles in about a month.

I wouldn’t recommend it, but it did get me the courier position when it became available a few months later.

Derry betrayed me a year or so later and I never spoke to him again.

20th Century Boy

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Presently in the phone with Harpy. Blood pressure which is usually low is quite high while talking to him. It all stemmed when for some strange reason I tried giving him a call to let him know the latest developments at work.

Like last week when I wrote I have all these phone numbers in my cellphone and hardly any of them were available. Well, Rand was available and I told him about the latest.

Harpy was unavailable, as was Bill, Annemarie, and everyone else. That’s fine. They have their lives, their problems and I’ve got mine.

What happened was mainly a continuation of last week. Last week was when I started phoning up a few hotels and motels and asking them questions regarding beaming movies to their rooms.

I couldn’t do it all the way through since the people on the other end had questions that I couldn’t answer. Vivek and his business partner and Abby were all unavailable.

Still I felt it best if I went through the questionnaire with one of the three next to me in case there were questions. I told them this today and they agreed.

It didn’t mean they were going to find time to sit there next to me. In fact they still wanted me to call, looking and sounding stupid sitting next to an empty chair. It’s just ridiculous.

But the peak of ridiculousness was when they told me that I would be driving to different hotels and motels to check out the properties. Oh how their faces fell when I told them I didn’t drive.

They offered to pay for driving lessons but I told them I knew how to drive, it’s just that I don’t want to drive. And I don’t have a license.

I am probably one of the few Americans they’ve met who steadfastly refuses to drive.

I explained to them that I used to drive for a living. I drove to California and back. I’ve driven to Florida and back. I drove to Austin, Texas. And twice a day I used to drive from Saddle Brook NJ to 757 Third Avenue, only a few blocks away.

When I had to do an “impersonation of Janet Leigh” for Vivek’s business partner is when I tried calling.

Rand understood. He was my unofficial co-pilot for about a year.

Things have changed since I last drove 23 years ago. More new drivers and more older drivers. It’s not so much I don’t trust them, but the tons of metal are unsafe at any speed.

All it takes is one split second, one thing to go wrong and everything could all go bad.

And I do not want to drive a car or truck or van ever again.

Harpy insisted on telling me over and over that it would be something new to do. That if I want to keep my job I had better start to drive again. Sorry, but if it comes down to that I would rather walk than drive.

And dealing with Vivek and his business partner and Abby is something else entirely. Several times as I sat with them, plans for what I should do change within seconds. ‘John should do this.’ Then ‘John should do that’ which totally conflicts with the initial proposal.

What am I getting myself into? I was also told that I could start coming into the office at 10:00 since Vivek and his business partner don’t usually make it in until noon sometimes.

So they want me to stay later, until 6:00 or 7:00.

Sorry if tonight’s entry is incoherent. I think I should put off talking on the phone until after I’ve written since whatever state of mind I might have been in previously, it’s gone now and I am a bit tense.