Posts Tagged ‘Stine & Alexander’

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Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

It’s now a Wednesday. Last night was quiet. Just watched TV. Bill came home from seeing his mother. He’s making a point to do that at least once a week. He’s also seeing his cousin and her family at that time so it works out well for everyone.

I was home, a bit tired, after getting ready with Greg Stevens on his move. Not hard work but the trucking back and forth wore me down. I watched TV, O & RM. Bill came home in time for Rachel. I had enough news at that point but Bill wanted to watch it so we did.

Then at 10:00 I put on the Heroes episode from Monday night. Still lacking in luster. And of course, the last minute or two was cut off. Sort of like, ‘And the murderer is…’ Stay tuned for the Jay Leno Show! It’s happened so often that it’s become a joke around here.

Bill was busy getting some things ready for his friend Rome Neal’s one man show about Thelonious Monk called Monk. I’ve seen it a few times. Bill has been Rome’s trusted stage manager for the show for a long time, but the next show is in Rochester and Bill can’t make it so he’s been transferring things to CD’s so Rome can take them on the road.

After the 11:00 news I put on a recording of Scrubs: Med School. It takes place after the original show with Turk and Dr. Cox as well as Bob Kelso and the Todd reprising their roles. JD & Eliot have made appearances before. It’s OK. Not totally in love with it, but then I haven’t been following it much. Bill didn’t know anything about it so it was a kick for him.

He went to bed after that, wearing the sleep apnea mask which was great. A nice night of sleep. Of course there was the weird dream involving an old friend of my Simon Paterson. He was a special friend. Had many late nights with him.

A strange relationship though. Haven’t seen him in years and I don’t think he’s seen me in years either. At one point in the dream he produces some powdery packets and offers them to me like back in the old days, but in the dream I was saying that I don’t do that sort of thing and that the glasses he was wearing made him look like Bobby Womack.

It was a dream that probably had references to another friend, no not that type of friend, just another party person from the McSwells days. I ran into him, known as Midday since that’s when he usually got out of bed.

We were both waiting for the bus and comparing our lives. He’s been married for 10 years, me and Bill will have been together for 10 years in September. He used to party in much the same way I did and just like me, he doesn’t anymore. That conversation probably popped into the dream.

This morning I was up and started making the coffee when the phone rang. It was Brenda from back in the Wanker Banker days. She saw via one of the social networks that I’m on that I have a job and asked how it was going. Surprisingly I was able to answer her questions coherently without any coffee.

She was at her job and couldn’t talk much so we ended the call with me promising to call her back, which I haven’t yet. Had some breakfast when the phone rang again, this time it was a follow up call after the phone interview from the other day.

Tomorrow I have a face to face interview. This time with some guy named Tom. It’s at 10:30 so after that in a suit & tie I will supervise Greg Stevens move. I of course got worked up about the interview. I always think that I have the job.

Then I realized that I do have a job lined up and if the interview doesn’t go well, well I still have that job on Monday. Saw Stine and Alexander on the way to the park. Walked them over and played with Alexander for a few minutes.

Stine looked great and Alexander was the boy wonder, climbing over everything and ignoring me. I did get a high five and when I left I said Bye Bye. Stine couldn’t get him to do the same but when I was 20 feet away I heard a Bye Bye. Then at 30 feet, then at 50 feet. Each time I turned around and saw Stine laughing as I waved back.

Spoke to Bill about the interview tomorrow, me making a big deal out of it. Spoke to my brother Brian which was really good. His eldest daughter is looking at college. Yikes! By the time I made it to Greg Stevens office he was off at the Racquetball Club.

I don’t think he plays racquetball though, just the gym and sauna. I packed some boxed and got other things ready for the move.

Spoke to Bill again and told him I realized I was making too big a deal out of the interview. Now I’m home, watching the Simpsons ‘Mr Scorpio!’ and that’s about it.

Rest in peace, Howard Zinn.

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Mr. Soul

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Well it’s been another strange couple of hours. It was good to participate in the demonstration last night with Bill. Always good to have him by my side as we fight for civil rights. Two can be stronger than one. Came home and settled in.

Soon Bill went to sleep and I just hung about, tired myself when Juan called. He asked if he can come by. I asked how he was going to do that and he said he would walk from Union City. I did tell him that I’m generally awake until 2:00 in the morning so of course he could come over.

And come over he did about 11:00. Soaking wet since he didn’t carry an umbrella in the raging storm . I got him an old pair of sweats and a fresh pair of socks and set his wet clothes by the heater to dry a bit. He was a bit out of it, the rain, his situation with cancer.

He did try to put on a brave face and had quite a ravenous appetite. He basically ate most things in the refrigerator, and drank a lot of juice.

And it was good to hang out with him, but there was something different. It was cancer, it was mortality. It was a 22 year old young man stricken with a disease. The humor was there and the playing of music was there like old times.

Juan was being strong but it was difficult for him and he was obviously stressed, so much so that some regurgitation came up. We wound up taking a walk around Hoboken around 2:00.

Where I used to be on the streets at that hour, it’s certainly been a while. The streets were empty. It was rain slicked and the temperature was 57 degrees, balmy with strong winds from the south. He ran into McDonald’s for some food and I waited outside having a cigar at 2:20AM.

By the time we got home Juan was finished eating and now just wanted to sleep. I tried to get some room for him on the couch, setting up a bucket nearby in case his nervous stomach acted up again. Also left a note on Bill’s alarm clock letting him know that Juan was sleeping on the couch so that Bill wouldn’t be surprised to see him laying there.

I also said it in Bill’s ear as he slept, hopefully planting a subconscious seed. And I also woke up a few times throughout the night to see if Juan was doing alright. He was snoring soundly which I took as a good sign.

Bill asked when he was up at 6:00AM where his trousers were and I sleepily told him. I asked if Juan was still sleeping and he was. I also asked Bill to tell Juan that he can sleep in the bed since there’d be more room in the bed than on the couch.

At 9:00 Juan started getting phone calls. A visit to Hackensack Hospital for some more tests and a call from his mother saying that his uncle was coming to Hoboken to pick him up. So Juan was out a little while after that.

I just puttered about after that like any other day, going out for the paper and whatnot. Saw Jim Mastro again and thanked him ever so gratefully for changing the strings on my guitar and adjusting the neck.

I tried playing Give a Little Bit by Supertramp as well as Take the Long Way Home. I adore both songs and though Give A Little Bit is an acoustic song mainly it has some very tricky timings in it. Take the Long Way home is very much a personal song for me and much easier to play.

When I initially went out the sky was blue with just a few clouds and I thought about going to the river to play, but decided not to when it quickly became overcast and looked like it would rain at any moment. It didn’t but I didn’t want to take that chance.

I think I am going to see the Man Ray exhibit at the Jewish Museum on Saturday. It’s free admission and though Rand expressed an interest, he hasn’t responded to my text from the other day, so ‘forget it brother, you can go it alone!’

Maybe I’ll bring my guitar and perhaps do some busking in Central Park, weather permitting of course.

Here’s a late minute add, some good news. I saw Stine & Alexander this afternoon. Carried the lad up the apartment while Stine had her hands full. I hung out for a little while in the apartment and played with Alexander for a while. His vocabulary is growing, sometimes or rather mostly in Danish, but it’s impressive. The two of them are leaving for Denmark on Saturday for a month.

At one point I asked Alexander, ‘where’s John?’ He pointed and then ran over and tagged me and gave me a high five. Made my day.

And also when I was leaving I waved bye bye to which Alexander waved Bye Bye and said Bye Bye as well. So sweet.

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Everyone Says ‘Hi’

Friday, November 6th, 2009

So they tell me it’s Friday. That means tomorrow is Saturday. And the people that work will be roaming around on the streets. Today people who do work, well some of them took off to cheer their favorite baseball team, the Yankees.

Nice to have the fans all corralled somewhere, easily identified and tagged before being let into the wild again.

I really can’t say anything bad about the Yankee fans since Bill is a Yankee fan. The exception to the rule. He didn’t make it to the parade in Lower Manhattan. He has a job and wants to keep it.

Despite the shooting at Fort Hood yesterday in Texas, the big news around here was the parade. Just as well though since I’m trying to ween myself off the cable news lately. Just too much information and most of it bad news. Perhaps the Yankee parade could be seen as a relief, a tonic for the troops as it were. Also an office shooting in Orlando FL this afternoon.

Instead of all that I watched Mad Men. I’ve been watching this season since there is a free on demand service on the cable system here. No Ovation channel but free AMC on demand. The last episode I watched takes place on November 22, 1963.

When that happened, I was only a year and two months old so my recollection is mighty fuzzy. It was interesting to watch how life stopped for a few days for some, and for others it went on, slightly adjusted due to then unforeseen circumstances.

Just had a very nice interruption. Julio’s wife Stine gave me some meatballs and a cabbage, carrot sauce. She was making them and texted me that she was making them as I was eating dinner myself. Jet taught me years ago that you should never turn down free food.

Stine made me an excellent meat sauce the other day, which I’ve had half of with some pasta. I will probably finish that off tomorrow. I’ll have the meatballs for lunch. It was nice to spend a little bit of time with Stine and Alexander.

Kicked a ball back and forth with Alexander and if I might make a prediction, he has the potential to be an excellent soccer player. He rarely let the ball get past him and kicked it directly back to me. He’s amazing.

Maybe other kids are just like that, but Alexander is actually the first kid that I’ve seen with regularity, watching him grow and develop every couple of days. Today he danced and laughed and kicked a ball. According to Stine he does a lot of this to impress me.

Just like his father. But I’m more impressed by Alexander, no matter how many times Julio screams, ‘Look at me! Look at me!’

I also watched RockNRolla, directed by Guy Ritchie. Not as good as Snatch but somewhat enjoyable. I got it from the library and went back to drop it off, I noticed I had a little bit of swagger in my walk. Just a little bit.

I’m just happy to have my food this weekend all set and just needs to be reheated.

I plan on getting Stine some flowers tomorrow as a thank you.

Yankees Good. Phillies are bad = Gay. Yay let's hear let's hear it for sportsmanship! Gotta love those classy Yankees fans!

Yankees Good. Phillies are bad = Gay. Yay let's hear let's hear it for sportsmanship! Gotta love those classy Yankees fans!

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Noise Annoys

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

9.29.09

Well it’s one of those days. Not one of those days, but one of those days. Not too bad. Still laundry gets done. I heard from Julio twice which was odd. I hardly ever hear from him, he with his hands full of work and wife and kid. He was actually pretty funny.

I had just run into Stine and Alexander as I went out for the paper and walked with them to the park. Stine noted that the nannies are more aware of what their charges are doing than the mothers who bring their kids. And sometimes the mothers look down upon other mothers.

A vicious cabal those mothers be.

I was up and about on this chilly autumn day. A walk to the post office to drop off a card for Lovely Rita’s birthday tomorrow. Almost forgot about that. But thanks to Facebook I remembered.

A walk around the waterfront which is collapsing in parts. Some parts were built on wooden pilings which are being eaten away by mollusks. And of course Hoboken is broke and could barely afford to fix a streetlight much less a crumbling pier.

Still I really like Hoboken despite all that.

I cleaned up the apartment a bit. Small steps. The argument between Bill and myself the other night was all about cleanliness. Who’s the bigger slob?

You’d think one of us would be Oscar and the other Felix, but we have 2 Oscars instead. One, a greater Oscar than the other. No names please.

Things are cool now between us and I asked him last night if he had a good time on Saturday night and he said he did and would like to do it again next time around.

Mary-get your coat!

And autumn has finally arrived. Temperature has dropped significantly. No more open windows all day, all night. It’s OK. It’s good weather to wear a suit, perfect actually.

Checked for jobs, nothing much happening. No job fairs listed anywhere, not that I would do that again. A cattle call basically.

The other night I watched Ripley’s Game starring John Malkovich. It takes place a number of years after The Talented Mr. Ripley, which I had never seen. I had seen this before, rented it via Netflix.

Intense and violent but compelling and no one plays a sociopath as well as Malkovich. Ray Winstone is in it too and both Bill and I enjoy watching Ray Winstone. Bill started to watch it but had to go to sleep midway through. I watched it all once again. Recommended.

I also finally watched Hedwig & the Angry Inch. It’s a long story, not the movie but for me to finally watch it. And I’m glad I finally did. Very good, John Cameron Mitchell is phenomenal as Hedwig. Also recommended.

Curb Your Enthusiasm was back to it’s old self. Cringe worthy humor.

Nothing much planned for tonight. Bill is out somewhere and I’m just chilling right now, Colbert Report is on. Then I’ll probably watch Keith Olbermann and then something else.

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