Tag Archives: Ugly Betty

Instant Karma

What a difference a day makes. 24 little hours. Yesterday I went out to play guitar and it didn’t go as well as usual. Just couldn’t connect. Everything was a bit off with my playing.

Frustrated was the operative word. After 90 minutes I gave up and came home.

Today I was out for over 2 hours and it went well. I was very comfortable playing ‘Don’t Play That Song’ by Aretha Franklin. Mainly the verses, not so much the break. Would have been fun if there was someone to sing with but there wasn’t.

No sign of Tariq this week either. Guess he won the lottery. Shirley Jackson anyone?

I also played Instant Karma and Blue Moon of Kentucky. I was a hit with a few toddlers and made myself a buck. Also made the acquaintance of the drunken Angel who tried to accompany me on harmonica. He insisted he was more of a drummer and had only been playing the harmonica for a month now.

Quite a few men walking around smoking cigars too.

And Bill’s mood had greatly improved from the night before. He came home and said he was feeling a lot better than the previous evening. He was much more pleasant to be around. Things had definitely turned around for him somewhat. We all have our days like that. I know I have.

He was puttering about while I watched Modern Family & Cougartown. He asked me to record Ugly Betty while he went and worked on his computer. I asked that he didn’t beat up the Mac like he did the other night.

And Ugly Betty was sweet. A nice series finale. All loose ends tied up. Betty was a stunner with her braces off and everyone made nice at the end. Sad to see it go, even I lost interest when ABC moved the around over and over.

When I realized it was going to end I made sure to catch the remaining episodes. Justin coming out of the closet was sweet last week, incredibly well done, funny and touching. Of course the week before I applauded when he kissed Austin, the boy he liked.

Betty moved on, taking a job in London. She didn’t make it with Daniel, but he did follow her to London, leaving Mode magazine in the hands of Wilhelmina. It all ended happily ever after. Bill was up late doing whatever it was he was doing.

He went to sleep and wore his sleep apnea mask which while nice was making the sound of mewling kittens. The air escaping through the gel seal between his face and the mask. Kept me up and I even pleaded with him to take the mask off.

After a half hour I finally fell asleep. He was gone this morning, leaving me with a good bye kiss. He called earlier, I think he figured out that I wasn’t about to call him. Not going to take the chance of him having a bad day at work.

Plus I really didn’t have anything to say, so that would be a waste of time for the both of us. Just playing it safe.
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guitar

pre haircut

pre haircut

Just A Minute

It is back to work for you lot. But not for me though. Once again on the outs with employment. It’s a Monday. Things got better between Bill and myself which I wrote about yesterday.

He was upset that the full time bus drivers pulled rank over the part time drivers. I can’t really blame the full timers. If I was in their position I would more than likely be trying for some overtime.

Occasionally I flashback to when I worked at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, my first job. Dave Manzo, my comically inept supervisor would ask around 4:00 if anyone wanted to work overtime. I usually raised my hand.

Things in the warehouse would be quieter and calmer. Sometimes I would work until 6:00, other times until 7:15. And yes, I would work on Saturdays as well, from 8:00 to 1:00. Most everyone would leave at 4:15 in the afternoon, and at 4:30 there would be a 15 minute break.

It was a decent job, though I have no contact with anyone from those days. I worked there from 1978 to 1984. Both my brothers also worked there as well as my mother. My brothers and I didn’t work together though, not during the same time period.

I used to dream about going back to the warehouse but I haven’t lately. I suppose my time of working there was part of my formative years. High racks of books and materials, 100 feet high. A very rough estimate since I can’t really tell how high things are, especially from 25 years ago.

I do think it was one of my better jobs (maybe I’m just being naive, and it was a different time) and I left while the leaving was good.

Last night I had 2 dreams related to being a DJ. The first dream concerned me spinning records at McSwells again, but this time in the front room, and not just in the front room, but alongside in the cafe area. Not enough room actually for my records or whatever I was using as turntables.

I was set up in the front room despite the fact that there was a poetry group going on at the same time. They weren’t too happy about it. Chaz and Andy the sound man were involved with the dream, as well as the angry poets.

I think Bill had kissed me goodbye which was an intermission of sorts regarding the dreams. After Bill left for work, I carried on dreaming, this time, being a DJ in Lodi, in my parents house, with the DJ set up in my parents bedroom.

In the dream I spent a lot of time on our back porch looking for a Grace Jones record as well as being on the phone with Pedro who was bemoaning the fact that he was looking for a job. I told him I had a job for him, nudge nudge wink wink, but he wasn’t at all into that sort of thing, just like in real life.

I remember these dreams since I’ve taken to having a notebook next to the bed so I can write these things down.

Right now I am watching disc 2 of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, all about the effects which were so well done you couldn’t really tell that they were using special effects, or more precisely, CG effects.

I watched it again last night with Bill and once again I was choked up at the end. Bill was surprised by that and said it was reminiscent of how choked up I was at the end of final episode of Six Feet Under. And I can definitely understand that.

If you saw the finale of Six Feet Under you would probably understand by what that meant.