a rare occurrence

The big fruit stand. It has been a busy morning, working alongside Violeta. She’s new and it’s our first time working together. And we’re getting along just fine, thank you very much. It’s quiet at the moment. Janis is off doing Janis things, Kimberly on a different floor holding it down, Yancy has actually been at his desk which is a rare occurrence.

It’s quite brazen of me to be writing this at the desk out in the open but there’s not much at the moment, just sitting and waiting for the requests to come in. Generally afternoons are a bit of a lull, people don’t submit their wants and needs until after 4:30 PM, just when we have our eye on the door and the other eye on the clock.

Today was a free lunch day as well much to my surprise. In an attempt to save some money, I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, true comfort food and relatively healthy. I say that since my sister makes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the beach and my sister eats healthier than me, so my trust in her is implicit.

I had two servings of Mexican food, make your own taco. Only my taco making skills are subpar so I ate a bowl of taco ingredients but not necessarily a taco.

Violeta is pleasant and I’ve been taking charge of the music and trying to please her ear and since I do not know what exactly what she likes, I have been playing R&B stuff and some soul. No complaints that I have heard. I played Me’Shell Ndegeocello and now I am playing Dusty in Memphis by Dusty Springfield. I got my copy of Dusty in Memphis from the one & only Arif Mardin. A true honor indeed.

After I had my ersatz Mexican taco I went out for a smoke, leaving Violeta with my phone number to call should she get overwhelmed. As I was outside the fruit stand, I saw some promotional thing going on sponsored by Nike.

They were giving out Philadelphia Cheese Steaks across the street from where the New York Knicks play. I suppose it was a subtle dig at the Knicks. Within minutes a line of about 50 peoplequeued up to get a free cheese steak. Having eaten my own free lunch I stepped aside with my little cigar so as not to disturb those discerning palates.

And now all is quiet. I spoke with Bill who will be motoring the next couple of days, then I spoke to Mike who told me about a dream he had where Bill and I won the lottery, enough that we were able to set Mike up with a cozy apartment by Exchange Place in Jersey City, which is where he wanted to live.

Bill and I bought a place on 11th Street in Hoboken while maintaining our current place for storage. I guess we won a lot of money in the dream. I hope it was a correct prediction, though having written that…

Tuesday, May 12

Today is Tuesday, May 12. An awful night of sleep. Woke up around 3 AM and thought I saw the clock that said 8. That messed up my sleep since I kept thinking it was time to wake up. This has been happening more and more lately and last night was the worst example of it.

Jimmy Chile has stated he’s had similar problems lately. This could be a coincidence or perhaps something larger. Who knows? Since no one reads this here blog, I can’t reach out and ask for your experiences with this. I will have to see what I can do about this tonight when I prepare for sleep.

Mike is coming over tonight since he has to do something in Hoboken early in the morning. I told him to ask Bill and Bill was OK with it. And Bill is going away for a few days again so Mike will be doing a few overnights this week I suppose. No one mentioned it to Mike so anything is possible.

Mike is not known for turning down a stay in Hoboken. And as usual, it will be good having him around. I was alone for a day or two over the past week and it was lonely. Not the end of the world, but not much fun either.

I am playing Help Me Rhonda by the Beach Boys since the 14th St Path train station is managed by a woman named Rhonda, and every morning I see her name, I think of the song.

Now I think of I Heard Her Call My Name by the Velvet Underground and that is now next in the queue. I do not have much self-confidence, and to combine that with self-doubt, leaves me somewhat crippled.

I will be at the big fruit stand tomorrow and it’s nothing I haven’t done before, but I am always set back by fear of making a mistake, fear of Yancy, my supervisor, who has the power to release me from the fruit stand where I presently work.

I’d really rather not leave the fruit stand, but in the back of my mind, it is always a possibility. Working for Barry McGarry did my head in, and the Algerians weren’t much help either.

The Velvet Underground are playing. As I showered this morning, I was thinking of The Orange Juice, the third album by Orange Juice. Yes these thoughts go through my mind as I shower and curse my misbegotten sleep.

Mike will not be coming over tonight. He’s taken care of things on his end so therefore no need. We had a good call regarding people (guys) befriending on the social media. I sometimes accept the overtures of friendship.

One particular guy seemed to be OK. After a few days, his tale of woe is shown. He needs $500 for a new car battery. Though I have not had a car in 40 years, I know a car battery is not $500. I sent him a link stating that.

Then a sidestep, his ‘aunty’ was loaning him the money. Then came the roundabout way of asking for money. I told him things were tough enough loaning money to friends let alone sending money to a stranger hundreds of miles away. He insisted he wasn’t a stranger but by then I had had enough and blocked him.

Mike related to this since he has over 11000 friends on social media.

Ysmael Villanueva says:
Smartphones + Internet + Artifical Intelligence = Catastrophe
I think I agree with Ysmael Villanueva though it was something that Ysmael Villanueva would never, could never say.