Heart of Stone by the Rolling Stones just popped into my head. It’s a quiet Thursday. I guess a lot of people are still out. Bill is on the road, expected back tonight. Mike was stuck in his crib, his parole officer and four training officers came over a short while ago. 5 people watched him pee. They could have done that by looking at his Twitter page.

The world is a mess. This country is even messier. And don’t get me started about Messi. I don’t know anything about Messi except he’s been in the news the past 48 hours. It might be good or he mmight have done something stupid. Or perhaps a combination of the two.

I am listening to Compay Segundo. Lo Mejor De La Vida. The first Compay Segundo CD I bought back when Julio and I were enthralled by the whole Buena Vista Social Club. That was almost 30 years ago.

It coincided with my suit & tie fetish. I realized if I wanted a good job, I would have to dress the part. For a part of my life I think I tended to dress like the musicians who’s music I had been listening to. There was Punk and New Wave. There was the Indie Underground scene of which Maxwell’s was a landmark. And I worked in the music business and dressed accordingly.

Julio was into Buena Vista Social Club before me and when I got into them, I went whole hog. They were all older Cuban men who dressed in suits and ties. And so I did. Julio and I made it a point to see the various members as they toured in Manhattan and I always went suited up.

And I was able to get a few good jobs where I dressed like an investment banker, more than the investment bankers I was supporting. Braces, OTC TNT socks, pinstriped and chalk striped suits. It was a turn on.

In fact that is how I met Bill, at a Yahoo groups Suit and Tie party. I had gone to a few and always left dejected. In September 2000 I was determined to enjoy myself. Annemarie was very supportive and drove me to the Path train from Weehawken.

I went to a penthouse on Ann Street and mingled, had a few glasses of wine and enjoyed a cigar while out on the veranda. My memory serves, telling me I was the belle of the ball.

Everything I said was so witty and as these suited men chuckled at whatever I had to say, I looked over them to see a brown-eyed handsome man in a mustard colored suit and making eye contact with him.

Soon I was in a PDA with Bill, including a sexual act that I had never done in a ‘public’ setting. Here I am 25 years later, no longer wearing the suits and ties. It used to drive my brother Frank crazy. I think he thought I was a yuppie or trying to be one.

I was still the same iconoclast, just dressed better.

Today’s glory is somewhat clumsy. I slept well so that was good. Bill was getting his act together for an overnight road trip and I puttered around getting ready for my day. I am once again at the really big fruit stand and I will be here today as well as the next two days.

I don’t like it and I don’t have a say in the matter. As long as I keep telling myself I have a good job as if it were a mantra I think it will help get me through the day. Although I just had an encounter with people asking me for something that I did not know where it was.

Keys, keys that were labelled as something. And each time I picked up a key they pointed out it was not the key. I was frustrated and more than likely let them know how frustrated I was. I am working with Violet who had somehow vanished before these twenty somethings showed up.

Violet would know where things are, and I do not. On top of that there’s a new computer in which everything needs to be updated for my use. This is the equivalent of starting a race a few seconds behind everyone else. And I know it’s not a race. Yancy was hovering around making sure I did this or that and that was nerve-wracking

But what will probably get me in hot water are the twenty-somethings who may have been offended by my frustration and the curt tone in which I expressed myself.

Bill is on the road; Mike is coming over tonight so that he can catch a ride share to North Bergen to get his elusive Real ID. The ride share would be cheaper to North Bergen from Hoboken than it would be from Jersey City. Or so we would like to think.
So at the really big fruit stand, I seem to mirror whatever someone else is feeling. If they’re frantic, I take that on. If they’re pleasant, I am pleasant too. I’ve been like that my whole life I think. And sometimes it works and sometimes it gets me into trouble.

I could have sworn I was in trouble but I may not be, though the day is still early and I have only been here for 2 hours and change. The password is so damn simple and I couldn’t remember it. Now I do

I am sitting in a concrete park in midtown. There are 2 people doing what I guess is tai chi. To the right of this man and woman are 8 Asian people, 7 men and 1 woman also doing Tai chi. Is it meditative? It doesn’t matter, I need to get back to my desk.

I was able to get a key made but won’t know if it is a success until I get home.

I got back to the fruit stand and handled things by the seat of my pants until Violet returned. After her remergence, I contacted Yandy and told hime my situation. Within minutes everything was taken care of and I was able to be productive on a very slow afternoon. But the weight of passwords was taken care of.

I also found that I would be at my usual fruit stand rather than the 2 more days I dreaded. Where did I get that idea? Yancy knew nothing about it. I’m not crazy. Or am I?

Mike is not coming over. His parole officer called telling him to stay home tomorrow. He asked me to cancel his appointment and set a new one. It did just that for August 13, 11:15 AM.