I wore a suit today. Well a suit with a dress shirt and no tie. Funky enough without the tie, an air of coolness. I was also wearing braces, or suspenders. I felt great and I think I looked great. It was a beautiful spring day. I was playing ‘Heart of Glass’ by Blondie and transported to my last months before graduation in high school. There wasn’t much to do for seniors, no real homework. I used to hang out at the Texaco gas station down the block from my house on the other side of Route 80.

I was hanging out with Henry Venegas from high school. We used to smoke cigarettes and listen to the radio with Henry occasionally pumping gas for a customer. Sometimes I did too. Henry was a cute dude, always, and I do mean ALWAYS, grabbing his crotch. He wasn’t gay, he was straight as six o’clock. But he was constantly pulling his pud. He liked disco and Aerosmith. I liked punk and new wave.

We would just hang and smoke and shoot the shit. He was going into the Navy, I was going to work. College didn’t appeal to me at all. I had the awakening when my math class was told by Sister Reginald that no one is going to make you go to class when we go to college. I didn’t realize that. I hated school so much that going to college wasn’t a real option anyway, but the fact that no one would make me attend, well that just sealed the deal.

Sister Reginald was a tough old nun by the way. She taught my worst subject, Algebra. On my final algebra exam in high school I wrote an essay stating that it would be futile to send me to summer school because I will never understand algebra. I swore that I would never have anything to do with algebra, ever. I also begged her to let me pass, because my parents would definitely kill me. And I was a senior, damn it!

Well she passed me, earning a special spot in heaven, conveniently knocking Sister Mary Octavian off her perch. (For those playing at home you can do a search in the archives for ‘Octavian’ or go to the January 2 posting called, Do Ya)

Today was a nice day. I took my time going to work, just enjoying the morning. Things are relatively quiet in the Village at 8:15 in the morning. I got in ten minutes later and started up the office. The new thing is Iced Tea and Iced Coffee in decanters that hold over a gallon. I took the decanters out of the refrigerator and put them on the counter.

Once again I greeted most everyone, and a few times, some of them greeted me first which was pleasantly surprising. It was day eleven and things were shaping up to be pretty good. They were used to me, even walking around in dress trousers and braces with dress shoes of course. I was used to them. We’re settling in as it were.

I walked around a bit for lunch and headed back in after getting my usual salad. Afterwork I smoked a Padron and walked up Seventh Avenue to 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue listening to Outkast ‘The Love Below’.