Sleeping in on a Saturday morning is such a nice feeling. Nothing much to do, you’re able to take your time mostly. A nice unhurried way to start the day. Bill was in Yardley, PA at his cousin Hiram’s house. Bill had a photo shoot for some unnamed company. I had the big ole bed to myself and I was reluctant to get out of bed but it was 8:30, and I couldn’t sleep anymore. Made some coffee and jumped into the shower. Checked email after that and had a cuppa before I went out hunting for bagels and other foodstuffs.

It was bright and sunny and crisp out as I brought some clothes to the dry cleaners on the corner. Outside the building I ran into Mr. and Mrs. Lopez who were getting ready to clean out an apartment up in West New York. Julio inherited the building and had to evict someone who hadn’t paid their rent in a few months. So now it needed to be cleaned out and fixed up before in can go back in the rental market. Nice to Stine replacing me in the helping out department. I would help Julio out if he asked but I’m really not the volunteering on a beautiful Saturday afternoon type of guy.

Had too many experiences growing up doing that. Back then my father would announce on a Friday night that my brother Brian and I better not have any plans for Saturday because there was to be done around the house. It didn’t matter if we had plans because we would have to cancel them. Then my parents would go out to the VFW and have a few drinks, coming home long after I had gone to sleep.

The next morning would be quiet due to the fact that my father would more than likely be hung over which meant that we would be walking around on pins and needles, trying not to wake him up. Brian and I would sit around the house, not knowing what chores our father had in store for us. Late afternoon was when we generally started, after my father sat around in his underwear, reading the papers. We’d get started with Brian and I cursing under our breaths. Luckily I was thought of as retarded and played the role of the gopher as my father and brother would struggle for alpha male status with my father generally winning and Brian storming off in a huff with my mother trying to calm things down.

Another dreaded thing on Saturday afternoons would be going to the hardware store. I find those places to be so numbing to me. So much wasted time I spent going to the hardware store and staring at dusty boxes filled with strange pipes and fittings. I’m obviously not the handyman type, Julio is though. He loves to chip in. Usually he insists that he fix whatever is broken in the apartment since he knows it would take him much less time that it would for Bill and myself.

I’m supposed to go down and visit the Lopez’s, just awaiting the call.

Juan is on the phone with his excellent hair calling from Six Flags Great Adventure. He is deliberately mispronouncing ‘L’s for ‘R’s ala Japanese speak. It’s funny and he is swift and quick on the uptake. He is begging me over the phone to write tonight’s blog in the manner in which he’s speaking. I turn down the request and suggest that he write that way in his own blog which is listed in the blog roll on the right under the guise of mamonohunterneo. So you can go there if you want to see Juan write the way he’s been speaking tonight.

Those 30 minutes were more than likely the best 30 minutes I had all day. It was 41 degrees out when I left the apartment this morning. I wore a suit since it warranted it. I was planning on it anyway. Yesterday in the office there was an email regarding a project that some of the staff had been working on. The RED Campaign which is a noble effort spearheaded by Bono from U2 and Bobby Shriver. Today, Friday the 13th of October was a major launch or push or something with media saturation on Oprah, and various news organizations, like right now on Larry King. So it was suggested that everyone in the office show some support and wear red today.

I thought it was a good idea and wore my black Sean John pinstriped suit with black braces, a white French cuff shirt with the Warhol Campbell’s Soup Can cufflinks Bill got me, and a red silk tie and a red pocket silk. I looked great. I felt great dressing up and walking to the Path train instead of looking like a shlub. I have to say I easily would have won best dressed passenger for car 1265 on the 7:43 train to 33rd Street. I got to the office and no one was there, I set about starting things up, making the coffee, turning on machines.

It almost felt like a holiday. No one was there until after 9:00. I didn’t really mind, I did various things before anyone showed up. I found out that today was probably not the best day to wear a suit since it was going to be clean up the messy office day. Of course I didn’t know anything about it. I did whatever was asked quite carefully so as not to ruin my trousers or shirt. Felicia and I did a lot of the work and she ordered pizza for the whole office since ‘they had cleaned’ their workspaces. I didn’t see anyone do anything really, but I was very busy trying to keep clean while cleaning.

The day couldn’t end soon enough. I walked around downtown smoking a Padron trying to shake off the ghost of a stupid day. I was glad to be out of the office. At a few points throughout the day Amiable Alan tried to help me out with some support and I was grateful. He laughed at my sardonic comments and seems to enjoy hearing, ‘Shut up Bitch’. As long as he enjoys it, I’ll keep saying it.

Shut up Bitch.