Ok things are getting back to ‘normal’. It’s Tuesday, and I’ve settled into the job. I like my coworkers and I’m developing a tolerance for Wally, who is such a closet case. It was comical to see Wally talking to a co-worker, Syreeta who is flying to India tomorrow. He was trying to be cosmopolitan and was trying to describe Indian movies and dancing but couldn’t figure out what they were called or where they were from. Hey stammered and hemmed and hawed finally Syreeta who was desperate to leave said Bollywood and finally he knew of what he was trying to speak of.

I was doing a lot of data entry and trying to pace myself so that I could get some overtime out of it. It was easy since there are so many pressing things for me to do. Things like making photocopies, answering the phone and having paperwork filled out by people that are generally humble and the occasional arrogant fuckers who come in an expect everything to stop because they have arrived. These are the ones that balk at having to fill out papers, they sign in their names with such a hurried scrawl. When it gets to the part where they are asked to list the last three jobs they try to refuse to.

I take a deep breath and attempt to convince them it would all be for the best since the copy of their resume sometimes gets separated from the application they are filling out. It’s not like they are going to see the counselor anytime soon. There’s a lot of waiting involved. Naomi does send me out on errands occasionally, and this morning she asked me to go to the Fossil store to get a battery and the crystal on her daughter’s watch replaced. I didn’t mind. I do enjoy walking around midtown Manhattan during the day. Lot’s of hustle and bustle and not so much of the cool factor that was knee deep in Soho.

I stayed until 6:45 tonight which meant I missed most of Scrubs which is fine since I’ve been watching it so often that I’ve really seen a lot, sometimes two or three times already. The same thing happened with the Simpsons, saw it a lot of times, reluctant to say way too many and I couldn’t watch it much more. Now in small doses it’s alright though. Like chipping as a habit. Or maybe not. Luke, the IT guy in the office gets along with Wally really well.

The jury is still out on Luke. Towards the end of my day it was just Luke and myself in the office and he told me that I was doing a good job and everyone was happy to have me there. He mentioned that I got a grip on the systems in the office very fast and he was impressed by that fact. It’s really not that hard to figure out.

The way home via the bus I sat across from Janet Wygal who used to play bass for the Individuals. My brother Frank used to think how striking she was and she’s still a looker. She gave me the look that she thought I was Frank and it messed up her wiring somewhat. I wasn’t sure if she was her anyway. We’ve known each other for years, over 20 actually, and we’ve never spoken before so why start now?

Then it was off to the A&P once I got off the bus. As I was checking out I saw someone I had a fling with years ago. Of course he’s straight, just liked to fool around with me once in a while. I heard he lost a leg in a car accident a few years ago but it looked like he had two legs under his track pants. Could have a prosthetic underneath.
Hey just because I have a bass like Paul McCartney’s doesn’t mean I want a play date like the one he’s separating from, his ex-wife.

I must stop living in the past. I was reminded and left forlorn, thinking of the first time I ever heard the word ‘ersatz’ said aloud. It was at a fashion show for Alphonso Portillo, a local designer who was having his designs shown at Lady Jane’s, a former bar at 14th and Hudson. One of the dresses Alphonso designed had a flap in the front which prompted Andrew Feldman to point out the ersatz penis. Must have been around 1984 or so. Lady Jane’s is gone, Andrew Feldman married and moved to the West Coast and Alphonso Portillo died a few years later.

I remember dancing to West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys at an end of tax season party across from Lincoln Center when I worked for Friedman Alpren and Green in 1986. I danced to West End Girls and Kiss by Prince. Oh how I thought I was on top of my game. I worked in the file room at 1700 Broadway, lived in a railroad apartment at 201 Madison Street where I was the only white guy in the neighborhood for a few years. When my parents would send me mail, they’d send it to McSwells since they new I could be found there more often than not.

The guy who ran the file room at 1700 Broadway was Tyree Thomas, a nice guy, affable. He made me and a few other file room employees to promise to get together on New Years Eve in 1999 to celebrate with him. We all pledged but eventually went our separate ways and the plan to get together at the new millennium fell by the wayside. I left Friedman Alpren and Green after a supposed slight and got a job being the assistant manager at San Loco, a fast food Mexican joint on Second Avenue off of St. Marks Place. 1987.

Steve Fallon, a friend of the owners Darrel and Craig Nelson, and also a friend of mine whispered in my ear that it was not that good a choice to be a glorified cashier on Second Avenue. I soon agreed when I noticed that things were getting a bit crazy in the East Village and it was too much for me. I ran into a friend of mine, Errol Stewart who was playing guitar for Fetchin’ Bones who told me he had a good gig working freelance for Rupert Murdoch for $10.00 an hour.

I got myself hired and soon found myself surrounded by people like Harpy, Pedro, Excer, Ann Boyles and Catherine Cloud as well as Ulysses Sankitts and his brother, Tony. We didn’t do much of anything except smoke cigarettes and listen to music and do drugs and get wired while looking at brochures and trying to pick the oh so best picture to be turned into a slide for inclusion into a database which was a little bit ahead of it’s time. The Hotel Database.

That job ended a couple of years later and I’m still friends with Harpy, Pedro and Excer. Ann Boyles went back to Georgia, Catherine Cloud to who knows where, Tony Sankitts passed away and Ulysses still doing nefarious things in Queens Village I think.

Some times memories help, sometimes they weigh you down. Sometimes I walk around and think there are too many memories here. Maybe I should move to somewhere where I have no memories. But where?

And where’s Juan?