Monday morning I’ve got Friday on my mind. Who was that? Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders? Anyone? Hello? Is this on? Who am I kidding? The only one that leaves feedback is Song and he’s in Sydney. Juan used to but now he’s a working man. Annemarie prefers private emails and gentlemen prefer blondes. It’s been that kind of day. Still woozy from The Sopranos last night which I thought was brilliant and posted that several times on various bulletin boards. I was amazed, though not really, more disappointed in the fact that so many people HATED the final episode.

SPOILER ALERT. It was so intense from the beginning to the very end. I don’t recall seeing a more intense show. Phil Leotardo rightly got bumped off though I would have liked his lieutenants get rubbed out as well. There were so many theories going around about what would actually happen and out of the ones that I heard, no one had a clue. I obviously didn’t but how ofter do I actually have a clue? It ended like this, David Chase ended it right in the middle of Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey which was perfect. Tony, Carmela and AJ sitting in a restaurant in Bloomfield waiting for Meadow to show up. Shady characters walking around. Is this how Tony will live the rest of his life? Always looking over his shoulder? Or will it end right then and there with Carmela covered in Tony’s blood and guts? Or will the whole family get offed?

NO way to say. David Chase ended it mid-song. ‘Don’t Stop…!’ which isn’t how the song ends. The screen goes black. 10 seconds later, the credits roll. That is what upset so many people. No blood. No happy song, no puppy dog licking the face. Earlier in the season Tony and his brother in law, Bobby are talking about death and Bobby says he thinks that you never hear the shot, or the bullet. Everything goes to black. And that’s how the show ended. Everything went to black. No shots, no screams, no blood, no puppies (and everyone loves puppies). It was all very much reminiscent of ‘The Lady or The Tiger’ which I thought was written by Rudyard Kipling but was actually written by Frank Stockton. A lot of people had to read it in high school, I know I did. Probably failed the test and wrote Kipling instead of Stockton. It’s such a short story that you can read it all here via this link.

cut and paste

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LadyTige.shtml

So many people went to the HBO website that it crashed from all the complaints. From what I’ve read on the bulletin boards, a lot of people were ready to cancel their subscriptions to HBO. Don’t you just love it when people are forced to think about the thing they are watching/reading/listening to? I know I love to think when doing those things. I just need to shut down my thought process when I’m not doing any of those things. Like now.

5 Hours after I left the apartment to go and see brother Frank, I’ve returned at 5:00 exactly. Not an major accomplishment, just a fact. I wasn’t sure if Frank would be in the hospital or in a rehab unit in Saddle Brook, so I called and found that he was indeed still in the hospital and that he may have had some smaller strokes post operation. He is also off his anti-depressants so that accounts for a lot, his demeanor and his depression. A withdrawal of sorts. He will not be heading back to work anytime soon if he goes back at all.

And the wedding planning is in full gear. Last night were the bachelor and bachelorette parties. Rob and his mates went to a Yankee game and then a posh dinner, Meghan and her friends hit a bar in Hoboken. I received a text message from my niece Cory who said that she’d be coming over to my apartment if she couldn’t get into any bars with her older sister. She never came over, having gotten into a bar and staying there until closing. They all got home at 4:30, the girls that is. The guys were home by midnight from what I’ve heard.

Since I didn’t go out I stayed in and watched the telly until I felt tired enough to go to sleep which was difficult due to a really good nap that I took earlier in the afternoon. Finally I did sleep and woke up at 7:00 thinking it was later than that. It wasn’t it was earlier than I wanted. I got out of bed with a headache and took two gel caps and went back to bed, sleeping to and waking up with various bird calls seemingly right outside of my window.

I left the apartment after bagels, papers and coffee and waited for a bus on Washington Street to take me to Union City. Soon enough I was on a really slow bus that felt like I was taking a tour of Washington Street storefronts and brownstones. I got off the bus on New York Avenue and waited for the 163 bus to take me to Hackensack. That arrived and I got on and sat in an air conditioned bus, getting out at Summit and Essex Streets. Frank was in the same room so it was easy to find once you figured out which way to go.

Frank, Elaine and Cory were walking around a little bit outside the room when I showed up. We sat in Frank’s room and sat around and chatted about this and that, Cory telling me about her night out with the bachelorette party, Elaine telling me about her dinner at the racetrack, and Frank not saying too much. A dietitian came in and talked about what Frank should and should not eat and a doctor came by and checked his lungs, which were ok and his heart which was still beating.

Meghan’s fiance’s parents came by and talked for a bit though it seemed that Frank was getting tired with all the visitors. That was our signal to go so he could get some rest. We all rode down the elevator on the way out, everyone going to their cars, me going to the bathroom and then to the bus stop where I waited and listened to the English Beat. Walked home down Palisades Avenue to the viaduct and finally down into Hoboken where I am at right now, in case you haven’t figured that out.