A mellow Saturday is a good thing. I have no complaints. The ugly blister which I wrote about yesterday and grossed out a few readers has cleared up and I can walk without a limp today. Still my right calf is tight and not in a good way, but I think that should take care of itself. I knew it was going to be a busy day so I wisely did my laundry the night before. Foresight. Me. Go figure. Juan came over and hung out and so did Julio after he had dinner and drinks with some people from work. So he was a little bit buzzed.

He called from the bar he was at and asked if I would be home so that he might be able to climb down the fire escape. I assured him that I would be but forgot how antagonistic he could be when under the influence of a few beers. He came up, Juan and I hanging out. I cleared a path to the window and gave him a lantern that he gave me a few years ago. He was able to make it down to the third floor where he was skinny enough to be able to crawl through a 14 inch window. So he was able to get his keys back.

He came up and complained that there wasn’t anything alcoholic to drink. Actually there was some Guinness but Julio turned his nose up at that. Also there were only four cans, and three men so someone would get shorted on a pint. I offered him some
Gammel Dansk, a Danish liqueur that I had in my fridge but he refused in his humorously belligerent manner. Then he remembered that he had some Danish vodka in his fridge so I went down and got it and made drinks for the three of us when I returned to my apartment.

We watched Angel Cabrera, I mean Bill on Conan O’Brien again since Julio hadn’t seen it. We also watched Entourage, Flight of the Conchords and John from Cincinnati. Once again, Julio brought up the fact that he hadn’t been up here in a while, and was never invited up to watch the Sopranos, though I’ve told him time and time again he had an open invitation to come up here anytime and watch TV. He never takes me up on it, don’t know why. Could be because he doesn’t think Stine would like the apartment, or perhaps it’s so he can spend as much time with Stine alone.

Around 12:30 I kicked both Juan and Julio out. Julio went first, Juan a little while later, in time to say Hello Goodbye to Bill who crawled through the door later than usual, greeted by me with curlers in my hair and a rolling pin in my hand while wearing a house coat. I said good night to Bill and fell right asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. After two drinks last night which weren’t strong at all, I woke up with a head ache or a hang over. Took some gel caps and went out for the papers and bagels.

I called Julio to see if he wanted a bagel but he only asked for water since he too had a head ache hang over. I bought the bagels and the papers, then came back to the apartment and got some bottles of Poland Spring for the J Meister. Then I came home, had a nice breakfast and read the papers. I looked online for the train schedules to and from Garfield and looked to see if bicycles were allowed on the train, They were so I decided to ride to Frank and Elaine’s house from the train station.

Frank was sitting on the couch with Corinne and Elaine greeted me on the stairs. I sat with them and watched TV. Elaine and Corinne had errands to run so I sat with Frank until it was time for me to go catch the train back to Bokeyland. All in all a good day, even when I went to the supermarket after taking my bicycle helmet off not noticing a half inch of dirt and sweat across my forehead.

Here’s some more pics from the new camera..

Can’t start the day without it!

Julio’s POV

Bill

Elaine!

Cuddly Juan

Fire Escape Navigator

Me!

It’s Friday. One week until Bill’s birthday, one week until Annemarie, Rex and Earl arrive, eight days until Meghan and Rob’s wedding and six days until Julio flies off to Denmark on his birthday, and two days until I march in the Gay Pride parade with Bill and the Park Avenue Christian Church. Looks like a busy week huh? And that’s all that I know about. Anything could happen between now and then. I’d rather it stick to the schedule, but since when does life go according to what is planned? Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans, sang John Lennon. And look what happened to him.

It’s been a crazy day, quite stressed out from a blister on my foot. I wore a pair of shoes that I hadn’t worn in quite a while and they looked good, only in the heel of the right shoe there was a slight tear in the leather which bothered me a bit but I didn’t pay it much attention after that. Yesterday I wore a different pair, and it felt like something was stuck on the bottom of my right foot. It was irritating but I once again ignored it until I got home to find I had a blister that covered my whole heel. I tried taking care of it last night, which meant popping the blister and letting the pus ooze out.

It felt ok after that last night, but I don’t think I did it properly since this morning I wound up walking to work with a bit of a limp. Since I get to the office before everyone I was able to do some more popping of the blister, with a bottle of peroxide over my garbage can. I bought some bandages on the way to work today and placed a fresh one on my right heel. I wound up doing that a few more times throughout the day. Pretty, no?

Last night while hanging out with Bill I was trying to take some pictures when my camera broke. This was the second or third time it broke. I had to send it in for a repair last year around this time. Canon tried to sell me a refurbished model but I refused, just wanting my trusty old Power Shot A75 to be repaired properly and back in my hands, ready for art. But trusty old Power Shot A75 has gotten rusty and last night the lenses wouldn’t retract.

I chatted with Bill online in an exchange of emails about where he got the older camera, and what was a good model, since we’re both preferring Canons. Secretly I was hoping Bill would spring for a new one since he bought the older one as a present, but no, that wasn’t going to happen. I decided to get a Canon Power Shot A630. It was on sale at J&R downtown so I went there, inviting Carla the receptionist to join me since we closed the office at 3:00. I limped along down the stairs to the subway with Carla. She’s such a sweetie.

We got to J&R and were immediately set upon with a hard sell from a zealous salesman, throwing terms out there designed to intimidate. I was smart enough to print out hard copies of the cameras I was interested in which shut the salesman up right away. I bought an additional memory card so I wouldn’t be caught short at the wedding next weekend which sort of appeased the salesman and upped his commission a little bit.

Carla headed back uptown, I limped over to the World Trade Center Path station. Got to Hoboken and limped all the way home. Did some laundry and took some pics with my new camera.

And here they are…

and my right foot

One more thing. I get a call from Julio this morning. Turns out he just locked himself out of his apartment. He was relieved that I had the keys, but I don’t have the keys. The keys are in Arcata. Both the original and the duplicates. Hmmm.

Juan is here, hanging out, Julio is on his way over here to climb out my window and down the fire escape.