No T Mobile drama today. I also think I wrote too soon last night, regarding my bad day, Bill’s bad day and Annemarie, Rex and Earl’s traveling horror story. Well I suppose the post script would be about Juan’s car being towed to the impound lot in Hoboken. That sucked. Right around midnight, I get a call from Juan. He came back up after having left a few minutes earlier. We watched The Devil Wears Prada on cable with Bill. Juan was frantic and I did my best to reassure him. He left to walk up to 15th and Jefferson and from what I understand that didn’t go well either. Maybe Juan will blog it.

I slept relatively well. I cuddled with Bill which was nice. I hadn’t done that in a while. He was dead to the world anyway. I had a restful sleep and woke up with Bill leaning over me ready to kiss me good bye on his way to work. I soon got out of bed and paddled my way around the apartment. Bill made coffee and even poured cereal in the bowl before he left. No milk for the cereal since Bill never eats cereal and doesn’t know how much milk would go in the bowl. Damn physics!

Work was more restful today than it was yesterday. I was busier at my desk, no swimming around midtown in the hummus for me today. Most of the work was for Greg Stevens, so I gave it 110%. He’s now the president of some investment social organization so I needed to organize some administrative information for his group. I was surprised at what I could do, though I did chat with Bill online about some kinks in an excel program that I wasn’t able to figure out for myself. Bill did point me in the right direction and I was able to figure it out.

I was going out tonight with Bill and Billie, who is up from DC training in Manhattan. I’ve known Billie almost 25 years now. He’s going to be managing the opening of some Chop’T salad joints in DC. Chop’T is an upscale salad bar. I ate there on Monday and got a salad that cost 9.00 and change. It was good, but 9.00? I only went since I knew Billie would be there, unable to really sit and chat since it was lunchtime. Maybe I’ll wind up in possession of some free salad passes.

We went to O.W. Which stands for Oscar Wilde. It’s an okay bar. They used to serve Guinness but not anymore. It was formerly an old Irish dive bar. I pop in every one or two years. It’s usually bearable, but tonight it was cool since Billie was in town, making it a special occasion. I was wearing black pinstriped trousers and a white cotton shirt. Apparently I looked like a chef. That’s what some guy asked me. He was being earnest though. He was wearing a Commander in Chief t shirt so I asked him if he was the president. He wasn’t and we both regretted it.

Here are some snaps.

Billie and the long dreads

Chef John Ozed on the right

Woke up this morning, hot as all hell, in the 80’s. The last fifteen minutes of sleep lasted a long time. I peeked and it was 5:45, then after what seemed like a long time it was 6:00 and time to get out of bed.
Bill was off and running taking the recyclables downstairs which was nice. I left soon after and took the recyclables out of the garbage cans and put them in the recycling bin which was stuffed by I was able to fit the things in, Nice effort on Bill’s part, great follow though on mine I guess.

Hot hot hot as I walked to the bus stop, got on the bus while the other people were jerking off their Blackberries. Normally I would let the women on before me but if she’s too busy on her Crackberry, then too bad I’ll get on first. Too hot for proper etiquette if there is actual etiquette around these days
I walked across town sweltering in the heat, cutting through Grand Central Station which provided some relief from the heat. Got to the office, started things up and changed by soaked t-shirt in the IT room which is nice and air conditioned.

People came in in drips and drabs and the office came alive shortly thereafter. I had some errands to run of course in the now 90 degree heat. Walking down the street was like walking through hummus. That’s where the reference comes in, in case you’re in Sydney and don’t know what the hell I am writing about. Tried to do a few things for the office, like getting a proper sign made so when you get off the elevator on my floor you know who’s offices you are going to. That was a slight headache since we share our space with another company and it sounded like someone was going to be slighted. But the lease states that only my company can have signage at the spot so a showdown should be happening somewhere later in the week.

An old friend and business partner of Vivek’s asked me a favor, to go and get some minutes for a cell phone. He has some friends coming in from India and they needed minutes for their cellphones. I needed to go to T Mobile and Cingular and bought $400.00 worth of minutes. I also had to suss out some restaurants for a closing dinner on July 26th, which I am invited to. So I ran to T Mobile and Cingular and bought the minutes that were needed and also checked out some restaurants in the area. I also went to a Sign Maker and inquired about some signs to be made. Then I came back to the office and broke down the info for the minutes from the cellphone companies on a separate paper for convenience and an easy read.

I go to Vivek’s friend and he tells me he needs SIM cards, not minutes. It didn’t make sense but it was his dime. I went over to the T Mobile store across the street and tried to explain the error. They’re telling me it’s too late the minutes can’t be taken back since they are on my phone. But I didn’t want them or need them. They were really arrogant. This balding motherfucker yells at me as I’m walking out the door, ‘Don’t get mad because you can’t get what you want.’ I yelled back, ‘Oh grow some hair.’
I was fuming, literally and figuratively and went back to my desk and logged into my T Mobile account. No sign of added minutes.

Then I called T Mobile, spoke with Justin who was very understanding and helpful and couldn’t find the minutes in my account, nor in Vivek’s friend’s account. Justin called the store and they gave him the run around too. But he was able to get me a full refund, or perhaps the SIM cards that were asked for earlier. It was only 6:30 PM now and another T Mobile store in the area was open to 7:30. I went there and it was a madhouse. The manager was trying to leave the store for the day when she was corralled by an assistant who listened to my story, then told the manager something totally different in right in front of me. Long story short, the manager couldn’t help me since all I had were receipts and didn’t have the credit card that I gave back to Vivek’s friend who for now I’ll call Pain in the Ass Patel.

I finally left the office about 7:30, having a well deserved cigar. Throughout all this I remembered to get an iTunes card and send it off to my niece Cassie, who’s birthday is tomorrow. That was ballsy. I cupped the cigar in my hand and walked into the post office but the depository closest to me was closed so I hid the cigar in the entrance where I came in and walked across the lobby of the post office, and threw the card in, coming back and picking up my cigar and puffing again as I swam down Lexington Avenue.

I time it perfectly so that by the time I get to the bus station the cigar is basically finished. Of course I was drenched in sweat and I hopped on the bus only to be eyeballed by some guy in the front row who looked disgusted by my sweat. I eyeballed him back, hard, really obvious which seemed to frighten him and I noticed some other guys throughout the bus all staring at me. I guess I imposed myself on the bus, perhaps declaring alpha male status in a primitive way. Nonplussed about that. I was hot and tired and didn’t need to be looked at like I was a freak. If I frightened him, then perhaps he’ll be a little discreet if he sees a man sweating like a horse heading for his direction.

I had a bad day, Bill had a bad day, and Annemarie, Rex and Earl who left Hoboken around 11:30 Monday morning, just arrived in Arcata 9:00 eastern standard time, they really had a bad day. Craziness indeed.

Yes I am back to work. Vacation is over.