Monthly Archives: May 2009

Mo’ Onions

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Last night before I came home I hung out with Casey Chasm and his friend Moishe. Last minute, spur of the moment thing. Mrs, Chasm was out of town so it was sort of hang out with the guys. Casey’s always a good guy to hang out with, Moishe- I couldn’t say. I’ve only met Moishe twice and he seemed alright.

It was an interesting hour or so. I would have stayed for dinner, but the groceries I bought over the weekend needed to be eaten before they went bad. I did stay for some scintillating conversation and a few Bass Ales. I left feeling rather buzzed, listening to Lou Reed singing about New Sensations on the iPod.

Nothing going on around here and that was fine by me. Watched O & RM again. Back to my old habits. Didn’t pay much attention though. Nothing much on TV. Not one to watch Dancing with the Armenian Idols, I just talked with Harpy on the phone.

Bill came home when I was almost finished playing the guitar. Just playing to some Smiths songs, but hampered by the Dm7 chord. Bill was rambunctious as ever, with lots of silliness. I love him. He really bolsters my spirits and he’s relentless in his bolstering.

After RM we wound up watching The Soup on the E Channel. We like Joel McHale. Then it off to bed for Bill, wrestling with the sleep apnea mask. I eventually joined him, sans mask.

Woke up more tired than I was when I went to sleep. Not enough milk for cereal, just enough for coffee. Not the best way to start off the day. But I got through it.

Caught a bus that was more crowded than I hoped and sat in the very last seat. An overweight guy sitting next to me, almost on top of me. He was apologetic and I did my best to get over it and focus on the New Yorker.

The walk across town was pleasant and uneventful. No errant mice fleeing a swarm of sparrows and starlings.

The office was quiet again, I settled in moments after a phone call from Vivek. He had a few things for me to do. He was home after driving his wife to the airport at 5:00 in the morning and was trying to get some sleep. I could have used some more sleep myself.

I got whatever it was he wanted done. I always get whatever anyone asks of me done. He was going to be out of the office for the rest of the week.

He also set up a conference call, Vivek in bed, me in the office and some French guy from Spain on the phone in Florida. Apparently he has a lot of hotels under his belt so all I could do was take as many notes as possible, hopefully writing things down so they would make sense later on.

I was busy enough, but not enough that the day flew by. In fact it was a bit on the slow side. I had my usual salad for lunch, with a low fat balsamic vinaigrette.

Vivek did make an appearance which surprised me. He needed me to print out some boarding passes which I did and then saw him off into a cab headed to LaGuardia Airport, headed to Atlanta. He did ask how I felt about the ‘new’ job.

I told him that things were getting better, and that I wanted to do good, not just for the company but for myself. He mentioned that he did introduce me to the French Spaniard as their first employee.

I almost mentioned that I wasn’t fond of staying late, but decided we could talk about that next week when he gets back.

I smoked a Saint Luis Rey cigar and I did enjoy a compilation of 2 Tone bands, The Specials, The Selecter, Madness and the English Beat mainly on my walk back to the bus terminal.

Empty Pages

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Monday back to work day. Welcome to the working week. I didn’t sleep well last night and just about the only thing that got me out of bed was the fact that this upcoming weekend is Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer.

That meant that I had to go into work, though a few more hours asleep would have done me just fine.

The weekend overall was really a good weekend, seeing most of my family and spending some great quality time with Bill. It was a special weekend, the kind that you can’t plan or recreate. It worked out just right.

Bill was up and out by the time I finally stirred. Shower, shave, coffee, cereal. The drill which some of you might be acquainted with.

Even though I was dragging ass, I left the apartment earlier than usual and was soon on a bus reading the New Yorker, trying to pick up where I left off last week.

It was an article about the science of self-control. I had only gotten into the first couple of paragraphs and wound up starting all over again and finishing the article by the time the bus exited the tunnel on the Manhattan side.

The walk to the office was made interesting as I walked through Bryant Park. A young woman had a Tupperware container and was dumping something out on some gravel. Whatever it was started to move. It was a mouse that this woman caught in her apartment and was releasing it into the wilds of Bryant Park.

Immediately the mouse was set upon by sparrows and starlings. The birds weren’t attacking the mouse, just checking it out, letting the mouse know who was boss during the daylight hours. A few pigeons got in on the action.

The mouse was about to run into some ivy around a tree and decided not to, probably sensing something in the ivy that would either cause some physical harm, or perhaps eat it. I didn’t stick around to see what was next.

The whole scenario lasted about one minute.

I was in the office after that. No four legged rodents there. That’s not fair, everyone seemed OK today, no rats in sight.

I was surprisingly focused and getting things done. Greg Stevens was in, as was Tom Chin and eventually Vivek.

I had a good talk with Greg who mentioned that the IT woman who was in last week suggested that Greg hire me as his assistant. That would be nice but it seems unlikely that the money would be there.

I had actually thought about that over the weekend. Greg and the IT woman had a meeting and I had wondered if my name came up, in a good way.

Of course, paranoid me thinks they were talking about me, ‘Who is that guy? How did he get here’ and Greg Stevens saying, “I know, I wish we could get rid of him.’ It was heartening to find that wasn’t the case.

The day progressed with me running errands and basically doing alright. I got some work done. Vivek called me int his office later in the day and he asked me how things were going. Basically he wants to know whether or not I’ll be on board with this latest venture.

He asked if I would be with him six months, nine months down the line. Nine months is all that’s about left on the lease. He told me to think about it and I’m going to. I also told Greg Stevens that I would help him out whenever I could.

I will stick around, there’s nothing else out there. But I will have to tell Vivek that the hours need to be tightened up.

I might work late one or two nights a week, but he shouldn’t expect that four days a week. So it was an interesting position to be in. I’m not going anywhere, I’m going to ride this through to the end.

So said the mouse in the Tupperware container.

Here is the Google car taking 360 degree shots of 51st Street.

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