Monthly Archives: September 2009

Aftermath

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Let’s see. It’s Wednesday, that much I know. It’s definitely a lot cooler out. And it’s now 6:00 and I was supposed to call Juan between 4 and 5:00. I just remembered that. What else? I’m sure I’m forgetting something.

Tried going to bed earlier than usual but couldn’t fall asleep so I wound up staying up until the usual time. No it’s not caffeine. I don’t drink caffeine after noon. It wasn’t so bad in any event. I did fall asleep eventually after following my own advice, to get out of bed instead of tossing and turning and my advice proved right.

I’ve taken to going out and getting the paper in the morning, if only to put away the garbage cans I put out the night before. Last week I had a talk with Julio about it. How I put out the garbage most nights, including the recyclables, but no one can put back the empty cans in the morning.

Julio claims he did and I cut him some slack, saying that 9 times out of 10 I’m the one who does it. He is that 1 time. I did not bring that up with Bill since it took a while to get him to stop putting the recyclables in with the trash.

When I was employed, I would leave the building after Bill, I would reach in the garbage cans and pull out empty Vitamin Water bottles that were recently in the kitchen here. In a suit and tie yet. It only took over a half dozen times before he eventually got the message.

Today I decided to go to Shop Rite in Hoboken. The A&P is closer but Shop Rite is much larger and has better selections and generally better prices, though I usually spend more money at Shop Rite. I don’t know how that works. Also ran into Roda and his son Logan, food shopping.

Midway through my shopping experience, I get a phone call from Bill. I suggested that if he has to sing a song for an audition and he’s no so sure, that he should write out the lyrics by hand so he will, in effect own those words and make them more personal by writing them out by hand.

He was calling to thank me for that idea. It’s something I picked up when growing up and had to sit at the dining room table for 2 hours, ostensibly to do homework. Even if I had homework that could be done in 10 minutes, I would still have to sit there for 1 hour and 50 minutes.

My brother Brian would sit opposite me for those 2 hours. It was mainly because we weren’t the top notch students our father encouraged us to be.

That was a joke. Our father never encouraged us to do anything.

So while my father sat about 15 feet away, my mother 9.5 feet away and the TV blaring quite loud since my father was losing his hearing, I would get one of the books from the encyclopedia and start writing out by hand various pages that caught my eye.

Brian, sitting where he was, would try to steal a glance at Johnny Mann’s Stand Up and Cheer.

The 2 hours at the table didn’t achieve much but some improvement did have to be shown in our grades. I don’t know how that worked out, but I certainly benefited from social promotion.

Remember, I’m the guy who wrote an essay on his Algebra final. And I’ve held up my end. Haven’t used Algebra since.
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Noise Annoys

9.29.09

Well it’s one of those days. Not one of those days, but one of those days. Not too bad. Still laundry gets done. I heard from Julio twice which was odd. I hardly ever hear from him, he with his hands full of work and wife and kid. He was actually pretty funny.

I had just run into Stine and Alexander as I went out for the paper and walked with them to the park. Stine noted that the nannies are more aware of what their charges are doing than the mothers who bring their kids. And sometimes the mothers look down upon other mothers.

A vicious cabal those mothers be.

I was up and about on this chilly autumn day. A walk to the post office to drop off a card for Lovely Rita’s birthday tomorrow. Almost forgot about that. But thanks to Facebook I remembered.

A walk around the waterfront which is collapsing in parts. Some parts were built on wooden pilings which are being eaten away by mollusks. And of course Hoboken is broke and could barely afford to fix a streetlight much less a crumbling pier.

Still I really like Hoboken despite all that.

I cleaned up the apartment a bit. Small steps. The argument between Bill and myself the other night was all about cleanliness. Who’s the bigger slob?

You’d think one of us would be Oscar and the other Felix, but we have 2 Oscars instead. One, a greater Oscar than the other. No names please.

Things are cool now between us and I asked him last night if he had a good time on Saturday night and he said he did and would like to do it again next time around.

Mary-get your coat!

And autumn has finally arrived. Temperature has dropped significantly. No more open windows all day, all night. It’s OK. It’s good weather to wear a suit, perfect actually.

Checked for jobs, nothing much happening. No job fairs listed anywhere, not that I would do that again. A cattle call basically.

The other night I watched Ripley’s Game starring John Malkovich. It takes place a number of years after The Talented Mr. Ripley, which I had never seen. I had seen this before, rented it via Netflix.

Intense and violent but compelling and no one plays a sociopath as well as Malkovich. Ray Winstone is in it too and both Bill and I enjoy watching Ray Winstone. Bill started to watch it but had to go to sleep midway through. I watched it all once again. Recommended.

I also finally watched Hedwig & the Angry Inch. It’s a long story, not the movie but for me to finally watch it. And I’m glad I finally did. Very good, John Cameron Mitchell is phenomenal as Hedwig. Also recommended.

Curb Your Enthusiasm was back to it’s old self. Cringe worthy humor.

Nothing much planned for tonight. Bill is out somewhere and I’m just chilling right now, Colbert Report is on. Then I’ll probably watch Keith Olbermann and then something else.