Monthly Archives: May 2010

Your Eyes

I’m pretty tired. Pounding the pavement today. It actually went well. Walked from the Path train to 40 Wall Street, where I took the elevators to the Third and Fourth Floors.

It wasn’t the dank hole I expected it to be and I didn’t see any dank holes like I expected to see. I don’t know why the Susquehanna Investment Group has such a bad reputation.

You might think that a privately held global investment, trading and technology firm servicing securities markets worldwide would have their slack cut for them but apparently that’s not so.

Arthur Dantchik, Jeff Yass, Steve Bloom, Eric Brooks, Andrew Frost and Joel Greenberg all sent their warmest greetings and regards. Yass and Dantchik are a pair of regular jokers, with the knock knock jokes and other Pennsylvania humor.

They seemed like good guys though behind closed doors, the refrain of ‘watch the teeth, watch the teeth’ did raise some eyebrows. I didn’t stay too long, just long enough to make my presence known. Susquehanna Investment Group certainly gets it’s name in the news often enough, oddly though it doesn’t involve insider trading, at least not yet.

Soon I was on my way to Broad Street, to Barclay Rex. Nice situation, Wall Street area, good looking men in their suits and ties. I’d be happy to be one of them should the need arise. I had a good meeting with the manager and the assistant manager.

Never had a meeting before where I was offered a cigar. Of course I said yes and sat there smoking a cigar and answering questions. I answered honestly and truthfully and that seemed to be what they wanted to hear.

No trying to figure out what that might be, just saying it and them looking a bit amazed at my responses. After about an hour our meeting was over. They said I could sit there and finish the cigar so that’s what I did.

Walked over to the train and headed uptown. Saw David Allen Grier on the street as I made my way to see Bill. Also took a look at a spot where Tariq said he sometimes plays for the tourist dollar but the only people besides tourists were sketch artists.

It was good to see Bill. He’s so supportive, saying things about how good I looked and really happy to hear that the meeting went so well. I was certainly glad to be able to tell him some good news for a change, especially after me being a bit gloomy the past couple of days.

We walked over to Godiva where Bill bought a bag of dark chocolate truffles for me. They were almost as sweet as Bill. Walked over to Macy’s after that. They’re having a sale on eyeglasses so I checked them out. Of course the frames on sale were crap, and not my style.

I did see some nice ones that were more expensive and maybe the insurance will cover them somewhat. Despite all the care I put into the eyeglasses I have now, somehow they’ve wound up scratched. And I rarely used paper to clean the lenses, always used the special cloths that were recommended.

Maybe I’m paranoid but one of the last times I was at Cohen’s Optical and had them fix a screw, I could swear they were given back to me more scratched than they were originally. Another meeting is scheduled for next week and Bill suggests I wear the exact same thing for my ‘call back’. Seems like a novel idea.

In that case, I had better get the shirt and tie to the cleaners forthwith!

Forsooth!

That's my Bill

That's my Bill


Me, smoking 'their' cigar

Me, smoking 'their' cigar

Your Blue Room

Well here we are again. May 12. Not my favorite day. A gloomy day and the battleship gray sky adds to it. I’m in a better mood than I was yesterday though. No hangover you see.

Also just saw Julio, Stine & Alexander for a few minutes. Stine texted me about some meatballs she just made and I stopped by to get them. Alexander is definitely going for the laughs, imitating his father’s eye movements.

He noticed my laughing a few weeks ago and knows he’ll get me laughing again. And he did. He also calls my name to get my attention. And he did.

He got a toddler scooter for his birthday and was showing me how he skates on it. He also got a tricycle which was out in the hallway. Both were presents from his grandparents. I came upstairs and ate everything.

Been quite cool lately, I think the highest the temperature has been for the past few days is 50 degrees. I did take the guitar out yesterday and played by the river for about an hour but that didn’t last long. Too cold and damp.

Today I mainly stayed inside and did laundry. I also watched Where The Wild Things are which left me merely whelmed. I mean, the puppets or rather muppets were good, but they probably should have gone with the voices of unknown actors.

Hearing James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara and Lauren Ambrose et al made me think of Gandolfini, O’Hara and Ambrose et al.

I returned it to the bibliothèque and got in return, Gomorrah, the Italian film about the mob. It’s supposed to be very good and I am happy to disprove the fact that Americans are watching less and less foreign films these days.

I’m not going to watch it tonight though. Wednesday nights, I’ve been watching Modern Family and Cougartown. Last night I watched Lost which was good. The story of Jacob and his twin brother, who’s name we were never told.

Allison Janey played their mother, or rather the woman who raised them. It was a fast hour which left some questions. Only two episodes left, next Tuesday and then the three and a half hour finale on May 23rd. I was invited to Rand and Lisa’s to watch the finale which I may do.

Tomorrow I am going to the Barclay Rex store in the midtown Manhattan. Barclay Rex is a high end cigar store and I used to go there when I was working for Wanker Banker. Nice place to get away from the inhuman cauldron sisters, Maggie Angelakos and Helen Alexandre.

I was there around the holidays and inquired about employment. One of the sales people suggested I send my resume to the manager Megan, so I did. The manager got in touch with me via email, saying that she was busy but will get back to me soon enough.

Last week, her assistant Clara sent me an email, wanting to meet with me but making sure that I knew that it wasn’t an interview. So tomorrow I’m meeting Clara to discuss why I would want to work in a high end cigar shop. I have a few ideas on what to tell her, being fairly knowledgeable about cigars and whatnot.

So that’s what’s happening tomorrow. It’s a lead and the first thing I’ve had since that other interview a few weeks ago. I thought that went well but haven’t heard from them since so I guess that’s not happening.

Working in a cigar shop sounds good to me though. I am sure I will tell you all about it tomorrow, after it happens. There’s always the Susquehanna Investment Group I suppose.

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Battleship Gray Skies

Battleship Gray Skies