Monthly Archives: June 2010

I’m a King Bee

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Here we are at the end of another day. Not such a bad day either. First off I slept really well, probably from not sleeping so well the night before and being exhausted towards the end of my shift yesterday at the cigar shop.

I decided to avoid the theater crowd on Eighth Avenue and opted to walk down Ninth Avenue which turned out to be a bit of a mistake or a misstep. Hell’s Kitchen is almost as Gay as Chelsea and I did not take into account the sidewalk cafes set atop narrow sidewalks.

Won’t be making that mistake again.

I usually walk with a purposeful gait and the strolling couples, headed for dinner slowed me down considerably. Still I made the bus I needed to make with no look of NJ suburbanite panic on my face.

I woke up the morning around 7:45 and set about doing my thing. I didn’t have to go in until 11:30 so that was nice. I needed bread so I went grocery shopping around 8:30. Nice that the store was relatively empty and I was home by 8:45.

Had some more coffee and got my suit ready to wear. Yes, I’ve been wearing a suit to work but no tie and I generally drape the suit jacket over my forearm, looking a bit dashing, feeling like Jean Paul Belmondo and showing off my braces.

I swear I’ve been loosing weight since I’ve started work and the pants aren’t as tight around the waist as they used to be. And the neck size of my shirts aren’t as snug either, so I don’t think I look like my late cousin Jackie. No between meal snacks, lot’s of water and standing around for 9 hours a day seems to do the trick. Pedro even mentioned the weight loss the other day.

The day flew by as opposed to yesterday which was crawl crawl crawl. Had a cigar for lunch today and I was going to go outside and smoke it but it was even more humid outside than it was in the humidor. And it rained for about 3 minutes.

I decided to come inside and sit in the backroom with the cigar smoking men. It was a full house, all of them watching the World Cup and kvetching. Some closet cases too from what I gathered. I’m out at work once again, everyone seems cool about it.

But there’s a certain customer who my co-workers think is gay and deep in the closet despite being an opera singer. He doesn’t ping on my gaydar but I probably ping on his and he might resent my being out or perhaps fears my being out will out him.

Sometimes during the day a customer will leave and Sean or Raymond or Don Birch will ask if I think that person is gay. One guy left the store and they asked and I said ‘Flame on!’ and called him Johnny Storm.

It was pretty much a good day. Calvin headed out at 7:30 and mentioned that he saw I was scheduled to come in at 9:30 tomorrow morning. He asked if I would rather come in 11:30. I said yes. Closing the store is one thing and coming in to open the next day can be so difficult.

We received our schedules for July and the majority of the days are the late shift. I’m fine with that. Raymond asked if I would miss hanging out with my friends, and I said no, since I really didn’t hang out with my friends much in the past year or so. An occasional evening here and there, but overall I usually just hang out at home.

So I guess it’s getting better all the time.

16.8 minutes from the cigar shop to the bus terminal tonight.

I’m a Greedy Man

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Ugh. So tired. How many times have I written that as an intro to an entry? Can I get a Bala Cynwyd auditor here? And maybe some choice Cafe Press items to peruse and perhaps purchase? I had a day off yesterday and this retail schedule is wrecking havoc with my body clock.

Today was arduous. Just very slow. I opened the store today, not by myself since they still haven’t trusted me with a key. It was me and Don Birch.

I stood outside for a few minutes knocking on the window trying to get his attention in the humidor. He finally looked up when I decided to call the store.

It was a slow start but in the afternoon the back room was thick with cigar smoke as about 12 guys sat around watching the World Cup. Raymond and Sean made it in for the 11:30 shift.

We make for a good crew. We can obviously handle things on our own. Calvin had off and we guessed that Marcus took the day off to make ready his wedding plans on July 11. No one from the store is invited and everyone is happy not to be invited.

A comment was passed on my music, specifically a track by Tricky, ‘Pumpkin’. It was said it sounded like music from an opium den. I guess that was supposed to be a bad thing.

Before my official lunch, I ate my turkey sandwich and for my official lunch went out and sat in one of my usual benches by the park, had a cigar and read the May 3 edition of the New Yorker.

It’s a very long article about a custody battle, murder and the trial that followed in Queens involving Russian immigrants from an obscure Jewish sect. It’s very involving and engrossing and so far I’ve been reading it for the past 4 days. Or maybe 3 days, my body clock being out of whack.

Back in time to relax amidst the cigar smoke in the back room. After that, the afternoon crawled yet again. In fact the last hour was so slow. Too much watching the clock on the wall.

I did not sleep well at all last night. I did sleep but had an angry dream with me being kidnapped to Orlando, Florida by my parents. My father oddly quiet, my mother passive. My brothers and their wives were there as was my sister and her husband.

None of their kids were there. I yelled at my mother that I wasn’t supposed to be there since I just started a new job and couldn’t afford to be there.

To my dismay the only way to get out of Orlando was to try to get the one called Ann B. Davis to pick me up at the airport and that was like pulling teeth. The one called Ann B. Davis more than likely came up since Connie and I talked about her in the phone conversation we had earlier in the afternoon.

Just saw Chaz for a few minutes. He had a collection of clippings as well as Pride Magazine which has the photo of Bill and myself. It turns out Bill got a copy and scanned it to me this afternoon and now it’s my profile picture as well as Bill’s on Facebook.

In case you’re not in Facebook, here it is. 2 more days of work, then I am off for the weekend.