Monthly Archives: June 2010

I’m a Believer

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Off today. And so far no rain. It is supposed to rain tonight. Have a few things to do, some running around, so in a little while I will be heading out to get a start on it. Need one or two new shirts for work and maybe a pair of shoes that are good for standing around in for 9 hours.

Last night had some nice dreams, mainly about making new friends. One dream involved me driving around Washington Heights, Harpy territory. Narrow streets in what seemed to be a Mini Cooper. That dream was like a conclusion that happened on the other side of the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee.

Another dream took place in an airport where I made friends with a woman sitting next to me at a bar. Then I was on a bus, more than likely driven by Bill and I talked to my Uncle Joseph about the new friend.

The last dream involved me talking to a very big man, almost a giant, who was very sensitive and didn’t have many friends. That last dream seemed to take place in Hoboken on Pier A, and I brought the giant friend into a function at what a cross between the W Hotel and the Saddle Brook VFW.

Yesterday at work, after I was entered into the system I checked my name and in doing so I found my cousin Randall who now lives in Ronkokoma on Long Island. I hadn’t seen Randall in 35 years or so and couldn’t find any reason to get back in touch with him.

His info was last updated in 2002. I much preferred my cousins from my mother’s side of the family to my father’s side. And hopefully I will be seeing some of the good cousins next month at the party. The party which is causing me some anxiety.

I’ve already asked some people for help. Some friends are helping set up, another friend is making salad. Yesterday the song that kept playing in my head was Ringo Starr’s You’re Sixteen. Right now it’s Chicago, Just You & Me. I prefer Ringo of course.

Part of my running around involved going into the city and also the Newport Mall in Jersey City. Instead I’ve only made it to the Burlington Coat Factory where I bought 2 new dress shirts for work, on sale.

Now I have to go to the Post Office and drop off a package to be repaired by Eagle Creek. Zipper broke on my bag and it has a lifetime warranty. It’s being shipped to Inwood which is on Long Island.

I also have to go to Inwood at 2:00 on the 28th to take a class in being a tobacconist. According to Don Birch, it’s mainly things that I know already. In a bad neighborhood. And then it’s back to work after that.

So it’s been a good day. Despite the overcast clouds which have largely disappeared, I enjoyed walking around Hoboken. Back to work tomorrow, next day off is Tuesday.

And then I have the last weekend in June off. Would be nice to go to the beach, but I doubt that will happen, unless you, dear reader shows up on Saturday morning in a car ready to drive down to Sandy Hook.

I’d be willing to help pay for gas. And if not Sandy Hook, Monmouth Beach will do.

Now I am off to pick up Bill’s laundry and dry cleaning which includes some of my shirts. So I guess it’s our dry cleaning and laundry.

Ah, the civil unioned life. Quite civil.


Ace of Spades

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So tired, but it’s a good tired if there is such a thing. I wrote this last night as a start, a way to remember what to write about. “Raymond likes the Beatles.” That’s as far as I got. But it’s true.

Raymond likes the Beatles. He reminds me of Rocky, the guy who used to run the loading dock at Wanker Banker, only without the lying and the cocaine abuse. When the store quieted down, after Calvin left we played Rubber Soul and he insisted on hearing In My Life twice. I didn’t mind.

Yesterday I also sent an email to Greg Stevens, from the old job. I just wrote that if he had any cigar smoking clients, to send them my way. He called back and wished me well, then had a question for me. It seems his printer was out of paper and he didn’t know how to load the paper in.

I told him, most printers have a tray and he looked but couldn’t find it. I asked him what model it was, thinking I could look it up online and figure it out, but he didn’t know that either, having tried to find an instruction manual and failing at that.

Poor Greg, so lost.

He was going to have to wait until his wife’s assistant came in today to put paper in his printer. Last night I worked the late shift which is why I posted yesterday morning. I came home and Bill was waiting for me.

It was awfully hot in the apartment and that was because the windows weren’t open. Bill was comfortable in the warmth, I was distressed. He claims because he’s Puerto Rican warm temperatures are no big thing. I just walked to each window, opening them and saying, ‘Oh my god it’s so hot in here’.

He went to bed a little while after that and I was in bed by 11:45. I’m pretty sure I was asleep by midnight. Woke up Bill was gone. He kissed me goodbye but I don’t remember it. An Eskimo kiss was involved as well. I more than likely growled.

Made my way onto the bus, stuck in traffic outside the Lincoln Tunnel next to a guy who kept trying to look at photographs in the New Yorker I was reading. I did not oblige. Subway ride uptown, not enough time to chill out in the shade of a skyscraper.

I was opening the store with Marcus. It went well. I am officially in the computer system. Counted monies and then had a quick cigarillo with Marcus in the back room. Slow start of the day and around 11:30 Don rolled in.

He was described to me once as Lurch and I can see why. He’s really an introvert. Raymond called him a hippie the other night but I don’t see it. I did meet Don’s girlfriend the other night when we closed. Seemed to me like she was in the 60, but maybe I was just tired.

Anyway I’ll call the one that Calvin calls Lurch, Don Birch. A pun if you will about either the John Birch Society (of which our Don is not a member of) or being as stiff as a tree. It’s up to you.

It was mentioned that I should spend my lunch hour in the back room with the customers and have a cigar with them. I’m reluctant to do that. I work a 10 hour day and have an hour for lunch. I would like to spend that 1 hour away from the cigar shop rather than spend the entire 10 hours within the same four walls.

I did spend some time with the customers yesterday, and some of them were surprised to see me. I explained once again that I do enjoy being outside in the world on occasion, whereas they choose to spend their time away from the world, secluded in the back room smoking cigars.

I like sitting on a bench by Central Park, smoking cigars.


Bill had Grimaldi’s pizza waiting for me when I came home. Nice.