Monthly Archives: July 2010

I’m Getting Sentimental Over You

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It’s been another hot day today. Oddly enough I’m not so tired. I certainly wish I was making more money, but who doesn’t wish for that? The day started off fine. Bill kissing me goodbye as I had another hour to sleep.

Actually it’s an hour interrupted by the alarm clock every 10 minutes thanks to the snooze alarm. I got up around 8:00 and did my shower, shave, coffee and cereal routine. Actually didn’t shave. I’ll shave tomorrow.

Sat in front of a fan and checked emails and whatnot while the Today show showed how easy it is to lose weight while breathing. Who knew?

Ah, a nice breeze just wafted in. Nice and cool. What I aspire to be.

I’ve taken to wearing the suit and shirt to work, carrying a tie in my shoulder bag. I carry the suit jacket and usually by the time I get to the cigar shop, my shirt is see through in spots. Once I’m in the shop, I put on a t-shirt.

I held a lot of people in contempt this morning. Back to some of my old traits. They were held in contempt for not having change when they got on the bus. There are plenty of shops where they can get change and most everyone knows that the fare into Manhattan is $3.20.

But there’s always someone who only has a fiver. And that holds up the bus until the driver allows them on the bus so they could plead for change of a five. I always had my money ready when I got on the bus and now that I am back to have a bus pass it’s one less thing to worry about.

People are dumb. People are rude. People don’t hold the door for other people. Oh how I disliked people this morning. By the afternoon, all that had changed and I merely saw them as semi-conscious animals.

Work itself was OK. It was me and Don Birch for most of the day with Sean coming in the afternoon. We all got along fine. I undercharged someone for some cigars and rather than deal with an irate customer, I paid the tax that I neglected to charge myself.

Then when it came time for closing the bank was short $3.00 which I amended with petty cash which I hope is there for moments like this. Of course things still went awry since there were some forms that I neglected to include and only remembered until it was too late.

Tomorrow I will have to ask Calvin to walk me through the closing process since all I know is piecemeal work. It’s taking the initiative I suppose.

The party lurches forward. Anxiety appears at the edges of my mind. More regretful cancellations. Billie is coming up from DC via Bolt Bus and is expected in Manhattan around 10:30. He will be returning around 6:00. I’m excited to see him again and also excited that my family and friends will finally meet my chocolate sister.

Thanks to the first 5 songs from Gang of Four’s Entertainment album, I made it from work to the bus terminal in 16.5 minutes.

a quiet moment

I’m Coming Home

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Well it was back to work after having off yesterday. And yesterday when it was 100° I was home in my underwear. It’s a nice enough image. Today when it was 100° I was in a suit and tie. That was what the temperature was when I had lunch at 3:30.

That’s the time to have lunch when you’re starting later than usual and also closing the store. It wasn’t so bad to have lunch at a late hour. Once again I sat by the park on a bench, reading the New Yorker from May and enjoying a free cigar.

A $25.00 cigar at that.

It was Marcus for a little while then he was off to get ready for his upcoming nuptials. Calvin and Raymond and eventually Sean came in. Raymond and Sean are both on thin ice, Sean because he was spending too much in the backroom and not working.

He’s a 19 year old father of a three year old and doesn’t care if he gets fired since he can always get a part time job at Hermes and his only expense is school books. No child support from him. He actually asked that if he gets a phone call from someone to say he’s not there.

Yes, he’s avoiding the mother of the baby boy, and not offering any child support.

Raymond offered to stick around while I closed the store, specifically reconciling the register. AT 9:01 he was out the door. So much for sticking around if I had any questions. In any event I was able to close the register and I’ll find out tomorrow whether or not I did it right.

I listened to MGMT after leaving the shop and got from there to the bus terminal in 16.1 minutes. Luckily I caught the bus and got a nice seat just seconds before the bus left the gate.

Last night things were quite heavy here in Hoboken, specifically in the apartment. The whole Bill wearing a guayabera thing blew up and got quite heated. Lot’s of yelling and getting in each others faces.

I yelled that I was willing to cancel the party and Bill said go right ahead. In the middle of this my cousin Joe called. He might be making it to the party on Sunday. I tell you, that if it weren’t for Joe’s call I probably would have canceled the whole shebang.

It was good to hear from Joe. I don’t believe I ever spoke to him on the phone before. He’s older than I am, closer to Frank and Annemarie’s age group than mine. Theresa and myself are the youngest in this group of cousins.

There is a younger cousin, Terrance but I haven’t seen him in 35 years. And that branch of the family tree doesn’t seem to want to have anything to do with the rest of us, possibly from having bad feelings regarding their late father, my uncle which is the point of contact between us and them.

Doesn’t matter to me though. They’re somewhere out on Long Island along with other cousins that are unreachable or otherwise engaged.

I’m just glad the cousins I like are coming. And also glad that you might be coming. You know who you are. And Bill and I are just fine, thank you very much.