Monthly Archives: July 2010

I’m Gonna Make You Love Me

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Late start again. And it’s already Sunday. Nothing bad happened. Actually something quite good. Had a late dinner with Julio at O’Neals on the other side of Church Square Park. We usually get together for a meal when Stine & Alexander are in Denmark. And that’s where they are these days, on vacation.

It was actually a good day at work too. I did about $1800.00 worth of business, in fact I was the top seller today, out of three. Don Birch, Raymond and me. We made for a good team. I walked up a different avenue this morning. I was early and even hustled to catch the bus.

Before that I was up and about in the apartment. While I showered, Bill was asleep in the air conditioned bedroom. At the other end of the apartment I made coffee.

As I showered, the power went out. We have a lousy electrical system here, at least in this apartment. Use the air conditioner and try to use an appliance and the power will inevitably go out. That means someone (almost always me) will have to go down to the basement and flip the breaker.

So I dried off and got dressed and headed down the stairs. A couple of minutes later I was back in the apartment, finishing the making of the coffee and when that was done, turned on the air conditioner while Bill continued sleeping.

It was a Saturday so that meant, casual dress. A guayabera and some khaki pants. Airwalk sneakers which were changed once I got to the shop. As I walked up the avenue once I got into the city I stopped by a Farmer’s Market and bought some cookies for me and my co—workers.

The day was better than yesterday, perhaps it was half a Xanax that I had. A few minutes after I got to the shop I noticed a woman walking by. I read that ace blogger, Pam Spaulding was in town and Thursday night I thought I saw her but it wasn’t.

This time I was sure. I called her name as she walked by the shop and she stopped. We chatted, or rather I gushed. I really enjoy her posts concerning people of color as well as the LGBT community. She was super sweet, and surprised that I recognized her.

She was on her way to the Old Timer’s Day at Yankee Stadium and posed for a photograph with me. It was the highpoint of the day.

Still it was a good day to work, and at lunch I headed out to a bench by the park where I had a nice cigar and read Uncut magazine. Like I wrote earlier, I had the highest sales in the store, thanks to me being vigilant with adding my name on the screen during each transaction that I conducted.

Towards the end of the day I heard from Julio who was wondering if I wanted to go have a beer with him. I mentioned that I needed to eat so we decided on O’Neals. Which is where we usually go. I had a burger, Julio had a mozzarella salad.

He picked up the tab, I left the tip.

Now I’m home, buzzed on two Guinness. Bill came home about 10 minutes after I did. Tomorrow family barbecue in Saddle Brook and hopefully a day at the beach on Monday. Two things I’m looking forward to.

I also made it from the shop to the bus terminal in about 14 minutes, unofficial. The songs were I Want to Take You Higher by Sly & the Family Stone, Connected by Stereo MC’s and Jeepster by T. Rex, and a bit of Once in a Lifetime from Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense.

Me & Pam Spaulding (of Pam's House Blend)

I’m In The Mood

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It’s hot and I’m tired. It’s been another long day and here I am sitting in front of the computer, unsure whether or not I will be able to post it since there is an Error Establishing a Database Connection. I usually text Rand about that and he’s usually on it, but not right now.

I’m also drinking the last of the Cranberry Cherry juice. I hate cranberry cherry and I only poured it since it resembled the Cranberry Raspberry that I do like.

I was up around 8:00 this morning and after showering, shaving, a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee I was out and about running errands. Shirts to the dry cleaners, then to CVS where apparently my old friend Martin Kelly announced on the store’s PA ‘Hello John’.

I didn’t hear it and Martin told me he did it. A nice quick chat with Martin who regretted not being able to make it to the party on Sunday. He’s trying to evict his roommate and needed to get his paperwork together for a visit to the lawyer the next day.

I walked over to the supermarket and bought a few more items before I came home all sweaty. I sat in front of a fan trying to cool off before I changed into my suit, with yet another soon to be translucent dress shirt. And the translucence came through as I stood in the shade at the bus stop.

I signaled for the bus to stop, no one else did and of course the bus doesn’t stop by me. I saw Karen Natapouf’s strange friend Angie get on the bus with her orthopedic shoes and bottle blonde hair, still a gentleman letting the women get on the bus before me.

As the bus rolled up Washington Street it got more crowded. Some berk with a neck tattoo as well as other tattoos on his arm, including one that stated that he was born in 1983 and his right ear lobe extended so much that it hung half way to his shoulder.

Just in case he wasn’t ugly enough, the ear lobe put him over the line.

The berk stood next to me even though I offered the seat next to the window. Opposite the aisle were 2 extremely chatty 20 something German girls talking and laughing loudly in German. Such a pleasant language to listen to.

As I started to get off the bus I thought something fell from my back pocket. I checked and everything seemed to be there. It wasn’t until later that I realized the rolling papers from my Bali Shag fell out and not surprised that none of the other passengers mentioned that I had dropped something.

Got to the shop with a minute to spare and it was slow slow slow. Don Birch had opened and had lunch first. Since Raymond made it in before me he took lunch second leaving me to have lunch around 3:00. I wound up getting a shoe shine as I headed out to enjoy my free cigar by the park.

But it was too hot out so I headed back to the back room where most of the regulars were surprised to see me there. When I was out to lunch a large back order of cigars came in and Don Birch and Raymond set about getting them ready to go into the humidor.

Soon I was among them labeling various boxes with the proper numbers. It took a long time for the three of us to make space for 100 boxes of cigars in an already cramped humidor and dealing with customers wanting to buy cigars.

Raymond has a lot of friends who are customers and most of them are good guys, one or two are just assholes. They’re the monied ones.

Don Birch left at 7:00 and about an hour later a woman came in and bought a $160.00 pen which I sold to her but did not get the credit for it, Don Birch did (an hour after he left).

They use quite an archaic computer program and when I was half assed trained on the system, no one mentioned to me to change the name (Don Birch) so it’s not second nature for me to do that. It’s second nature to complete the sale.

I don’t know what upsets me more, that situation and the ancient computer program or the fact that I have to work a 10 hour shift, 9 of those hours standing on my feet.

On the bus ride home I was stuck between a couple talking about putting things in storage and should they get a new couch. The male half of the couple said the couch they had was ‘fucking fine’. They were behind me.

In front of me were a group of twenty somethings talking about how someone had 2 hot tubs.

16.8 minutes to get from the shop to the bus terminal, thanks to Snivilisation by Orbital. One more day then two days off. Must remain vigilant and put my name on every transaction that I complete.