Monthly Archives: August 2010

I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We’ve Never Met)

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It’s Monday I know that much. I had off on Sunday and back to work today so that makes it a Monday. It was an OK day. Yesterday was very quiet, didn’t go out much. To Washington Street and the supermarket.

I did have plans to go out and ride the bicycle but it looked like rain. Plus I realized that I have to deal with people all the time at work and here was a chance to not see anyone, not deal with anyone. And it’s not so bad to not see or deal with anyone. On my terms that is.

I watched Kick Ass which was very good and very violent. Nicholas Cage was very funny. You’d have to see it to understand why. Also watched True Blood was was even more gruesome perhaps. With a touch of wit as well. Mad Men was pretty good too. Didn’t take much to get me interested.

After that I went to bed with Bill waiting in Garfield for a train ride home. Slept really well too. Saw Bill when he was kissing me goodbye for the day. He was dressed in a somewhat business casual manner which made me ask if he was going to work.

He has a few chances to dress business casual and was taking the opportunity to dress that way again while the summer was still around. I eventually got up despite my inner voice telling me not to go in today. I didn’t listen to the inner voice and got out of bed.

Shuffled over to the shower after making coffee and pouring milk on the cereal. I was up and ready to go an hour later and soon found myself walking to the bus stop on Washington Street. I was early enough to catch the 10:30 bus but it never showed up like it usually does.

I called the cigar shop and spoke to Don Birch, telling him I was running late. Apparently people don’t call and say they were coming in late. The bus did arrive and we soon were rolling down Washington Street.

A few stops later a woman who I sort of know came in and sat next to me. Her name is Angie and I’ve seen her several times. She’s a friend of Karen Natapouf who is also a friend of my friend the lovely Rita.

I’ve seen Karen around a few times in the past year and she acts like she doesn’t know me, and the friend Angie does the same. Here she was sitting next to me. Me, with my nose in a book and she in the same thing I always see her wearing to work in her orthopedic shoes.

She usually gets off the bus before me but I always get to the subway platform before her. I always go where no one else seems to go. I don’t follow the flock. I see Angie as she looks the other way.

On the subway platform, there was a guy playing Town Without Pity on a steel drum with some taped backing.

I got to the cigar shop a mere five minutes late. Marcus was back from his convention, and Calvin, Don Birch and Raymond were behind the counter. It took a few minutes to get myself situated but I was soon at the counter with Larry, Moe and Curly.

I have a confession to make. My teeth are messed up and I made a deal with a certain quadrant to keep quiet until Annemarie went back to California. Well, now it’s been a few weeks and the teeth are back to their shenanigans.

I’ve been in a sort of pain on and off for the past 5 days or so. Finally was able to make an appointment with Bill’s dentist, who has an office around the corner from the cigar shop. The earliest they can see me is Friday at 12:30 and I’ve already told Calvin that I will be late this Friday.

So that’s that.

I made it from the cigar shop to the bus terminal in 15:30, listening to selections from the Cars first album.

I’ve Found Someone

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Another day. This one was a bear. And not the heavy set hirsute gay male kind. No this was a bear, and difficult to bear. Nothing bad mind you but just a bit of a funk. And my co-workers seemed to be feeling quite the same way.

It wasn’t so bad, since I slept well while Bill was doing his best Ralph Kramden imitation in Atlantic City. I was the dutiful Alice at home.

I made coffee and actually went to the supermarket to get cereal which I had run out of and since it was on sale I was able to get 2 boxes for $3.00 which is a deal indeed. Then picking up some of my dry cleaning before heading home for a breakfast of cereal and coffee, in tandem, not together.

Out of a desire not to watch First Look NY on TV I went out and caught the bus. A nicely paced walk up Ninth Avenue, buying some organic cookies which I shared with some of my co-workers. But I saved most of the cookies for myself instead of giving them all away like I’ve been doing.

It was a beautiful day outside once again. A Spring/Autumn like day, sun shining, a nice cool breeze. Lot’s of people out of town and a lot of people from out of town took their place. The area was really not too crowded, at least inside.

Perhaps there were a lot of bedbugs as an infestation has been reported nearby.

It was certainly slow at the cigar shop. The usual playful bitchiness was going on between myself, Raymond, Don Birch & Sean. By this time Bill had made it home and was sleeping the sleep of bus drivers.

I went out for lunch and had a nice phone chat with Annemarie telling me the latest tales of the Humboldt County scene. After the phone call with Annemarie I sat on a bench near the park and read Pop: The Genius of Andy Warhol which I had ordered through the BCCLS system.

I had to return the Leo Castelli biography (just as he had gotten to Manhattan after World War II) since it was due back on Monday and not renewable. Andy Warhol is a fun read and yet it has nothing that I hadn’t read before. Just the same sentences & names in a different order.

Made it back to the shop where headaches both real and imagined ensued. Nothing insurmountable but it did include one instance of me telling Raymond that I resented him for something that he had said. A misunderstanding on his part but a misunderstanding that got under my skin and laid eggs.

It took a while for things to clear up and I had to put him in his place. Like I wrote, the day was a bear and this was the most bearish part. I don’t feel like writing about it in detail but I will say I was right and Raymond was wrong.

There was a sweet moment in the day. A woman came into the cigar shop, en route to a party. She was an attractive woman and needed to buy some cigars for a birthday present for a friend of hers. I made a recommendation and she went for it.

I offered to wrap the gift and we chatted. She was single and tired of looking for Mr. Right. I told her to stop looking and she said that she had. I suggested that she consciously stop looking and he might appear. She looked pretty good, in a nice dress as I told her of the civil union Bill and I had a few months ago and the celebration last month.

She enjoyed the story and really enjoyed me telling her that she was wearing a really nice dress (and she was). I also told her my old adage that straight men will undress a woman with their eyes, whereas a gay man will dress them with their eyes.

She laughed as I finished wrapping her gift and I wished her a good night and a happy birthday since she was turning 40 in 4 days. I also told her this could be her year. I think I helped make her night that much better and I really enjoyed doing so.

Now I am home, writing this. I have a day off tomorrow and then 5 days of work. I won’t be writing tomorrow unless there is something extraordinary to write about, and I certainly hope there won’t be.

It’s my day off goddammit.