Monthly Archives: May 2011

I Am Not A Human Being

Yes I am back in the cigar shack. It’s a Thursday. It’s been a slow and steady day, busy enough at the cigar shack. Hyman called a few times, of course I was working and could not take the call.

The good news is that he’s heading to a rehab facility in Manhattan on the Upper East Side, a place for elderly Jewish people of which Hyman certainly is. We will have to be in touch with each other via cellphone until he is on his feet again.

Bumped heads with Thomas earlier but I’d rather not get into that. The manic high that I had been on the past few days is dissipating and returning things to a relative normalcy.

It was a gorgeous and breezy day in which I had a good lunch, enjoying a cigar on a bench near the shack. At the end of the month cigar smoking as well as cigarettes and pipes will be illegal to smoke in the parks, beaches and gathering spaces throughout the five boroughs of New York City.

I will be able to sit on a bench outside the park since I won’t technically be in the park. The smoke may waft over the walls and fences of parks, but that wouldn’t be my problem.

Now I am home. It was a long day, some interesting things happening. Thomas and I had some words. It all happened when Calvin was at lunch. The ever so eager Thomas tries to juggle 3 balls when he can barely handle one.

Thomas asked me to take a call, a call in which he told the caller that Calvin was with a client. No, Calvin was at lunch. I took the call, explaining to the caller that Calvin was unavailable but if they would like I would write down the order and give it to Calvin when he was available.

No, the caller said, I could do the order, it didn’t matter if it was me or Calvin. The caller was a bit of a nightmare, not really knowing what they wanted and me getting exasperated when trying to explain to them what products we had in stock for them.

It wasn’t about cigars, it was about fragrances, which we also sell. I put the caller on hold and went to check on something, passing Thomas I mentioned that this caller was a pain in the ass.

Thomas snapped and said quite tersely that he told me the call was for Calvin. I wasn’t going to have him talk to me the way that he did and snapped back at him, telling him not to get snippy with me. I said it such a manner that it shut him down for a bit.

He’s just so eager to please that if anything gets in his way or threatens to derail his plan he will try to roll right over whatever lay in his path. Things got better afterwards, he’s not the idiot that the brain dead Bradley has shown itself to be.

Calvin had to leave early and it left Thomas and myself to close up. That’s it, end of story.

It was so much easier last night to knock off 1000 words in under an hour than it is to write 500 words in two hours. Strange but true.

In April this here blog had 1,414 visits. The top ten cities are as follows:
1) New York
2) Hoboken
3) Philadelphia
4) Chicago
5) Not Set
6) Lakewood
7) Bilbao
8 Atlanta
9) Eureka
10) Arcata

And the bottom ten, each with one visit:
1) Wyncote
2) Skopje
3) Marlboro
4) Ajax
5) Eagle
6) East Brunswick
7) Darien
8 Homestead
9) Angouleme
10) Ciudad Obregon

Thanks to all readers. I suppose the lurkers and trolls should get some credit somehow.


I Am Trying to Remember

Man, the past 72 hours have been a gas gas gas. It’s been fun starting with seeing Ian Hunter and being with Meghan and Lily & Ruby, seeing Rand & Lisa and RoDa and Elly & Logan and Autumn. Then even going to work on Monday wasn’t so bad. It’s certainly getting easier to ignore Braindead, only speaking to him when I have to.

Then yesterday I met with Wally, a chap I once worked with at Golden Staffing. Over the weekend I decided to take a break from the stress of trying to find a new job, but as luck would have it, on Monday morning I saw a job listing sent to me with Wally’s name attached. I felt I had to send something out there and he replied rather quickly.

We arranged for a meet up before I met up with Bill yesterday. Since it was official, or so I thought, I wore a suit & tie. Bill was going to be in a suit and tie for his performance and he likes to see me dressed me and I of course was happy to oblige.

Wally expressed surprise since I was in a suit and tie, asking me why I was so dressed up if I was going to a baseball game. I told him about Bill singing the Star Spangled Banner and I explained that I thought this was an interview; after all I did fill out the standard application that most staffing agencies provide.

It was more like hanging out with Wally, him telling me the final days of Golden Staffing was a nightmare and the head cheese (I forgot what pseudonym I gave her) was really a bitchy pain in the tuchis. After a few minutes he introduced me to another woman who worked at Golden Staffing before I did.

It was all rather brief and relaxed and I was out of there in about 20 to 30 minutes. I made my way across town, headed to Penn Station and smoking a cigar. I was feeling pretty mellow when I met up with Bill. Bill was quite chill as well.

We boarded a train to Willets Point, where CitiField (I prefer Shea Stadium) is. It was about a 20 minute ride. It was sunny and breezy as we walked to the stadium. Much to my surprise there was no handicapped access which is the manner in which I travel lately, avoiding stairs and whatnot.

Bill kept alongside me as we made our way to the stadium. It was a bit of a bother to find the correct gate to go through but once we did we were comfortably situated in a nice dressing room, much nicer than where we have to wait before NY Liberty or NY Knicks basketball games.

We were soon on the field for Bill’s sound check which he performed admirably. We met a few officials from the Mets organization then it was back to the room where I left Bill for a few minutes (he stopped talking to save his voice) and I went outside to smoke a cigar.

I was complimented on my suit while I smoked and I thanked them kindly before heading back in. I was back in time to head out to the field again. No one said anything, no big deal if I was there recording Bill’s performance unlike Madison Square garden where it’s stand here, don’t do that.

After less than 2 minutes it was all over. Bill walked off the field to a standing ovation and I duly followed. Quite a few people complimented Bill on his singing, patting on the back as well as handshakes and fist bumps. After we got our things from the dressing room, we went to our seats where Bill’s friends Kirk & Pat were waiting.

Once again en route, many people congratulating Bill and telling him what a great job he did. I merely walked behind Bill and beamed. We met up with good old Mike Cecchini and his cousin after a couple of innings, a few laughs with them as well as a woman asking Bill to stand with her sons for a photograph. We all went back to our seats, Bill running to the upper decks to see some other friends.

We were basically in the same section that we were in when Bill and I, Annemarie & Earl and Julio & Stine when we saw Paul McCartney in 2009. We stayed for 9 innings. It went into extra innings since the Mets and the San Francisco Giants were tied 6-6. Kirk & Pat headed back to the Bronx and Bill and I headed to the subway.

Tried to get in touch with Mike Cecchini since he lives a block and a half away from us, but his phone was turned off. A long local 7 train ride was ahead of us, but we made it through, Bill leading the way to gate 323 in the bus terminal. We waited a short while for the bus and soon we were home after exchanging words with Todd Abramson from Maxwells. Who knew he was a Giants fan? But he too complimented Bill on his singing of the National Anthem.

After all that good feeling from Sunday to right now, work was a breeze and I did really well in sales today, top earner me. No need to write about anything else on that front, so I won’t. I am glad to be home, riding a manic high wave. Hoping I will make it safely to the beach for another surfing go ‘round.

Oddly enough, writing this was a lot easier tonight than I expected. I hope it reads well, or at least as good as what you write, every day when you write whatever it is that you write. Not bad for nearly 1000 words in under an hour, wouldn’t you agree? Only eight more words to reach one thousand. Done!

On to the show!


Bill & Mr. Met!


that's my Boo...


The Soundcheck

1,950 postings so far. Who would have thought? What’s your tally, Sally?

and today’s pics…