I went back to work today after a mental health day. It was much needed as the day before ended with my supervisor’s supervisor, someone I once liked a lot, telling me about yet again someone else complaining about me. This time it was deflected.

I’m sure the supervisor’s supervisor has been running interference on my behalf and things might be a lot worse if the supervisor’s supervisor was not doing just that. But it will remain unsaid. I did have the paranoid feeling that today could be the day. The first half was filled with that feeling. The second half, not so much, and the second half is more like a quarter than a half.

Today is my sister’s birthday! She’s made it to 7 decades. She’s something else, my sister. Never had a cross word with her, bruised feelings but nothing worse than that. Relatives have actually come out and said they wish they could have a bond like the bond I have with my sister. All it takes really, is calling on weekends for 35 years.

She’s an influence on my musical taste much like my brothers were. And she also went out of her way to make sure I was alright. I visited her quite a few times when she lived in New Hampshire. I would catch a bus from the Port Authority in midtown Manhattan and ride up to New England.

One time, as we stopped at a bus station for a few minutes, and I got out to stretch my legs where I was met by an armed forces recruiter who asked me if I was ‘So & so’. I told him I wasn’t but he didn’t believe me. I guess ‘So & so’ was supposed to be on the bus but never turned up so he figured I must have been him.

My sister took time off from work so we could do things, go to the beach in Maine, and go see a movie in Brattleboro, Vermont. Then she would drive me back to NJ, me being the DJ picking out songs that I thought she would like, songs that we both heard growing up courtesy of our brothers.

She was also the first one in my family to ask if I was gay. I was gay at the time but in a closet and also in high school. I explained that I didn’t have a girlfriend since I was bussed to an all-boys Catholic high school. I guess that might have eased her worried mind.

Years later after high school, I met her boyfriend, soon to be husband and he told her I was gay. It was obvious to him, but everyone else in that house on Riverview Avenue was in denial and just did not want to know.

Eventually, a couple of years later, my sister and brother-in-law and some of their friends went to a gay bar in Brattleboro where I mainly remember dancing to Erasure singing ‘Respect’. Now I take time off from work when my sister flies in, we go down the shore and I’m still picking songs for my sister to sing along to.

70 years!

Bill and I watched Barack & Michelle Obama last night at the Democratic National Convention (DNC). It was compelling. Michelle was on point and Barack made us long for his intelligence and way of speaking. It was great and reminded me of 2008 when Juan was with us and voted in his first election which happened to be a winner.

Bill was wonderful last night even when I turned into my father at some point. I was frustrated like my father but sober, unlike my father. He stood by as I ranted impotently and gave me a hug when I asked for it. Was it a deserved hug? I can’t say but I do know that our love is unconditional.

The first night of the DNC we watched Jaws. Bill didn’t think he saw it from start to finish before and he did not see it in a cinema. I saw it with my brother Brian when it came out, the first movie we had to get in a long line to see. I hadn’t seen it from start to finish in a long time and was surprised at how fast it moved.

In the summer of 1975, like other summers whichever kid had a pool was the most popular kid on the block. That summer it was Jeffrey Telep and we played Jaws in his pool, the kids making up the theme song while one of us thrashed about in the water as if they were being attacked by a great white shark.

Last night it was the DNC and we were psyched to see the Obamas. They delivered. Prior to that was the roll call which had DJ Cassidy playing the state’s theme or popular artist as each delegate stepped up and announced their support for Kamala Harris. It ran longer than anticipated both Bill and I went to bed a bit later than usual.

This morning I woke up and had a headache like Zeus giving birth to Athena. After the talk with my supervisor’s supervisor before I left the office yesterday I decided to succumb to the headache and take care of that instead of having to deal with a nitwitted woman from the other side of the planet.

This nitwit, when I first met her, asked me for help so she and her husband could find a new apartment. Apparently, they had been living on the Upper East Side paying a rent that was over $5000. I had no leads to help her with and suggested that she post on the office BBS and maybe someone could help her out that way.

That was out of the question and with her deep pocketed husband they stayed on the Upper East Side until a few months ago, moving to somewhere in Queens. Still too close for my comfort and I wonder if she burned a lot of sage before laying down roots on Long Island.

I did have a very nice nap this afternoon, window open, fan blowing above my head. It made for a nice reset. And not a smidge of temperature.