It wasn’t a bad day but overall I’ve had better. One thing that is foremost on my mind is my hair. I’ve taken to brushing it forward lately and I’ve been getting a few compliments on it. That’s always nice. I kid myself it’s sort of a Caesar cut but it really isn’t.

It was an experiment that has taken hold. Plus I am growing a beard to see what that will look like. I see a lot of white, Barbablanca is what Julio coined a few years ago and that has taken hold as well.

I did sleep well last night, turning on bedtime mode before going to sleep. No alerts or alarms to disturb my deserved worth. I woke up reluctantly but was not sad and that was good. I seem to have been around guys from my alma mater.

Besides Shaun Moray in Hoboken, there are at least three of them at my place of work. One of them I don’t mind, another is easily ignored and another is actively loathed. The one I loathe tried to chat me up as I was waiting for the elevator.

I had to respond and did so but had my back to him and was staring at my phone as I spoke. Not sure if I was actually looking at an app or just looking at the black screen. In any event, the elevator arrived and I got in alone. He might be so dumb to think we are friends though my nonchalance might have shown my actual distaste.

I have no love for my alma mater. Somehow I got through four years only going to summer school once and that was because of an act of revenge by a history teacher who resembled the cartoon version of Lou Costello.

The guys I went to grammar school eight years before high school did not have much contact with me in high school. We were all in different classes freshman year but I was cut off from them and basically did not see much of them for those four years.

I used to sing Bohemian Rhapsody with one of these guys and I would’ve thought we had that to connect with, but no. He later became a traffic reporter for WCBS AM. I tried to connect with him in the early days of the social medias explaining who I was but that was rebuffed.

Bill enjoyed his helicopter traffic reports when WCBS AM was a real thing but like my friendship with that traffic reporter, that’s dead too.

I did go to the 20-year reunion. I was hoping to see the 2 friends I had in high school but neither showed. I was gakked out that night, making a trip to the loo every 20 minutes or so. I did see 2 classmates from grammar school/high school and it was cordial but overall I left the reunion telling myself that I never want to see any of these people again.

I did find out about one of the two friends I wanted to see, he died at age 37, of a heart attack while jogging. The other guy has maintained no presence on the social medias. I just remembered that there was another friend from high school that I hoped to see but did not, his name was Kevin Wagner from Saddle Brook. He deserves more of a story than the last lines in an October 9, 2024 post.

I watched Hardly Strictly Blue Grass over the weekend. It’s a large fun free music event in San Francisco, different bands come in and play on various stages for an audience. I saw Patti Smith playing on Sunday afternoon. She was good of course.

Before that, I saw Mike Mills from REM and Chris Stamey from the dB’s play a tribute to Big Star which was OK. Then Yo La Tengo played at another stage in the park. I don’t think I have ever seen Yo La Tengo play a full set and this time was no different.

I love the dB’s records but live I find them boring. And the last time I saw REM was probably 40 years ago. The funny thing is that REM, the dB’s, and Yo La Tengo all played Maxwell’s several times, Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan actually worked there.

I should know he worked the soundboard as I stood no more than 2 feet away from him as I DJ’d on Saturday nights. Or was it Friday nights? So many memory holes, from so much abuse. Ira and Georgia were and probably still are nice people.

I last saw them at my brother’s wake where I hugged Ira who seemed a bit put off by the hug. Once again ‘we’re not THOSE types of friends’ came into being.

Last night I was all set for a good night of sleep. And after about a half hour of slipping into sleep, an alert went off on my phone jolting me awake and leaving me unable to descend to the depths that I achieved mere minutes before.

Tossing and turning and frustrated for the next 7 hours or so. I woke up disappointed but not sad which was good. I shuffled through the apartment and was out to the Path train. No co-workers this morning but it was still a bit crowded.

My afternoon break came and I was once again on Thomas Street enjoying a cigar. I saw a guy on the street who was on the same spectrum as a co-worker whom I call Sméagol. And I was right, he asked where Chambers Street was and I told him and then he told me how he had been lost for 45 minutes.

People gave him the wrong directions and I guess he found me. I watched him head off to Broadway where I told him to make a right and go a few blocks and hoped this ersatz Sméagol knew his right from his left. It seemed that he did.

In the office when I came back there was an Oktoberfest on another floor. Beer and pretzels were offered and a few co-workers were kind enough to ask if I was going and since I really couldn’t they offered to bring something back for me.

I’m not a day drinker so I politely declined. Plus, drinking at work would probably not be a very good idea for me. Still, it was nice to have been asked.