Friday holiday weekend, Memorial Day approaching, last full weekend in May.
I’m finishing up my lunch hour outside 106 5th Avenue. There is a guy sitting on the sidewalk, who was there an hour ago, and I put a dollar in his hand, and he hasn’t moved, I think he might be dead.

The city is quiet, the trains weren’t that crowded this morning which was enjoyable. I had a salad for lunch which is something I haven’t done since last year. Relatively healthy eating has been just an odd thing for me since I’ve been making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches most days that I started working. It is a way to save money and an easy snack, and it’s protein and it’s sweet, and it served its purpose, but I needed to do something to free up the lower extremities or intestines, what have you.

Bill is in a sad state of affairs, not my story to tell, and I would have been telling tales out of school, and that was me and him. Mike might come over, unsure of it but I’m handling it better this week than I did last week. Why do I find men and do-rags sexy?

So the salad was good, I got it from a place called Chopt, which is where dear Billie from DC trained a long, long time ago.18 years ago, perhaps? They mistreated Billy so much that I refused to eat for them ever again but here we are 18 years later. I’m sure Billy got over it, and I’m sure I will since I had a salad and it wasn’t that bad, it wasn’t the best. The salads at 11 Park Place for a lot better and cheaper, but what can you do?

I really think the guy who is on the sidewalk might be dead since he’s next to a construction site on the street with the jackhammer going off, and he is not moving one bit. This time next month, this area will be filled with the pride parade and onlookers, and Bill and I might join as we usually do, it’s hard to say though, since it’s so far in advance anything is possible.

There is a tentative plan for Mike to join us on a Sunday if he gets out of work around 4:00, at which point the parade might still be going. But that’s 30 days from now, and a whole lot could happen in 30 days.

Once again, I am dictating the words into the phone rather than typing, which is cheating, I suppose, but I type all day on a Mac and I go home and work on a PC and I find myself doing Mac things on the PC, which is unnerving to say the least.

I am happy to report the homeless guy that I gave a dollar to earlier has gotten up and moved, taking his cardboard and is crossing Fifth Avenue as I speak, wearing a Yankees jacket. I sit outside 106 5th Avenue smoking a Romeo and Julieta Reserva mini cigar which does the job that I need to do.

I should change last night’s photo on this here blog since I posted it when I was being a little jealous bitch last night.

I do have a history with this neighborhood…back in the day, my parents and my brother Brian and me, came to this neighborhood in the 1970s to get some furniture at an Ethan Allen showroom. My father always had some sort of deal with someone somewhere.

It certainly wasn’t the most exciting thing for me, though being in the city was exciting, but all I saw were my parents’ hands as they grabbed me tightly and talked about everything that they could about furniture, which did not interest me at all.

After we left the showroom, we were walking down 5th Avenue on that summer day, and the three of them, my parents and Brian crossed the street and I stayed on the corner talking to some person that was there. The three of them were a block away before they realized that I was no longer with them.

They were quite surprised and upset and probably angry that we had been separated but there I was happily talking to some stranger on the street. And that street could be the same street I am sitting on now.

A wet and damp 51°, May morning, Thursday. I got to work 20 minutes early, which was surprising to me. The train was a little bit crowded, but tomorrow being Friday and a holiday weekend, there’ll be fewer people on the train. The weather leaves a lot to be desired, and I don’t know what the weather will be this weekend. I hope to get a bike ride in, but that’s not up to me.

Doing some more training for the agency that placed me here, as well as listening to Fleetwood Mac’s greatest hits, which is quite a collection. Today’s training is regarding DEI diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is something that I’ve been doing all of my life. Nice to see that this agency is catching up to me. It sounds like they’re training me to be me. I suppose other people are not like me and need to be trained, but it seems like common sense to me.

Some of these people’s parents were their allies growing up I can’t say mine were allies growing u,p and I also can’t say they were enemies either. How to be a decent, well-rounded person that’s willing to help people that do not have the same advantages that I have, no one’s taught me that, that’s something that I’ve learned myself on my own.

Don’t get me wrong…I am not all that.

They use the acronym RISE which stands for respect, integrity, service, and excellence. It’s all weeks of HR methods which are for the benefit of the company and not the employee. They don’t want to see a separation between the employer and employee but that’s not how it works is it?

“Acknowledge that you will make mistakes and that you are working towards a better tomorrow.”
“Stop, drop, and roll, refresh.”

Stop and don’t respond right away. Take a breath before speaking or acting.
Drop your assumptions, assess the situation ask questions without judgment.
Roll with the right thing to do, live by our values? Follow our policies…”I’ve been here for a month, I’ve been doing these things for decades since the 20th century.

I was just reading a little something about the movie The Witches of Eastwick, which came out in 1987, which happened to be the year I was in North Carolina with Mary and Julie and Martha and Steven and Susan, and I left early to go see Wire in Philadelphia. I still have not seen The Witches of Eastwick from start to finish.

That might be a good story to post sometime, the North Carolina Kitty Hawk story. David Lynch’s land and LSD. Strange times indeed. The Asian Pacific Islanders group and the Jewish employees are having events on the same day in the same building. Could be trouble!

It’s still gray and damp. 50° right now. Not very nice weather for May. I just hope the weather improves. Whatever plans were made with Mike for the weekend are up in the air. It’s always something, it seems.