An email from the company that placed me where I am. They want me to focus on where I want my career to go with the company that places me where I am at, let’s call them ABCD.

They seem to think that I am a careerist, someone that wants to dig in my heels and get entrenched in this company, when all I want is a job that I go in in the morning at 8:00 a.m and leave in the afternoon at 5:00 p.m. and that’s the job.

They stay on their side I stay on mine.

“Hi John, I love where this is going however, your development plan needs to be focused on the where you want your career to go with ABCD. We need to think of the future. A couple of questions…
Do you want to stay in the receptionist position?
You mentioned your professional future. What does that look like for you? You have so many possibilities at ABCD, think outside the fruit box.

What position is the end goal?
You mentioned refining your communication skills?
What training will you take to achieve this?

Like I said, I just want to come in and do my job. I don’t plan to have a career or any ambition or any dream since I’ve never had them before, and I’m much too old to apply them today.

Just had an encounter with a gentleman named Damien, whose real name is not bothering to make it up because he just wasn’t that interesting a guy. Damien explained that he liked working at the other office where I started at which is a lot more uptight than where I’m at now. That is what rendered Damien uninteresting.

I explained that I much prefer this one, and he just didn’t seem to care cuz they don’t do conversation or small talk, it’s not something he likes to do, so he’s more comfortable sitting there awkwardly a few feet away from me and not interacting, so it wasn’t the end of the world though.

So it’s my lunch time right now, and I’m at my usual spot, or at least close to it. So it’s a woman who is documenting everything on her phone, where I usually sit. That’s another quiet day I’m keeping myself busy.

I’m dictating, not documenting.

Yesterday, before I left Mike in the apartment he suggested I bring an umbrella since heavy rain storms were expected and that’s what happened. But Mike forgot to close the window because I supposedly said that weather forecasters are wrong half the time.

And of course it rained. It rained quite a bit and Bill was on the highway and the highway flooded he didn’t get home until late and I was fast asleep.
I just walked away from the woman who is documenting everything about her life. Now I sit on the stoop of a condemned building or at least a building that’s being renovated and gutted from the inside out.

Just had a quick talk with Mike. He’s filled out 120 job applications in the past two or three weeks hopefully one of them will get back to him. He’s going to keep throwing things at the wall and he’s going to see what sticks.

The building under renovation seemed a bit sketchy or at least made me uncomfortable enough to get up and walk away from that. So now I sit under scaffolding which is also sketchy. I do like this neighborhood more than I like Tribeca.

I’ve stepped away from the scaffolding and am standing 3 ft away from it, not under it.

How do I tell the company that placed me here that I’m just looking to work, not looking to make a career, I’m much too old for that? I think if I wanted a career, I would have thought of it years ago, but I never did; I just wanted a job.

The young woman who took my spot has vacated this spot, and I am sitting here next to someone’s bicycle, and they did not know how to lock it up properly, so they locked it up incorrectly, taking up three spots for one bike. How inconsiderate.

Bill is at his gym on West 73rd Street behind the Dakota. I hope he’s having a good time.

Listening to Candy-O by The Cars, remembering driving around with Henry Venegas in 1979, listening to this, smoking cigarettes at Summit Avenue and Essex Street.

And it’s back to Monday today… July 14th 2025 my niece’s birthday. Corinne is what we call her. She’s turning 39 which is a reflection of time in aging on almost everybody’s part, but my own he jokingly said to himself.

Today is humidly oppressive. Yesterday I did 14 mi on a bike ride up to North Bergen took the advice of my neighbors Mithra and Frank and went a little bit further up on the path that I was used to and I have to say I was literally underwhelmed by what was ahead of me. I did not get far and at a certain point it just turned around and did my own thing which seems to work best for me at least.

Next week I return to Liberty State Park because that’s a little more interesting. And I do have my routines that people on social media ask about. Mike has been staying with us since Friday which has been good. I think yesterday was the first day he actually left the apartment and that was just a cover to carry the groceries up four flights of steps as I was heading to do my bike ride.

In the office today it seems like Jimmy Chile is a bit distant whereas Marcus is a bit chatty and I look at myself in the mirror and wonder where that red splatch came from on the left temple of my forehead. I suppose it will bear looking into and see what happens. It was a bit unnerving but not too distressing.

So whereas the plan was to have Mike come over on Fridays and leave on Monday. Today we allowed him to stay and use the computer and search for jobs since he really has to find a job soon!

Bill has been running around driving kids from point A to point b with occasional stops at cd&e. He is able to stop by on Saturday for a couple of hours and one of those hours. He took a nap which was good. It was, since he needed it.

He did the same thing today without the nap and I gave him the heads up that Mike was just going to be in the crib which probably leaves Bill to scratch his head, wondering what’s going on?

I’ve been busy today at work filling in any requests that are asked, initially freezing sitting at my desk and wearing a cardigan, and then that got too warm, so I’m back to freezing.

Just got to make it to Thursday. That’s my goal. However, I do have to work on that. Ambitious career plan that the agency that placed me where I’m at is asking for a first draft singular.

I made penne pesto and chicken last night and also made a special sauce for Mike since he doesn’t like pesto. And I made enough to bring some for lunch today which was saltier than it was yesterday. I don’t know why.

I did not sleep well last night. That’s a lot of tossing and turning for me and the inability to get comfortable and Bills clock radio going off every 15 minutes with some talk radio a.m. nonsense. I may have broken Bill’s radio in which case I have to get him a new one but I won’t do that until he tells me “you broke my radio”.

A short while ago, smelling weed all the time on the streets was a bit unnerving. Nowadays, it seems to be commonplace, so much so that I’m getting used to it.