Bill: I like to repeat myself.
John: I do not.
The rest just goes on and on like that. Yes, he is great. Yes, he drives me up the wall.
It is very much like Stephen Sondheim’s Being Alive from Company.

For some reason when I wrote an upper case S, the next letter is invariably upper case as well.
Also when I write the upper case A as well.

It’s been quite a day. I am helping Mike with his move to Jersey City. His first apartment. We have a lot of towels that we could spare so I brought some to the laundry and had them washed properly. I also washed a few on Friday and they finally dried. Also giving Mike some plates and utensils, and some pots and pans.

When I moved to my first apartment, family members and friends gave me some home items that they weren’t using anymore. And here I am forty years later doing the same for Mike. It has been very cold today. It snowed last night. Right now it is 21 degrees out.

Mike doesn’t have heat in the apartment, he’s been trying to contact his landlord to light the furnace but the landlord hasn’t been answering his phone. Not a good way to start day one in a new apartment. I’ll be heading out there tomorrow to drop off the aforementioned items.

It will be after Mike gets off from work so it promises to be dark, which is when the temperature really drops. That’s the trick ya see?

Despite the low temperatures I was out and about a few times. To the laundry with Bill and then solo to pick up the laundry. On my solo venture into the tundra, I ran into Marcus Gallman who is an old friend from Maxwell’s days.

Marcus is a good man, and heads the shelter in town and also other noble things around Hoboken. It was good to see him and I hugged him, embracing his vibe. I even shed a tear when talking to him about life this year.

Nothing too detailed just showing a wave of emotion that swept over me. It was a brief encounter if only for a few minutes and I felt good after seeing him and wishing him a Merry Christmas.

Bill is now off to bed and I hesitate to start writing a new sentence since we do have a routine before he actually heads off to the bedroom. Just writing that gave me anxiety, knowing that any second now I would have to stop writing.

But I am writing about writing so what?

Bill has his own solo routine before our routine and I generally forget that. His routine can take a minute or a half hour. It generally depends on what’s on TV. Bill buys a winning $30 million lottery ticket.

I figured I would take a chance and write that since just about everything I have written about Bill going to bed has come true mere minutes ago. But no, Bill has gone to bed to dream sweet dreams.

Bobby Risotto and I have a history. One of the last dreams this morning had me sneaking through the backdoor of Maxwell’s since I had a key. There was some function going on, a wedding party I think.

I ran into Ann Boyles which was fun and asked her what she was doing there since she currently resides in Georgia. I don’t recall what she said in return but I wound up hanging around her as I sat at my former spot at the end of the bar where I used to check Identification and stamp hands so they could drink.

Steve Fallon made an appearance and why not, since it was his club during my tenure. And most surprising was seeing Bobby Risotto. That is an alias of sorts since Bobby Risotto’s real name popped up years ago when he was still closeted and hiding from his Mum, Gloria and Bobby insisted that I change his name and not post photos from the holiday party that he had with his then-boyfriend the exquisitely named Gregoire.

I acceded to his wishes without a problem. In the dream, he was walking by and I was concerned enough to fix his velvet collar which was askew. He seemed to appreciate it. In my waking hours, I was going through my emails, sending resumes out to whatever seemed feasible.

And there was a message that Bobby Risotto was posting about a position at some double helix company. I followed the link and figured ‘Why not’? It offered a salary that was more than Barry McGarry and I really had nothing to lose. If it proceeds, great. If not, then oh well.

There is a history with Bobby Risotto. We first crossed paths 22 years ago, working for what I called Wanker Banker but in reality was Putnam Lovell NBF. It was a good job, a suit & tie job that paid well. Bobby Risotto was my supervisor and we occasionally bumped heads.

He left the firm after a couple of years and I left sometime after that. We did keep in touch, enough to be invited to his holiday party in the Newport neighborhood of Jersey City. Alas, I was more rambunctious than his other guests, my humor too crass for his bourgeois friends.

Bobby Risotto and I did work together again in 2014 at the terribly silly Neuralgia Management Company. Bobby was bullied by his supervisor and since shit rolls downhill, Bobby Risotto bullied me. Some awful things he had done which were unforgivable.

Enough that when he was having his going away dinner I opted out. He asked why and I explained the things he did and that it would be hypocritical to celebrate his terrible management methods. Despite that, we still maintained some sort of contact.

In November when I had an interview in midtown I passed a restaurant with his surname on the window. I took a photo and sent it to him and he replied in a humorous way. So now, he posts a position and I took the bait.

What happens from this point is anyone’s guess. Will Bobby Risotto be the better man or just a bowl of creamy cooking rice? The ball is in his court and the ladle is on the cooking pot.