johnozed

About johnozed

I'm 50+ years old, 210-ish#, 6'2", reddish blonde, blue eyes with glasses (and without) masculine, funny, relatively intelligent, enjoy the company of assorted friends and family especially sordid friends and family. I love music, reading, writing, conversing, laughing, going to films, shows, concerts and smoking cigars. And I also enjoy looking nice in a suit and tie. Looking more like Lewis Lapham than Tom Wolfe. I'm sure there is more, but we'll just have to find out when I write about it. In a lifetime relationship with partner Bill Vila.

Listening to Elvis Costello, My Aim Is True at the cigar shack. That really could sum up a lot of things. How I feel about work mainly. I’m not spending all my time in a vanity factory like old Declan. No I am standing in a cigar shack, working with dunderheads and I can’t think of any other word that could describe these boys.

Boys. That’s it. That is the phrase that pays. They are boys who spend so many minutes of the day staring out the window, passing comment on the women that stroll by. How this one likes Asian chicks, or Latin chicks, how that one likes women in work out gear, specifically yoga pants. And they are fixated on a woman they call Little Italy for some reason.

True I stare out the window at men sometimes but certainly not with the frequency that these boys do. Occasionally I might say woof when a hot man walks by and that gets their attention then they realize that I am woofing at a man and they make disgruntled comments.

This is the second blog I am writing today. The first was the official blog for the cigar shack, an attempt to get people (guys) to attend a cigar breakfast next week. Meet up at the nearby restaurant, have breakfast and then retire to the cigar shack man cave for cigars, all for $75.00.

This event has been promoted and mentioned throughout the past month or so and there has been very little interest in it, and some people who have expressed interest in it, decided they weren’t that much interested in it after all. So instead of cutting our losses and perhaps rescheduling, it’s a full court press on people who were not interested in the first place.

‘Shit rolls downhill’ as Bradley mentioned today, and since he is number two, the shit is rolling from Zack to him and now from him to Jerry Vale and myself today, and who knows if Thomas will get shat on tomorrow. I doubt it myself. I’m sure I will find out more on Monday since I am off tomorrow.

And tomorrow does not promise to be an easy low key day. Bill is singing the national anthem at CitiField before the NY Mets/San Francisco Giants game at 1:15. Soundcheck is at 10:00 which means we have to be out of the apartment at 8:00 and get on a train to Flushing. So no sleeping in, in fact I am getting up earlier than I would like. Earlier than I would if I had to go to work.

Oh the things we do for love.

Meanwhile, back at the cigar shack, once again I was off the floor, cleaning up the back room not making any sales. I am safely under my goal and at this moment it doesn’t seem likely that I will reach it. I work with some really shitty co-workers. No recognition for helping out with a sale, that $170.00 cigar case that I showed to a customer that Bradley was helping went to Bradley, not the guy who got the whole thing together.

I have to either get out of this hell hole of retail or get a stronger prescription of Xanax. And thanks to Bradley’s lack of foresight, I had to stay at the cigar shack, an hour later. And I will be standing in front of the fan on Monday when they bring in the shit to throw at said fan.

Forewarned is forearmed isn’t it? Better wear a raincoat.

That is it, I am done with this day. No post tomorrow.

the loneliest Israelite

807 Cloudbusting

Back home after a day back at the cigar shack. On board today were Zack, Bradley and Thomas as well as myself. It was a long day, and not because of the cigar shack. I went to bed earlier than usual last night and did not sleep well. At 1:30 I was up again at the computer just to get out of bed since trying to get to a deep sleep was proving to be impossible.

I took a melatonin but it did not do what I hoped it would do. About 30 minutes later I was back in bed, tossing and turning and having vaguely violent dreams. Luckily I did not hit Bill. But I kept waking up every hour and tossed and turned again. Kept thinking about the cigar shack and kept thinking about two phone interviews that I had earlier in the day.

Nothing was guaranteed but I could not help but think about the combination of jobs and job offers and it didn’t exactly make me relax. I had to get up early in the morning and start my day with a meeting in midtown. A familiar neighborhood with unfamiliar faces. It went well though nice space, nice people and now it’s all wait and see.

Of course in the back of my mind it’s all ‘you’re in over your head here’ even though it is all about things that I had done before and did them quite well. Will Google (oops!) call me back? Who knows? It would be nice though. The hours promise to be a bit crazy but manageable.

And throughout the day I kept getting phone calls from the really cool company with the ping pong tables in Newark. I’m not taking them too seriously since I am way cool enough and they’ve been stringing me along for a number of months already. The whispering tones of Jerry Vale waft through the air, singing ‘you may not like it here, but you do have it good here’. I will ask him to elaborate more on that tomorrow when I work with him again.

Today was pretty good at the cigar shack. I did get top sales though Bradley did grab the official title since he had the big money account from a rinky dink cigar lounge a few blocks away. The rinky dink cigar lounge orders several times a week, dealing mainly with Bradley. Scott Raspberry runs the rinky dink cigar shack and when he calls he asks for his ‘boyfriend’ Bradley.

And the guy who works at the rinky dink cigar lounge and picks up from the cigar shack occasionally makes ‘fag’ comments when he talks to Bradley. For these two reasons I don’t have anything to do with the rinky dink cigar lounge and won’t set foot in there ever again.

I did have my going away party at the rinky dink cigar lounge when I was leaving Wanker Banker but never knew of the goings on behind the scenes, like how the the guy who picks up the cigars for each order can procure young women for sex if a customer wants one. Apparently you can get in a limo and cruise the streets and get a blow job in the back seat as the driver makes his way through the streets. No, it’s not my scene.

Now I am home and happy to be here. Bill is asleep once again and Bill Maher prattles on the television behind me. Back to work tomorrow and hopefully Sunday Bill will be singing the national anthem at CitiField, if the weather permits.