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.

A day back at the cigar shack. Not a bad day. I told Thomas last night that I would work the super bowl with Jerry Vale which frees him up to spend time with his fiancee on Sunday night. He was so grateful he threw a major order in my direction and he and his fiancee made me some corn bread which I will enjoy when I get home.

It’s been an alright day overall. It was Thomas and Bradley and myself and since Zack was off today that put Bradley in a good mood once again. I did hear from Zack via text today. He first asked if I had a passport and I replied that I did.

Then he asked if I would be interested in going to Honduras. Apparently a cigar manufacturer has tours of their fields and factory in Honduras and Zack was supposed to go but he wasn’t really feeling it, having just gotten back from two weeks of being out of town away from his family.

It would be all expenses paid and I would just have to pay for my flight which would be reimbursed by the cigar shack headquarters. I mentioned it to Bill and he looked up flight information. It was supposed to be from March 12th to the 15th, but after Bill’s research he found the best deal would mean my leaving on March 11 and coming back on March 16 and would not involve a layover that is 20 hours overnight.

Eventually we figured out that it would not be affordable. That means that Bradley might have to go. I would like to go but realistically it’s not feasible. And I would rather travel with Bill. He’s great, he loves to plan trips and all I have to do is show up. Cars, flights, hotel rooms all taken care of. I suppose I am spoiled by Bill when it comes to matters like this. It’s OK, I certainly don’t mind and neither does Bill.

The weather today has been outstanding, 60 degrees when I went on break at 3:15 this afternoon, nice enough to spend most of the break time, outdoors in the cool air. There were plenty of other people who had the same idea. So tomorrow is another day on, then another day off. And there is more laundry to do, laundry that didn’t quite make the cut the other day.

The plan is to get up early enough to get a start on that and then figure out the rest of the day. Of course by then it can all go pear shaped. Last night I watched Gosford Park again. It’s such a good movie, great script, great cast. Bill watched some of it before he went into shredding mode, meaning he sat at the kitchen table, shredding some documents and spending way too much time reading other documents.

Bjork was on the Colbert Report last night and she was very good of course. I plan on buying her new CD but as far as I know it’s only available as an app from iTunes. It could be available somewhere, somehow and I intend on finding it one way or another.

Thomas mentioned that I look like that I lost too much weight and that my suits all hang on me.I guess he is right since I can’t tell. And Jimmy Seltzer made an appearance, telling me that I should get it together and write my book. I really should, shouldn’t I?

10 Where Do I Begin
Thanks for the ride, Don Cornelius.

Well it is a day off today and overall it’s been so so. Really lackluster. It had the potential to be that type of a day and it certainly did it’s best to live up to my low expectations. There was a tentative plan to go back to Chelsea with RoDa and see the Doug Wheeler installation that was too crowded to attend last Friday, but it fell through.

To tell the truth I didn’t really want to head into Manhattan today, but left it open for RoDa to approve or veto, or even postpone. As it turned out, RoDa was unable to go so that left me in on the Jelly Side of the Hudson River.

A trip to the supermarket, a wave to Tony the Barber, things seemed to be going nicely. Isis was the cashier again, she said she hadn’t seen me in a while and it was true since I hadn’t seen her in a while either. My schedule and Isis’ schedule are not in sync so there are more moments when we don’t see each other than when we do. The life of retail clerks.

I came home and had a nice breakfast. I stopped buying the newspaper a few weeks ago, so I just reread parts of old books as I eat. I surfed the net and read some emails and Facebook postings for a while as I waited for the laundry cycle to end. There is always laundry to do it seems. I decided to get a new pair of Airwalks since my last pair were falling apart, coming apart at the seams.

That meant a trip to the Newport Mall in Jersey City. It was a nice day as I walked down the avenue, stopping into the local record store to see if the latest Mojo and Uncut were in. Empty handed I headed to the train station. I figured I would take the light rail to the mall but just missed it when I got to the platform. The next train was in 15 minutes which would be almost the amount of time it takes to actually walk to the mall, so I decided to walk there.

For some reason ‘My Little Town’ by Simon & Garfunkel was in my head so I played it on my iPod. That’s the song they came up with when Simon & Garfunkel reunited in the 1970’s. I bought some socks at the Sock Store and walked into Payless which seems to be the only place that sells Airwalks lately. And of course they did not have them.

While there I got a text from Thomas. I found out yesterday that the cigar shack will be having a little to-do in the man cave for the super bowl. And Jerry Vale will be working it and since Jerry Vale is a part timer, a full timer has to be there too. And I am sure it will be me. Having written that just now I realize it is no big deal. I’ll have a few cigars, watch the game and eat some food and get paid for it too. A positive spin if you will.

I left the mall with a few pairs of socks and saw the light rail headed back into the station. As luck would have it again I missed the train. And since it was still a nice enough afternoon, I walked back to Hoboken. I decided to treat myself and get a milk shake at Ben & Jerry’s, the aptly named Chocolate Therapy. But they were all out of Chocolate Therapy, I walked over to Crumbs instead and got myself a Chocolate Blackout cupcake to salve my soul. I haven’t had it yet, it sits in the fridge just waiting for me.

Like I wrote, a lackluster day.

Tom Verlaine 1982 Words From The Front 06 Coming apart