Author Archives: 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.

Another Day

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Another day. Day two. Détente? I have to say my typing skills however meager as they were, are much worse now. Perhaps practice will improve and by practice, I mean by writing daily.

The job I have today, the job I have now. I’ve had it for 3 years, Started June 1, 2021, and it was a very good job (Hesitant to say ‘great’). I would wake up, happy to go to my office in Tribeca. I worked with mostly twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings and they were a good batch. Time goes on, and people leave.

Now the workplace is overrun by millennials. Leaving little plastic bunnies and ducks in various nooks and crannies. It seems the workplace here and perhaps in other places have been retrohauled to accommodate those born in the Nineties and beyond. Don’t get me wrong, some things needed to be changed a long time ago.

I have gotten into trouble because of the childlike adults. I had a walk-in client who did not speak much English. Let’s say his name was Jose Espanol. Jose sat in my area for 90 minutes as I tried to find someone in the very quiet, nearly empty office. Jose fell asleep at one point as I searched through my mind trying to think of someone who might be bilingual.

An alumnus from my accursed high school works in this office (with one or two other alumni all late twenties/early thirties) and he was in, so I instant messaged him, telling him that Jose Espanol was here for 90 minutes. He messaged back ‘Let me guess, he speaks Spanish’. I was incredulous and wrote back ‘Really?’

I almost continued being incredulous and nearly wrote that Jose Espanol might be Latin, which would have explained the toga and the laurel wrapped around his head. I thought the alumnus was ridiculous and sending that joke about being Latin would’ve upped the ante but something held me back and there was someone who saw my situation and stepped in to help. I told the alumnus just that and thanked him anyway.

The alumnus filed a complaint about me with our inhuman resources, it’s feelings were hurt. Never mind the fact that Jose Espanol was sitting around for 90 minutes, but the alumnus was so terribly hurt by the response of ‘Really’. I asked the guy who hired me if I should send a note of apology to the bleeding alumnus and the guy who hired me said ‘if you think you should…’
So I did and it went nowhere.

I have worked in some top-shelf jobs, I have worked in the mail room, and I worked as a receptionist. I know how to interact with people mostly, but this millennial set is a whole ‘nother ball of ear wax. I get the job done and can generally make people feel at ease, so much at ease that Jose Espanol fell asleep while I searched for someone who could help him.

There will be more to come.

Write Again.

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Well, it has been a long time since I last sat down and wrote anything. Really, I can’t think of anything that I could say that I wrote. It’s been over 7 years since I posted words for the blog and I might as well give it a go.

Lewis Lapham died last week. He was the Editor Emeritus of Harpers Magazine. Bill and I met him in October 2005 at the Society for Ethical Culture. Lewis Lapham gave me the idea for this blog. He mentioned that certain writers would have a method of writing daily. Some would do this, some would do that.

It struck a nerve and a few days later I started writing at least 500 words a day. It was an easily attainable goal, mostly. I mentioned it to my friend Rand, who suggested writing a blog so these wayward words would have a place to go and maybe some other people would read it. So Rand hooked me up with this here blog.

So from October 2005 to sometime in 2013, I wrote daily. At first, it was 7 days a week, then I made it 6 days, opting to take Sundays off. And I got in trouble a couple of times with what I wrote. Some people suggested that I don’t write about my job but if I write about my day, and a good chunk of that day is spent at a job, I don’t see how I could not write about it.

What I wrote did not make them look good but I wasn’t writing for them. And if things were rosy then perhaps I would write about that. The last gig I got fired from, at least one of the reasons why I was fired was because they thought I was writing this blog on a smartphone and I am simply not coordinated enough to do such a thing. My thumbs would give out.

So you can thank to blame Lewis Lapham for the https://johnozed.com

I am returning to work tomorrow after being off of holiday since July 27. Bill and I went as they say in New Jersey, ‘down the shore’ We’ve been going to Ocean Grove for years, since 2017. We did not go in 2020 due to the pandemic and 2023 was a washout due to other things like money.

Not having a chance to get out of town was troubling so it was imperative that we got the hell out of Dodge for at least a few days, Sunday to Wednesday. We had previously gone down on a Friday and left on Monday but we found it cheaper to go on Sunday to get those weekday rates. It was certainly less crowded. I enjoyed the fewer people but sort of missed the hustle & bustle.

Bill is great at planning things like transportation so all I have to do is follow. We both enjoyed the water and the quietness. Tomorrow I go back to a job that I once liked working at.

C’est la vie.