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.

I Can See For Miles

I slept incredibly well last night, but that have been because I was not feeling too well. As soon as my head hit the pillow I was nearly fast asleep. And it was earlier than usual, a little after midnight.

I had a vision of sorts, on how to fall asleep soundly. Basically the trick was to visualize different objects and then figure out where they go. It actually worked. I woke up with a smile on my face with Bill leaning over me giving me a good bye kiss on his birthday.

Bill just said a few minutes ago on the phone that he wished he had a camera to take a picture of my angelic face. I tell you, an angelic face from me in the morning is quite a rare thing.

And Last night I was not feeling well at all. It may have started at the cigar shack, or at least on the bus ride. So fatigued, and who knows I do shake some hands throughout the day so I might have picked up some bug, albeit a temporary bug.

Luckily I had done most of my writing beforehand so all I had to do was edit. Bill was asleep when I came home and then got out of bed for a few minutes. My bones felt heavy as he went back to bed and I eventually joined him.

So this morning I had to open the store. That meant everything was an hour or so earlier than usual. I made my way to the bus stop and got on a nice air conditioned coach bus that quickly filled up. The guy next to me was sleeping throughout the ride, his leg rubbing against mine.

I just stared out the window. A totally different crowd than the one I am used to when I commute into the city. This afternoon has been a bear. Some running around, not much of a lunch hour, more like a 15 minute break.

I am maintaining good spirits, or at least trying to keep some good will for dinner. It hasn’t been easy to keep. Once again I realize that I am a bad teacher. Trying to show the new guy, Jerry Vale how to do things properly on the register. A lack of patience which could be attributed to the bad teachers I had when growing up.

I would rather do it myself than have to explain over & over how to do something. I would say I don’t like to repeat myself, but here we are reading something that I more than likely written before.

Now just finishing things up in the shack, been yet another long day. I tell you Calvin is quite fortunate to have a competent staff. No one is getting over, everyone pulls their own weight. But for me, I just want to go back to Hoboken, have a steak with Bill and then head to Maxwells for some Rock & Roll. That’s all I ask.

Apparently I ask for too much. I wound up taking the train to the Path train and that turned out to be the smart thing to do, however inadvertent. Bill texted me when I got off the Path train, the plan was to meet at Maxwells, but here he was texting me from the bus.

The bus had been stopped in the terminal for a half hour due to a car fire in the Lincoln Tunnel. So we are rescheduling dinner until tomorrow. Maybe before the play. In any event I am home, just changed out of the suit & tie into something a little more cooler, a little more comfortable. And though I haven’t been drinking lately, I am determined to have a pint. Or two.

Happy birthday to my man, Bill with lots of love.

Oh yeah, this is the 2,000th posting I’ve done. Isn’t that something?




Ubee & Bubee 2001

I Can See Clearly Now

Today seems to be a big nothing kind of day. Not much is going on, slow at the cigar shack. I’m ambivalent about most things including music. And sales. Can’t say I am hustling since there is really no one to hustle to. The Bradley is playing Aimee Mann so you know what that sounds like.

I slept really well last night and not getting out of bed until just before 9:00 which is cutting it close in my book. In fact that was probably the only time I have hustled today.

Been thinking about some names from my past, Danielle Perry Cruz, Felicia Tennis Court, MaryAnn Molloy, Cotton Wright, Benedict Whatsisface, Perry Dedovitch. Just thinking about the names not the actual people. You know that at least one of them will do a Google search eventually and this is what will pop up.

It’s a beautiful day weather-wise ad once again I sat on a bench near the park, enjoying a cigar and reading ‘Our Band Could Be Your Life’ Started reading about The Replacements. I just finished the chapters on Husker Du and Minor Threat.

I had no idea how much crap these bands went through but they certainly paid their dues. I just never got into hardcore. Too angry and violent. The Replacements I saw a few times, sometimes great sometimes a shambles. Always at Maxwells too. Rita was closer to them than I was, though she did introduce me to Paul Westerberg.

Today is Bill’s mother’s birthday and it is also Julio’s birthday. Tomorrow is Bill’s birthday. The plan is to go to dinner with him at Arthurs and then when he goes home, I go to Maxwells and meet up with my brother Frank at the benefit for Danny Amis. Should be some old faces there.

Ha! Fucked up a bit. Sold some cigars to a cigar bar and neglected to include the receipt. So I took it upon myself to go to the cigar bar and drop it off. Usually they offer me a beer, but I don’t really drink anymore. I will probably have a pint with Bill tomorrow night for his birthday but that should be about it.

So many people offer me drinks and since I’m not drinking much these days I am thinking a polite way to say no thanks is to tell them I’m an alcoholic, which I’m not, but should end all offers for a drink. Not a friend of ‘Bill’ but rather his partner.

Now in the cigar shack it’s me and Thomas. When I went out to lunch earlier I took my iPod with me which basically turned out to be my giving up choosing music for the shack. So since then we heard Aimee Mann, Ben Folds, John Legend, Thelonius Monk’s son playing Thelonius Monk songs and now we are hearing the blues.

It turns out that I dislike the blues as much as I dislike jazz. Does that make me a bad person? No, I don’t think so. I find them both equally boring and uninspiring. I don’t begrudge anyone liking those genres but I would rather not listen to them at all. But what’s fair is fair.

I’m sure a lot of the music I like is not liked by others, but I would rather hear Hold On, I’m Coming by Sam & Dave rather than BB King & Eric Clapton. Oh how I loathe Eric Clapton.

Former co-worker Harold is also Sylvester Randolph who is doing porn. He can be Googled. And I also found out something today at work about the register, something I should have known before.

Everyone else seemed to know about it but me. A felt like a bit of a doofus, but didn’t say anything else after I mentioned it to the Bradley.






Home again. A little depressed and physically tired.