Slept really well last night. Had the bed to myself and took 2 Advil PM. Now Codeine free! The usual blah blah blah morning routine and I was out the door with time to pick up my leather blazer at the dry cleaners and wear it to work. It was Bob Dylan’s birthday so I listened to ‘Bringing It All Back Home’ and I walked to the Path train, stopping to get bananas from Plantain man, still pitching his tent.

Got to work, started up the office, waiting for the day to start. It started as usual for this office, and that means it started awkwardly. The neck situation continued but at the end of the day I had a chiropractic visit. I called up Felicia to see if she could pick up some items we were going to need and she was too busy, running late and getting fitted for a wedding dress. Not hers. I guess she’s in a wedding party.

When she did come in she made a beeline to me and proceeded to tell me how drunk she is. She’s still drunk from last night and begins to tell me of her sexploits. Ay Caramba! I will say this, she’s a nice drunk. She’s been getting quite chummy lately and it’s been ok. She’s a likable person. I just hope this doesn’t turn into a Bleedin’ Hope situation.

The day flew by again, and soon I was on a 1 train heading uptown to the chiropractor. Bill’s been seeing her for about ten years. You’d think he’d be cured by now. I met her once before when Bill had an appointment. I tried to impress her by stating that my sister was a massage therapist. She smiled blankly with the expression of, ‘Yeah, and?’

So she rubbed and pulled and lifted and twisted all the while talking to me rather fast as I lay face down drooling into tissue paper. I think she focused on my butt a little too long though. It was all in all a pleasant experience. I have another appointment on Friday in the afternoon, then a few hours later I see Philip Beansprout mano a mano. Time to kill between medical appointments.

It’s also Mrs. Stine Lopez’ birthday as well as Rocky, a friend that used to work the loading dock at the Wanker Banker building. He called me this evening inviting me to stop by Dewey’s Flatiron, a bar in the Flatiron district, across from Madison Square Park, which is also where Me’Shell Ndegeocello will be performing for free (?) this summer.

Bill arranged so he would have an appointment around the same time as me so that we could go home together. We walked down Eighth Avenue. I really like the Hearst Building on 57th street. A lot of fun, it makes me laugh. We rode the crowded bus back to Hoboken where we met up with Juan. Juan and I made plans last week to watch the season finale tonight. A two hour 100 page super spectacular. It was great, intense maybe.

A lot of unanswered questions.

Today I saw, in alphabetical order, Joe Franklin, Victor Gerber and Philip Seymour Hoffman. This is getting creepy.

God damn it I’ve been waking up at 5:00 in the morning the past two days. Not fun. And with the neck being what it is, getting back to sleep is no easy task. It’s getting pretty bad back there and tomorrow I have an appointment with Bill’s chiropractor. She’s going to treat me, make some adjustments and then bill me when the insurance kicks in. I hope it works. I bought a pillow and a new computer chair, or rather a chair that I sit on in front of the computer, so that it might alleviate the neck problem. But it hasn’t. So it’s the chiropractor, after that, Lourdes.

It could be a Macanudo problem, as Julio has been so fond of saying, regarding my Mac experiences. Different heights of desks for computers that I sit at most of the day, like now. And all for you dear reader, whoever you might be. I write this for you. I hope you are grateful. You’d better be.

No, that’s the neck talking. Sorry. And all the good drugs with muscle relaxers that I should take, I can’t because they have affiliations with codeine and I’m allergic to that. Back in the day, while living at my parents house, I had some dental work done and was prescribed Tylenol 3 which has a little bit of codeine in it. I took two before I went to sleep and a few hours later woke up having great difficulty breathing. I went down to my parent’s bedroom and woke up my mother telling her I couldn’t breathe.

My mother thought I was having a heart attack. For some reason we didn’t call for an ambulance and I lay on the couch while my mother asked me from her chair if I was having any pains shooting down my arm. I told her I wasn’t and she felt relieved enough to have a cigarette, which promptly took all the oxygen out of the room. I yelled to her to put it out and she obliged. I think I just slept there all night with my mother a few feet behind me.

So codeine is out which sucks because Bill has Vicodin and it’s available but I did the research and felt anaphylactic shock is not the best way to relieve a pinched nerve. A little too extreme if you ask me. And 4 out of 5 doctors agree. Watch out for that one doctor though.

Juan is here, we’re hanging out. He’s reading the British music magazines, Mojo and Uncut while watching Batman Begins on HBO. Good to have company since Bill is at his parents tonight. Julio is doing last minute cleaning so Mrs. Stine Lopez would have a nice home to come home to. He’s pretty much excited. We all are. I expect to be drafted into helping out cleaning the backyard. I don’t mind at all. Everyone wins. Especially the cats and there are plenty of them, last time we counted there were over a dozen. Want one?