Category Archives: Communication Breakdowns

The rose’s faded bloom

Saturday evening and 55°. It’s been a crappy day for lack of a better word. Communicative methods didn’t work necessarily, or at least not how they should have. I had no problem communicating, but other people with whom I interacted certainly did. And in an effort to maintain that lack of communication, I shall refrain from posting about it.

At least that is how I feel at the moment. Bill was off to rehearse the staged reading that he is performing on Monday evening. I will be working the door, Mike’s going to be my guest. Our neighbor Deb is stage-managing the reading. I posted on the social medias for the past week or so but I have no idea how the turnout will be.

There were fliers that I had hoped to put up in various shops and stores but I never got them. I felt that a week or so before the event would be good enough to post these fliers but I think I was the only one thinking about these sorts of things. I was only trying to help but one can’t help people that do not want to be helped.

Mike came over and I helped him with his laundry. There was an unease between me and Bill and also between me and Mike. Lack of communication. In Mike’s case I held back on 99% of whatever it is that I wanted to say. He had his cereal and I hung his laundry to dry.

After his cereal, we walked to Guitar Bar where the fliers were reportedly sent. I asked Larry who was there on a busy Saturday afternoon who said the only flier that he knew about was hanging on the wall to my right. That was disappointing.

I bought a Powerball ticket and tried to tell Mike a joke about something that actually happened when I bought a lottery ticket a few months ago but he had something else on his mind and to his ears he heard white noise in more ways than one. I’m used to people having something on their mind when they talk and they eventually ask just what it was that I was talking about.

Mike doesn’t do that. I made light of that situation which made Mike agitated. Perhaps the rose is losing its bloom. Bill came home with the fliers that he picked up from the Guitar Bar which was an annoyance for me and also perfect for how the day had been proceeding.

Mike wanted to watch the Hunger Games which I remember Juan trying to get me interested in, but there was no interest from me. Bill was game and since the Hunger Games were not streaming he opted to rent it as I made dinner for the three of us.

I have to say it was a mediocre meal and I can get away with saying that since I am the one who made it. Bill and Mike sat in front of the TV watching the Hunger Games and I sat at the kitchen table reading while looking at rose petals strewn about the floor.

Bloom in 10

34° on A Monday night in Hoboken. It’s been quite an out of the ordinary couple of days. It’s March 3. Friday night had Bill, Mike, and myself watching Ted Lasso. Mike seems enamored of the show as Bill and I had been in the past.

Bill did his last minute packing thing, running around the apartment before he went to sleep for an early departure Saturday morning. Mike soon fell asleep on the couch, I turned everything on low on my computer before turning in.

Bill gave me a goodbye kiss and I went back to sleep. I regret not walking to the door to see him off. I was up an hour after that, Mike was up already. Mike had expressed a desire to shoot some photos in Jersey City and I was game.

The day before we discussed it and he had packed a bag with his wardrobe and accoutrements so I wasn’t taken by surprise. And Saturday was a nice day, the temperatures reaching 60°. We took a Lyft to Jersey City since the baggage was too unwieldy to walk over, though we agreed we would walk back.

Between Mike and myself I have a better cameraphone and I wound up taking shots of Mike in different shirts, sneakers, and even a leather harness. He has his admirers online and I provided artistic direction while I took the photos.

It was fun working underneath an overpass that had some wonderful graffiti that Mike ably posed in front of, smoking a cigar that we shared. I wound up taking a couple of hundred photos, with maybe a dozen of myself smoking the shared cigar. It was a good time.

We walked home as it had started getting chilly and windy. The walk was enjoyable. Mike just takes it all in, the view and whatever it is that I was saying, my personal history of Hoboken. He never says anything.

It was like that in December when Bill, Mike, and I went to see the Rockefeller Xmas tree. Bill giving his spiel about midtown Manhattan, me interjecting and Mike just listening to our history lesson.

So it was more of the same on Saturday with just me spilling my guts about Hoboken, how it was, and how it is now. I made pasta for the both of us and we finished watching Ted Lasso. Mike works on Sundays so he was off to bed and I too was off to sleep soon after.

Bill wasn’t around so I had Mike sleep in the bed instead of the couch. Mike was up early and off to work. On Sundays, I just stay in bed until it’s time to watch Jane Pauley and Sunday Morning on TV. It was a lonely day and I am just no good on my own.

Bill was on the road and mostly unavailable, Mike was at work and sort of unavailable. I wandered off to the supermarket to get various items. Mike was coming over again, the plan was to have him sleep over so I wouldn’t be alone. Bill agrees that this is a good idea.

We watched the Oscars on TV and texted with Bill back and forth. It was enjoyable, Mike was disappointed that Wicked didn’t win much. I was disappointed that A Complete Unknown, the Bob Dylan movie got nothing. Bill has a copy of the evening’s winner, Anora which we will watch on his return.

Today was not such a good day. Bill was fine being where he was, Mike was at work, and I was home climbing the walls. There was a drastic mistake of chatting with Mike online before I had enough coffee and it went south soon after. Nothing bad was said but nothing bad was said with me being argumentative and Mike being somewhat accusatory.

Then it turned into Mike saying he was just going to go home, the hanging out here in Hoboken had run its course. I was a bit hurt by that and told him his bags were packed and he could call a Lyft home. The phone call ended badly obviously.

I talked to Bill about it and he suggested seeing Mike and talking about it face-to-face. Mike brought it up earlier and I said no, but after Bill’s idea, I changed my mind and met Mike after work.

We met and it was good. He had a bona fide problem with his work situation so we discussed that. It went well and seemed like a remedy to our conversing on the phone earlier. We came back home and ate some Mexican food, and just talked.

I did my best with advice, knowing that I couldn’t really say much but be supportive. He needs a new job so I will help him with that as I myself look for work. I’ve set him up in the bed again, we cuddled, which he desperately needed. He soon drifted off to sleep as the Brian Eno Bloom 10 app played its notes. I am two rooms away writing on the computer as he sleeps.