Happy? | johnozed

It’s been another nice day though a bit on the cool side. Last night was the same. The sun did not burn away the clouds by noon like it was forecast the night before. No, the sun hid behind the clouds until later in the afternoon. I did get it together finally and headed outside as Bill went back to sleep. His back had been bothering him when he got home from driving to Atlantic City and he immediately went to bed. Then he woke up for a little while before going back to sleep and waking up a few hours later.

We watched Nurse Jackie and The Big C then he went back to bed and slept the rest of the night. I forgot that True Blood was on and watched the midnight west coast broadcast. Then I watched Girls. I wasn’t interested in it when it started a few weeks ago, then after talking last week to my brother Frank about the show, I thought I would give it a look see. It was better than I expected and now I am trying to watch it when it is on. I just had to get over that Williamsburg vibe I suppose.

I also watched Crazy Stupid Love the other night and found it to be quite clever. It’s not a perfect movie but once again it was better than I expected. That Ryan Gosling is quite the hottie and in some scenes he reminded me of former co-worker Thomas. Not that Thomas is a lothario but there is a scene between Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling which was very funny when they are buying a new wardrobe for Carell’s character and that is what reminded me of Thomas and his being a clothes horse. I’d recommend it with no reservations.

I haven’t been sleeping well lately and last night was no different. I even took 2 melatonin tablets which don’t help trying to sleep but they’re decent at staying asleep, making waking up a bit difficult. And it was difficult waking up this morning. Bill was up and out at his usual early time, kissing me goodbye as I lay there sleeping. I slept later than I wanted to and when I did wake up I got it together making a pot of coffee before jumping in the shower and then shaving. No bread meant a trip to the supermarket.

The schools seem to be done for the semester so there were a lot of kids out and about. That great feeling of being out of school for the summer is one of the best feelings in life I think. The supermarket wasn’t that crowded, then again it wasn’t the supermarket around the block, it was the larger supermarket so it’s easy to look empty with such a large space. And I saved a few dollars going there rather than to the usual grocery store, so that was good. It’s only a few minutes out of the way and it wasn’t raining.

I walked over to the river and played the guitar again today. Didn’t even break out the song chords, I just played songs I had committed to memory. I also stayed away from any populated areas, just stayed to myself and strummed for about an hour, and then I read the New Yorker for a spell. It was still on the cool side weather wise so after that I just went home, stopping off at the bibliothèque and dropped off Retromania by Simon Reynolds which I had finally finished over the weekend. Now I have a collection of books by Los Bros Hernandez.

I just felt like reading some Love and Rockets. I usually prefer the Jaime Hernandez stories, but Beto Hernandez’ Palomar stories really have an emotional core which I never really noticed before. Of course the Jaime books are paperbacks and the Beto book is a hard covered tome which doesn’t lend itself to being carried around since it’s so heavy.

2-01 Birthday
Happy birthday Macca!

I had difficulty sometimes knowing what day of the week it was while I was working retail with an erratic schedule. Now being out of work, all semblance of organized time has been thrown out the window. Well actually not 100% true. I can tell by the fewer amounts of people on the street or more often what is on TV. Nurse Jackie, The Big C and Mad Men were on last night so that makes it Sunday, dunnit? I wrote the first two lines last night and the rest just a few minutes ago. It’s been a lazy day after a night of some not very good sleep.

Looking at Saturday night’s entry, wow. I was quite drunk. Each word was a struggle and the fact that I was able to do it, albeit badly, has to say something. Not one of my best and better off ignored. I did have a good time and once I settled in at home I soon sobered up and eventually went to sleep. Waking up wasn’t so bad on Sunday. I slept in later than I expected, just as Bill was going to bed after returning from yet another drive to Atlantic City.

It was a fairly busy day, but each time I decided to go out and play the guitar by the river, (not actually busking since I am too intimidated to have an open guitar case in front of me) it looked like the skies were about to open up. And it did rain hard a couple of times. After an hour or two of that and with seeing the sun come out, I headed to the river and just played whatever songs I could figure out from memory. That meant Shame Shame Shame, All My Loving, Please Please Me, Kansas City/For You Blue and a variation of Take Me to the River.

Rand was practicing with Lois, the three of us will be playing together next Sunday as part of the Sounds of Hoboken thing. I had hoped to be playing around where I was strumming yesterday, but it seems we will be at the mews uptown around 14th Street. I think I am going on around 3:15 with Rand. Rand is also performing with Lois as Trombolele, and then Lois doing something called ‘Stump Granny’ where the object is to stump Granny (Lois) with song requests and win prizes or something.

I walked over to the river and set myself up and di what I did. The skies did ipen up and I was under a tree so I had some shelter. I also looked around for something better than some leaves on a tree, but after walking around to nowhere in particular I realized that my original spot was the best so I went back, opened an umbrella and waited it out for a few minutes. And I was right, the storm passed, leaving a rainbow over Manhattan. I could see about two thirds of the actual arc and a few minutes after that, a second rainbow appeared.

It was a nice sight to see and I played my guitar, wishing I knew the chords to She’s A Rainbow by the Rolling Stones. After an hour of strumming it was time to go home since darker clouds were gathering in the west.

I came home, Bill was off to a wedding that I was supposed to attend, but I requested the time off from the cigar shack and the RSVP was needed by a certain date which had passed by the time of my dismissal. So Bill took his dear friend Theresa who needed to go out and have a good time more than I did. They had a good time and sent me a nice video from the reception where they told me that they loved me and they were having a great time indeed.

It’s getting better all the time.

04 Getting Better