From today’s notebook.
Hot Monday in October. I sit in 80 plus degrees of mugginess, in the shade across from the building where I work. It’s Columbus Day and a lot of people have off, but not me. Plenty of people still have to work but I would say the amount has been halved. Feeling a touch melancholy since Carla is leaving in a few days. The city, or at least the workers are few and far between. I could use a day off.

I could also use some cooler weather so I could go back to wearing a suit and tie which would make dressing in the morning a little bit easier and if it were cooler I wouldn’t be sweating as much as I do.

I bought Gold Bond Medicated powder and applied it liberally after showering this morning. Then I sat bare chested drinking my coffee and eating cereal. I was wearing pants and sweating and after I put on a shirt and headed out the door I checked myself only to find the sweat and the powder mixed, making a paste that was directly on my crotch. A nice smelling white powdery spot right where everyone would notice. Quick change of pants, but the pants were shortish, not too short, just enough to pass for regulation on how high your pants should be and enough to make me very self conscious throughout the day.

I asked Bill if his cousin Elise was working since she’d been unemployed for a while and I was thinking that maybe she would do reception and replace Carla as my assistant on a temporary basis, but it turned out she is working for the Daily News.

I’m presently reading the Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie which is good and I find myself writing like Sherman Alexie which you really can’t tell from this but you should see the notebook. Also reading the New Yorker naturally, as well as Grand Illusion by Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins. Thats about Rudy Guiliani and the mess of 9/11 and how Rudy has been capitalizing on it and his failures that are overlooked in the midst of the platitudes raining upon der fuhrer.

Thinking about playing touch football on Gunther Avenue with Scott Williams, David Plauchino and George Moncho back in the day. Tuesday Afternoon by the Moody Blues floats through my head.

After work tonight was more drinks with Carla at a rooftop lounge in midtown. Good if you want to smoke, but it was muggy as all hell. Tonight we were joined by Larry, Moe and Curly who I sort of put down a while ago, but tonight they were good company. Usual disparagement about how the partners aren’t doing what they should be doing, and leaving the work for the associates who depend on the partners to do their job. Four Heinekens and that was it for me. We parted ways and I walked across town in the humidity back to the swamplands of Hoboken.

For the hungry surrealist

The view from the rooftop lounge

Sunday night. Yesterday was spent indoors mainly due the hangover and the heat. Last night’s blog was very easy to write. I guess my inner filters were in disrepair so it all came out basically in one piece, as is. I didn’t mind staying in yesterday, there wasn’t really anything to do and no one to do it with so staying home was fine by me. Bill came home in the afternoon and slept for a few hours so that afforded me a few more moments of alone time. And I spent most of the day riffing on some jazz compositions I had laying around the apartment.

Bill woke up and watched Knocked Up, which was pretty good, though not as good as the 40 Year Old Virgin and from what I’ve heard not as good as Super Bad, which isn’t out yet. Seth Rogen was cute and cuddly and would make a great bear, though not in this part. There were a few interruptions due to Bill needing to make some phone calls to set his plans for today, so the timing was stretched to two and a half hours which made an easy transition to watching Seth Rogen hosting Saturday Night Live.

Saturday Night Live was pretty good, not as good as the week before but still a few laughs. Spoon was very good too. I have one of their tracks from a few years ago, and I liked it enough to put on my iPod but never got around to buying anything else from them. Last night was a pretty good example on why I should. Also glad I didn’t go see Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem on Randall’s Island. I’m sure that was good but too much for the viejo I seem to be becoming. I did check youtube first thing this morning to see if anyone posted any videos from the show last night, and I have to say only three people posted by 9:00 this morning.

As Bill was leaving for church he mentioned something about calling me this afternoon so that I could join him and his family to visit Bill’s father in the Village Nursing Home on Hudson and 12th Streets. That was news to groggy old me, but I went along with it and went back to sleep as I heard the door closing behind Bill on his way to church.

I puttered along the muggy morning streets of Hoboken a little while after I woke up, getting my Sunday sundries. I was ok with the fact I didn’t know anyone on the streets and was able to make it home unmolested. Killed time watching the telly waiting for Bill to call. I thought about going out and hanging waiting for the call but it was too hot and I was sweating just sitting around the apartment. He called and I was on the Path train, for the first time in a few weeks.

I met up with Bill, and his mother, his aunt, his cousin, her husband and their kids. They were situated around the bed when I showed up. Soon it was crowded and Bill’s plan was to go outside to Abingdon Square across the street for some summer in October. Bill had another plan involving got to the Magnolia Bakery to get some cupcakes to celebrate his father’s birthday. That involved waiting on line for 40 minutes. That was ok though since it was a special occasion and with Bill and myself were Bill’s cousin and her two sons.

I helped pass the time by having a smoke across the street from the line and was able to snag a copy of Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules, a compilation edited by David Sedaris that I bought for my sister in August for her birthday. I got mine for 5.00. They were still on line and by the time they left the store, Bill’s parents and company went back to the home. I stayed for a little while, had a couple of cupcakes ad soon I made my good byes, it looked like Bill’s dad was really exhausted with all the people in his room.

I left and had a cigar, walking along the highway, deserted until I stumbled upon a leather fest on Weehawken Street. I just stood on the outside looking in until I finished my cigar and got to the Path train where a train was waiting to take me back to Hoboken.

Here’s a cool video, Yer Blues by the Dirty Mac.
John Lennon on Guitar, Keith Richards on Bass, Eric Clapton on guitar and Mitch Mitchell on Drums.

Me Gusta youtube!