So happy it’s Thursday. Usual thing. Brother Frank is now in a rehabilitation unit in Saddle Brook NJ, across the street from where Frank, Brian and I once worked as well as our mother for the book publishing company. The rehabilitation unit used to be Saddle Brook Hospital where I had some stitches put into my skull after I fell out of bed and hit my head on my sister’s night table. Annemarie was traveling somewhere so I was sleeping in her bed. It was also the place where I was taken one night after shoving a clothing snap into my nostril.

I remember it was the night before my family were headed down to Wildwood Crest. I was laying in bed rather anxious about going away for four or five days to the Jersey shore. There was a loose snap on my pajamas and as I fiddled around with it it came off. So me, being me, I decided to see if it would fit in my nose and sure enough it did. And sure enough I could not get it out on my own. After a few minutes of panic and seeing my young life flash before my eyes, actually it was my life being taken from me by my parents for doing something stupid like that.

The only ones home were Frank, Annemarie and Brian. Brian and Annemarie didn’t have any idea what to do. Frank had the idea that I should inhale it so that they could catch it as it passed to my lungs by somehow reaching into the back of my throat. My parents were more than likely at the VFW getting their drink on. Annemarie probably had the sense to call up the Post 3484 and tell my mother what was going on. They soon came home finding me lying on the dining room table surrounded by my brothers and sister.

My parents got me in the car and drove me to Saddle Brook hospital where we went to the emergency room and saw a doctor. My parents told me what I had done and the doctor, quite ably got a pair of tweezers and used them to reach in and pull out the snot encrusted snap. That’ll be Fifty dollars. After that it was back to bed for me and then down the shore the next day where I more than likely got sun poisoning.

Wildwood Crest was a wonderland for me. For one, it wasn’t Lodi. There was a beach and lot’s of drunk adults behaving badly. I would hang out with other children of alcoholic parents, sponging quarters off adults to play pinball or to buy comic books somewhere. I almost wrote saving up for night time trips to the Boardwalk, but that would never happen. Money didn’t last long in my sun poisoned hands. Neither did skin.

I was friends with Joey Schaeffer who’s belly button exploded when he did a belly flop incorrectly. He spent the week with his belly button covered by surgical tape. That’s basically all I remember about Joey Schaeffer, that and when he was visiting me in Lodi, telling him that he wouldn’t be able to sing Indian Reservation by Paul Revere and the Raiders out loud since there were Native Americans around and they’d get upset and start killing people.

Tuesday. Fatigued. Overcast day. Slept ok but once again I could have used a few more hours. Work was ok, not many people in the office. Summertime, compliance classes for some, others working from home. Not me though, I had my thing to do. The stationery came in and I labeled it and put it away after tidying up that area of the office. Left early to go see brother Frank in the hospital again and got some good news. He was being released from the hospital and going to a rehab center in Saddle Brook. Pretty good news indeed.

I’ve taken to carrying around a Moleskine note book since I seem to have misplaced the other notebook that I usually use. Too tired to really write much of anything so here’s some samples of notes from the past few days.

Friedman Alpren and Green. An accounting firm I worked for from 1986 to 1987. An ok job. Worked in the file room with Tyree Thomas as my supervisor. Tyree and myself and a few other people made a pact to get back together on New Years Eve 1999. I didn’t make it and I don’t know if anyone else did or even if they’re still alive. A job nothing more than that.

In 1987 I was offered a job as manager at San Loco a Mexican fast food joint off of St. Mark’s Place on Second Avenue. It was an ok job though I did upset a customer when I played the first track of Patti Smith’s Horses cassette, Gloria: In Excelsis Deo/Gloria (Van Morrison Cover), where she opens the song singing ‘Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine’. Yes I offended someone. The owners were Darrell Nelson and his brother who were friends with Steve Fallon.

Steve Fallon was the owner of McSwells and was one of many that saw something in me more than I saw in myself. He was also friends with brother Frank. I think Frank asked Steve to look out for me when I first moved to Hoboken, or maybe that was Steve being Steve. Anyway, Steve knew I was managing San Loco, and it turned out to be quite a dismal job. Steve stopped by one day and basically told me I was I glorified cashier. In excelsis deo.

We rode the Path train back to Hoboken and he told me I could DJ that night at McSwells since there was no band playing that Thursday night. It was my first experience DJing and it turned out to be a good thing that no one was there so I was able to practice after Steve showed me the ropes of the PA system.

I worked at San Loco for a couple of more weeks and eventually got a job working for Rupert Murdoch
thanks to a friend that was working there on a freelance project. I got some other friends in, Catherine Cloud, Ann Boyles, even Jimmy Lee my room mate at the time. It was at that job that I met Pedro also known as Rey.

That’s about it. I’m tired.