It’s Friday and normally I would be happy, over the moon almost. Not today. Don’t know why. Last night was a quiet evening alone with Bill at his folks. Watched Ugly Betty, Scrubs, My Name is Earl and The Office, all very good episodes. No complaints there. Went to bed at a decent hour and slept ok. Woke up ok with the alarm clock. I puttered around, did the routine, showering, cereal and coffee and I was out the door in time to catch the bus. Yesterday, since I saw Bjork the night before I decided to go into work a little bit later that usual.

I told them I’d be in at 10:00, but wound up in the office at 9:30. Today it was back to normal, at my desk around 8:05, still the first one in. I knew it was going to be a quiet day since Tom Chin was going to be out the next 5 days. He’s a fusspot and could be gay. Hasn’t mentioned a wife or girlfriend but has talked about his two dogs, small kicker dogs. Not that that’s a clue and I really don’t care either way but it’s a good way to give Tom Chin something like a back story.

So it was rather quiet. Carla asked if she could take an early lunch to go to a sample sale. I said yes. Her lunch was at 10:45 and she did come back an hour later empty handed due to the long lines just to get into the showroom where the sample sale was. A few weeks ago I had a run in with the security company that provides access to our office. It was an ugly argument and the following day I gave the project of dealing with these idiots to Carla who arranged for them to come in. She also arranged for our IT guy, Ian to come in. He works as a consultant out of his apartment in Queens.

He came in, nice guy, handsome, helped me out with a program that was troubling me the past few days. He sat with the security guys and set everything up. Ian asked me how I was doing there and I told him so far, so good. He told me I lasted longer than the previous guy, Franklin Pena who lasted two days. Ian said that Franklin couldn’t handle the pressure. From what Carla told me, it was the pressure that got to him. And he was trained by Nadine who had the job previously. I’ve never met Nadine, nor had any email contact. I’m basically setting up a system with no guidance from anyone.

The fact that I’ve outlasted Franklin seems to be an accomplishment, and I’ve been told that I’m doing a good job by a few people in the hierarchy. I strolled around midtown for lunch and wound up in the neighborhood of Wanker Banker where I ran into Walter the UPS guy. I told him all about the Bjork show and he regretted not being able to go, he being a big Bjork fan. He asked where I was working and what I was doing and I told him how finally I was an office manager. He then said now all the problems will fall on my shoulders. That was disconcerting and also when I noticed my self doubt creeping up on me.

I walked back to the office feeling worthless and stupid, feeling that I’ve carried with me since childhood. Most of the time the self doubt is ignored, but as usual when I’m alone and left with my thoughts that’s when I get into trouble. I was planning on leaving the office early today at 4:00 and it seemed to take forever to get there. I blame that on writing about how fast the days goes by last week. I’m still doubting myself and making promises to make headway next week when I go back to work. I am hoping to go for a bike ride tomorrow, perhaps up to and over the George Washington Bridge. That might alleviate my spring time blues. It’s supposed to be a gorgeous day. Cross your fingers and look both ways.

This is from the bloglist, Joe.My.God who got it from Towleroad, also in the bloglist.
Gay Death Threats At FLL

Blogs are buzzing this morning after a gay couple in the Fort Lauderdale airport heard the following intercom announcement at the baggage carousel: “‘A man who lies with another man as he would a woman is subject to death.” The announcement, which came at 12:45am, was repeated several minutes later.

I wrote to a friend who runs one of the airline lounges at FLL and he’s going to try and get some inside scoop on the culprit. He tells me that intercom access is available from all over the airport, so the identity of Levitical creep may never be known. Check out the story on Towleroad for fuller details.

Wednesday. That was yesterday. No entry last night, too tired and tuckered out. It was quite a long day as far as I can remember. It was a good day, though Carla the receptionist was out. She’s a college student at FIT and getting behind in her homework. She called up in the morning asking me if she could take the day off. I said yes because I’m such a good boss. I also told her I was coming in late on Thursday so she would have to be in early. I figured that Bjork would be keeping me out later than usual and decided to give myself the option of having an extra hour of sleep.

It not that busy an office so I would have to handle most things on my own, a trial by fire in some respect. No delegating for me, I had to do most things. I did send an email out to the ten other people in the office that Carla was not going to be in, with the intention that they would do things for themselves. It was interpreted as give everything to John. Luckily they didn’t give me too much and most things could’ve waited until Thursday when I can give them to Carla to do.

I communicated with Juan throughout the day so that we would figure out where to meet up. The original idea was for Juan to park in Hoboken and take the bus or the Path into Manhattan but after thinking about that, waiting for the bus or the Path can be painful after 10:00PM so I told him he could drive in and I’d contribute $20.00 for parking. He agreed though I was a bit nervous since Juan doesn’t really drive into the city that often as far as I knew.

I had gotten out of work around 5:15 and it was a beautiful evening. I had no plan to kill time so I wandered around, went into some stores, sat in a hotel lobby and read for a while. I had a feeling that Juan would be stuck in traffic since it was the rush hour. He didn’t quite believe me about the rush hour thing but found out soon enough as he called me from the helix into the Lincoln Tunnel. I was across the street from Radio City Music Hall when an offer to get jazzy came over the cellphone. I walked down 50th street from Sixth Avenue to Tenth Avenue, enjoying a Padron.

Juan showed up soon enough and I got in the car, helping to find a spot. We found one after a bit and walked towards Radio City with red eyes. I enjoy walking around the city with Juan. This area of Hell’s Kitchen, or actually Hell’s Kitchen itself is becoming very much the northern district of Chelsea. That means it’s getting gayer and gayer. Not that I have a problem with that. Juan and I discussed being outsiders in some aspects, and I told him about being an outsider amongst outsiders. It does have it’s advantages though. Namely, exposure to house music is greatly reduced.

We got to Radio City Music Hall for Bjork’s sold out show. The crowd was really mixed, lot’s of interesting people and also a very gay atmosphere with Juan and I getting cruised almost relentlessly as we stood by the wall deciding who was good looking or sexy. I couldn’t get two good seats together so Juan sat in the right orchestra section and I sat on the left side. I thought we’d be communicating throughout the show via cellphone and text messages, but the jazziness and the two beers we had before the show, plus the lack of a signal in Radio City put an end to that. I also felt really self conscious texting Juan.

Bjork was great, and it was a show unlike any other I had seen before. Not a conventional band which made sense since Bjork is not a conventional artist. She had a synth player or two, a percussionist another keyboard player (from Iceland) and ten women singing backup vocals as well as playing horns on arrangements once written for synthesizer, giving them a warmer tone that before. Bjork sang and ran around barefoot and screamed and it’s certainly a thrill to hear some of her trademark yelps done live. After the show we walked back to the car, strolling around gay Hell’s kitchen. A beautiful night, a great show and wonderful company.

more Bjork photos in the Pages:Photos section on the top right

also quite possibly, thanks to your calling your US Representative the Hate Crimes Bill has successfully passed through the House. The right wing christian nation front are really turning up the heat so now your support will be needed to contact your senators about your support for passing this bill. The fight is far from over. I just contributed to the Human Rights Campaign, if you can spare $5.00 you could contribute too.

cut n’ paste
http://www.hrc.org/