Lucy Ardizzone sat at the counter in the diner waiting for Barbara De Luca. Lucy and Barbara went back a long ways, long enough for Lucy to know that Barbara would never be on time for anything. There was always a convenient excuse, and it was usually the truth since Barbara had the worst luck known to anyone. Why Barbara picked this diner was beyond Lucy’s comprehension. She hated the Saddle Brook Diner, much preferring the Parkway diner on Route 46, where the elite meet to have a drink and catch up on old times.

Lucy was surprised to see Barbara walking through the door with Helen Rowland. Suddenly, it was like old timers week. Helen talked to the hostess while Barbara walked over to Lucy. “We’re not sitting at the counter Lucy. We’re sitting in a booth instead.” Lucy grumbled, “But I just ordered a coffee here.” “Well, tell the waitress you’ll be sitting in a booth with your friends.” Lucy never cared much for Helen and the feeling was mutual. Helen, Lucy felt, always put on airs and made Lucy feel diminished. She thought Barbara felt the same way which made her think something was up. Lucy made her way over to the booth where Helen was already seated.

“Hello Helen. How are you? It’s been a while since I last saw you. How’s Franklin Lakes?” Lucy asked. Barbara gave Lucy a look like, ‘what the hell are you talking about?’ “Hello Lucy darling. I live in Spring Lake, not Franklin Lakes, heavens no.” “Yes Lucy, we talked about that a few weeks ago. Alice Fry lives in Toms River, Mary Lynch moved from Hackensack to Franklin Lakes and Helen lives in Spring Lake, remember?” “Oh that’s right. What was I thinking?” Lucy said out loud, while silently she wanted a drink. Right then and there.

Barbara started on rehashing the gossip that floated around. “Vasicek and Paul LoPresti all got fired as well as Dave Manzo, Gary Pless and even Mary Lynch.” “I can see Vasicek and LoPresti getting fired as well as Manzo and Pless, but Mary?” Helen asked. Barbara continued, “Well, you knew they were all involved in embezzling from the company right?” Lucy interrupted, “Did you know Helen? I thought I knew what was going on but I was way off base…” Helen shot Lucy a look that basically said, ‘when aren’t you off base?’, even Barbara saw it.

Barbara continued, “so that’s why the building has been closed for the past two days. We were told not to come back to work until Monday. It’s nice though, we’re getting paid for it.” Lucy glared at Barbara, “Nice? What’s nice about it? Our friends got fired and might be facing criminal charges.” “They weren’t your friends dear,” Helen said. “They thought they were better than everyone else and they all were caught with their grubby hands in the cookie jar.” All Lucy heard was ‘they thought they were better than everyone else’ and looked back at Helen.

Just then the waitress came up and asked if they were ready to order.

It’s Tuesday and it’s an agonizing Tuesday. It felt like a Wednesday and we sure can blame the daylight savings plan. I’m not used to it yet. I hate waking up when it’s dark out. I’m sure it’s a very small sacrifice that I can make to saving the country some energy, but I really wasn’t using that much, I swear. A big plus was the fact that it was almost 50 degrees when I left the apartment at 7:30. No winter coat needed, just me in my charcoal gray Hugo Boss pinstriped suit. I almost looked bangin’.

I do need a haircut though so that is on the list of things to do this weekend. Hopefully Tony will be free at Mr. L’s. Nothing severe, I’m letting my hair grow since the fade were looking a little militaristic and since I’m anti war, longish hair is on the menu. But it gets poofy and I think I look like Dick Shawn in ‘It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World’. ‘I’m coming to get you Mama!’ He was very funny in that. Did you know that Dick Shawn died on stage? From wikipedia: During his final act, Shawn had been carrying on like he was a politician, saying various campaign cliches, including, “if elected, I will not lay down on the job.” He then lay face-down on the stage. And just kept lying there. The audience thought it was part of the act, but no, he was dead.

Work was tedious if only because the main computer program I have been using to do the data entry was down since everyone had been using it. That was annoying since I had a deadline to meet but there was nothing I could do. I have problems with working in such a small office. It gets cold sometimes because they open a window when it gets too hot. I sit in the middle of these fronts and usually make my situation easier by closing the door to the main room where everyone sits.

The problem is everyone goes through the door and leaves it open so I generally have to get up and close it again. Several times an hour. One person in particular can’t even close the closet door and I wind up closing that too. Another thing is, that for such a small office, communication is really messed up. Yesterday Naomi had me proofread copy for the new website. Fine, it took a little over an hour but I was done. Today, Wally forwards me Naomi’s email, and he asked me to basically do the same thing. I forwarded the necessary edits that I sent Naomi and that was the end of that.

Wally was in a joking mood today though and at one point we were talking as he was about to head outside for lunch and I forget what it was we were joking about but I told him to not be such a pussy. They finally got the program fixed and I did what I could with the data entry, even telling them that I’d be doing some entry at home tonight? I did? WTF?