Today was a better day than yesterday even though I was awoken about an hour earlier than I would have liked and then there was some tossing & turning in a vain attempt to get back to the level of sleep I had been in.

Yesterday was stressful and Bill noticed. He was concerned enough to kiss me awake as he was heading out to tell me he loved me so much. I returned the kiss, telling him to have a good day and to break a leg as this was an acting thing he had going on.

I was back on the pillow when he returned a moment later, trying not to be obtrusive with his smartphone flashlight, looking for something that may have fallen out of his pocket as he was leaning over to kiss me. He was on a tight schedule so he had to give up the search.

I found what he was looking for after he left, finding it in my right armpit. I got up and took a photo of it and sent it to him. He thanked me and told me to go back to bed, which I did but was not really able to get back to sleep.

I headed to work, got my bagel, and was a little bit early for the Path train which was fine. A woman and I both sat in the double seat at the same time. She looked at her phone while I read the latest issue of Mojo with Bob Dylan from 1974 on the cover. She left the train at Exchange Place and I carried onto the Oculus.

I was in before quite a few people in the office and I saw the Legume was not in which was a good sign that they would not be in today. Perhaps they were working from home but out of sight, out of mind. And I had a lot of work to do which I had completed by early afternoon.

My break was nice too. I had a good cigar, my spot on Thomas Street was available and there were no crazy people staring at me from three feet away. It was only 2 hours from departure time today and that was filled nicely.

I did my usual mumbo jumbo before I left, cleaning off my desk, and making sure the copier that I will use in the morning is filled. Then the elevator. Not an express ride, the elevator stopped at another floor where a young woman I get along with got in.

She was with Marcos Ferdinand, an obese staffer in the office, who resides in a large walk-in closet. Marcos will not ride the elevator with me which I think is fine. Who needs to ride a lift with an obese, closeted former nurse? Not me.

I explained to the young woman that I am poison to Marcos Ferdinand, someone who married and had a kid just to prove to everyone that he was not a homosexual. I wouldn’t call them gay, not even queer. Homosexual seems to be the word and if the tiara fits, better wear it in the closet.

After the young woman got out, 4 Russians got on the elevator, taking to themselves, “Da da da”. At the ground floor, they just stood there and I had to say, ‘Come on, let’s go!’ Which they did.

Well, I guess today should have been the day filled with apprehension as I was apprehensive for too much of the day. It was a type of ‘why me’ day. A client came into the office this afternoon. He met someone from the company yesterday on the street outside the building. The someone he met with suggested that his assistant who was also there set something up for him in the future.

The future was today. He showed up and as usual, I was respectful and trying to figure out wo was supposed to see. I asked him for the name of the person he met with yesterday he didn’t know. I asked if it was a white guy and he looked at me blankly. He mentioned a woman and I asked if he knew her name but of course, he didn’t.

I got his name and entered it into the system. He was in the system and there was a name attached to that page. I contacted the name on the page and the name on the page did not know who I was talking about since he was not the guy that met with this client on the sidewalk. There are other steps that I took but no one was really helpful.

They were able to tell me to take the steps that I had already taken which brought me to that point so that was something. Finally, the woman who did meet with this client showed up and brought him to another floor.

The woman who usually fills in for me when I get my break was out today and her replacement was to be a woman from the other side of the world who has stated that she was afraid of me. Knowing that, I was all set to vanish when she arrived but her terror was so great that she did not have to. Instead, the young woman who misquoted me in July was going to do it which made me feel quite uneasy.

In any event, I had a good cigar all set as I walked up blocks away from the office to sit in my usual spot on Thomas Street and just wonder what the hell am I doing. As I approached my spot I saw a homeless man splayed out on the steps. I could have sat there a few feet away but decided not to.

Instead, I stood about 50 feet away and enjoyed what I could. Then to my right, about 20 feet away, I hear a loud voice spouting some sort of noise and then he was 3 feet away and staring right in my face. I clutched my metal water bottle in case I would need to use it as a weapon but after a few uncomfortable seconds, he continued on his way when I felt something under my collar.

It was one of those moths that people were instructed to kill. I got it out of my collar but was too put off to kill it as it flew off. Then across the street, a van was unloading something. The van’s radio was quite loud. It was not music playing but rather a radio talk show about how great god is and how life would be better if we loved their god. The god who demands love and respect and will kill you if you do not love and respect that god.

There was no relief on this break and I walked back to my building’s entrance on Murray Street finishing a pretty good cigar while not really enjoying it. There is no one to talk to about his job.

I do talk to Bill but that is at the end of the day and by that time I am trying to forget it. Bill offers his ears and I try to take advantage of those ears but today I was just a jumble of words. It has to be me, it can’t be everyone else.

I glanced at some job listings on my phone before I headed back to my desk. Let’s face it, the youngsters in my office generally see me as an angry old white man.

If the orthopedic shoe fits…