Humpty humpty hump day! Everybody do the humpty dance yeah! I did not win the lottery again. Now it’s up to 43 million dollars I think. I’d settled for a quarter of that and be quite happy with it. I got out of bed with the hope that I won the lottery. I usually do. I’ve settled into work for sure. But with my luck it would be a winning lottery akin to Shirley Jackson and her Lottery. Look it up, go ahead, I’ll wait. Bill was out of the apartment mere moments before I got out of bed.

Shower, coffee, cereal, email all while getting dressed. Such a routine. It works for me at least. I wore an impressive black pinstriped suit that I bought a few years ago back in the Wanker Banker days. I enjoy being able to dress up and go to work. This phenomenon started only after my father passed away. I passed on his suits. Just wasn’t feeling them then. Lot’s of polyester I think and I’m a wool man myself. Still I would have liked to have my parents see me dressed up so nicely in a suit and tie. I didn’t wear one for their funerals. Didn’t see the point, though I was dressed presentably anyhow.

It was cold out for sure but not as cold as it’s been so I went without the hat. Actually Bill’s Triple Five baseball cat that Julio and Stine got for him a few years ago and like most things that Bill gets as presents, he doesn’t use it. Is that what a lot of people do? I guess I’m guilty of that as well. I have some presents from friends, books and cd’s that I haven’t read or played yet and they are getting old as well. Either way I am the one wearing the Triple Five baseball cap. But just not today.

Two people were out at work today, Clara was ill and Syreeta was en route to India for her brother’s wedding. It didn’t make much difference really. Applicants still came in, some humbled, some arrogant. Some at the peak of health and others in recovery from illness and ailments. I help them all, though not equally. The wounded get special help and attention from me, the arrogant ones are given the drill with an air of indifference. It’s a tedious job, boring and monotonous and that’s just how I wanted it.

President Naomi was ruling the roost with Wally being Wally right behind her. He seems to be warming up to me and that’s fine. I don’t need any stress like at the last job. Speaking of the last job, Amiable Alan called but I was unable to talk. I tried calling him later but he was unavailable. I did talk to Andrea who was fired from McMann and Tate in May or so of last year in San Francisco. She moved on and got another job in old San Fran when McMann and Tate offered her the position of office manager in the New York office. I of course, was not considered for the job.

I thought it odd how someone who could get fired so abruptly when they closed the San Francisco office, could believe in that same company when offered to uproot her life and move to New York where she doesn’t have much of a safety net. But that is what she did. Good luck. She was manning the phones since they still had not gotten anyone to replace me. I thought for a split second about actually going back, but I’ve been re-reading the entries from the past year or so and I had to smack myself in the face. Would I go back to McMann and Tate?

No Fucking Way. Though I do miss the salad bar around the block. No way about the job. Too damned depressing. The spot where I’m at now, well…that’s where I’m at.

Ok things are getting back to ‘normal’. It’s Tuesday, and I’ve settled into the job. I like my coworkers and I’m developing a tolerance for Wally, who is such a closet case. It was comical to see Wally talking to a co-worker, Syreeta who is flying to India tomorrow. He was trying to be cosmopolitan and was trying to describe Indian movies and dancing but couldn’t figure out what they were called or where they were from. Hey stammered and hemmed and hawed finally Syreeta who was desperate to leave said Bollywood and finally he knew of what he was trying to speak of.

I was doing a lot of data entry and trying to pace myself so that I could get some overtime out of it. It was easy since there are so many pressing things for me to do. Things like making photocopies, answering the phone and having paperwork filled out by people that are generally humble and the occasional arrogant fuckers who come in an expect everything to stop because they have arrived. These are the ones that balk at having to fill out papers, they sign in their names with such a hurried scrawl. When it gets to the part where they are asked to list the last three jobs they try to refuse to.

I take a deep breath and attempt to convince them it would all be for the best since the copy of their resume sometimes gets separated from the application they are filling out. It’s not like they are going to see the counselor anytime soon. There’s a lot of waiting involved. Naomi does send me out on errands occasionally, and this morning she asked me to go to the Fossil store to get a battery and the crystal on her daughter’s watch replaced. I didn’t mind. I do enjoy walking around midtown Manhattan during the day. Lot’s of hustle and bustle and not so much of the cool factor that was knee deep in Soho.

I stayed until 6:45 tonight which meant I missed most of Scrubs which is fine since I’ve been watching it so often that I’ve really seen a lot, sometimes two or three times already. The same thing happened with the Simpsons, saw it a lot of times, reluctant to say way too many and I couldn’t watch it much more. Now in small doses it’s alright though. Like chipping as a habit. Or maybe not. Luke, the IT guy in the office gets along with Wally really well.

The jury is still out on Luke. Towards the end of my day it was just Luke and myself in the office and he told me that I was doing a good job and everyone was happy to have me there. He mentioned that I got a grip on the systems in the office very fast and he was impressed by that fact. It’s really not that hard to figure out.

The way home via the bus I sat across from Janet Wygal who used to play bass for the Individuals. My brother Frank used to think how striking she was and she’s still a looker. She gave me the look that she thought I was Frank and it messed up her wiring somewhat. I wasn’t sure if she was her anyway. We’ve known each other for years, over 20 actually, and we’ve never spoken before so why start now?

Then it was off to the A&P once I got off the bus. As I was checking out I saw someone I had a fling with years ago. Of course he’s straight, just liked to fool around with me once in a while. I heard he lost a leg in a car accident a few years ago but it looked like he had two legs under his track pants. Could have a prosthetic underneath.
Hey just because I have a bass like Paul McCartney’s doesn’t mean I want a play date like the one he’s separating from, his ex-wife.