Thursday and quite cold. In the 20’s. Tomorrow back to the 50’s. Lady and Gentlemen, seriously, what the fuck is going on here. Juan came over last night and we hung out, Bill was at his folks. I couldn’t deal with Bush and his speech so we watched the Clash in ‘Westway to the World’. A documentary about the Clash up to the point where they kicked Mick Jones out which Paul Simenon and the late and sorely missed Joe Strummer regretted shortly thereafter. I think Juan liked it. He said he did after I asked him a few times during the documentary.

He left around 10:45 and still I didn’t fall asleep until 11:30, which gives me 7 hours of sleep but my body is used to 6 hours of sleep which makes me start to stir around 5:30. Not too cool. I guess the way around that is to go to sleep later, but I get so tired it’s hard to stay awake and focused. It’s really not much of a problem I know. Just a glitch in my wiring. I suppose I can look forward to good hearted suggestions from someone. Anyone. Anyone at all.

On the way to work this morning I had enough time to run into Smiler’s, a deli on Fifth Avenue that I used to frequent when I would walk to Wanker Banker. Tony, the West Indian cook was still there and he was as glad to see me as I was to see him. Of course he asked about Bill, wanting to know how his career is going. I filled him in with as much information that I knew of and soon was out the door with a bacon and egg sandwich.

Work was a bit stressed. I think I’m a fixture now, enough that everyone is starting to throw work my way now. I had to do some research about some employment search engines. That wasn’t so bad, but there was quite a bit of work that I did knock out but it was sort of like the myth of Sisyphus, pushing that rock to the top of the hill only for the rock to roll down again to be pushed up once more then down again. Endless. But literally the worst part of it is the chair I sit in.

It’s just that not good of a chair. By 4:00 in the afternoon my shoulders and neck are stiff. I know it has something to do with the placement of the computer keyboard but the chair just doesn’t reach high enough and there is a strain. With the stiff neck and featuring lower back on occasional twinge, and the never-ending workload I get stressed. It did garner some sympathy but I wasn’t looking for it. I was grateful nonetheless and was soon headed out the door, completely forgetting about the anti-war rally I was going to attend in Times Square, heading to the endless queue for the bus heading to Hoboken.

Wednesday is hump day. None of Bill playing games on his phone at 5:45AM, no not today. I still didn’t want to get out of bed. I never do. That is the problem with not being a morning person. You can lay and sleep all peaceful but when that peace has been revoked, well there is hell to pay. But there was no hell to pay. I got up, Bill was ambling for the door as I stepped into the shower. A minute or two later Bill was back, frantically looking for his wallet. He has a favorite bus driver and didn’t want to miss her driving maniacally into the city., but he did.

He found his wallet and stormed off. He definitely was not in a good mood. I hate it when he’s like this, but he’s not like this often so it’s easy to deal with when it happens. I dealt with it by staying in the shower until he left. I had my coffee, cereal and remembered to take my vitamins. I’m getting used to the commute, and I’m really digging the bus pass. It’s really the little things, especially when there is a hologram on it, that can make everything run smoothly.

Especially when one doesn’t have to scramble looking for exact change. I don’t recall the commute being so crowded when I was working at Wanker Banker but since back then I had the idea to get on the bus a stop earlier, I can sit comfortably and read the New Yorker. It’s definitely more comfortable than the Path train, especially when guaranteed a seat. I had to pick up flowers for the office so I walked around a bit trying to find the best flowers at a cheap price. That was easy since there’s a florist in the building next door from work.

Things were a bit hairy today in the office though. Last night I stayed a little later than usual to be trained on a new program involving data entry. Not a problem, I had a few files to import into the network. But the phones kept ringing, I had to vet some information about the town that President Naomi lives in, and there were people coming in to be interviewed. It felt like that I was working more than I did at McMann and Tate, but I wasn’t getting dirty or picking up after ingrates.

Then I had to put together a shelving unit for President Naomi. The woman who gave me that task was a Russian woman named Olga. Unfortunately she didn’t know if there was a screwdriver around which was basically the only hardware I needed. Eventually I found one, but I was stressed by the whole thing. Luckily Bill was on the other end of the phone when I went out for a smoke and chilled me out. It’s all part of playing the game. I’m sure once I get settled in I’ll be able to do all this multi-tasking really smoothly but that road isn’t paved yet. Still a bit gravelly.