Saturday. I did have plans to wake up at around 7:00 but woke up at 8:30 instead which set everything back a bit in my mind. Not easy getting started. I was really tired emotionally and physically last night or most of the night. Bill was the same way. What a pair we were. Things got better when Law and Order was on. Then we watched Bill Maher who seemed a bit off last night and then we crashed. Slept the sleep of the dead. And still woke up tired.

Today we had plans to go to e119th Street to jam with Tom, a friend of Bill’s who works in his building. Tom had keyboards, a guitar that would never stay in anything close to in tune, and a drum kit. Just getting motivated was a chore. I was keen for a postponement but Bill had postponed many times already. We had to go today. So we trucked off to the bus, me carrying my Fender Acoustic. I looked like a musician I thought.

We walked to Grand Central once we hit the street. Then a quick jaunt on the 6 train to 116th Street. We walked to Tom’s apartment where everything was set up. I started playing some simple chords to start things up. Tom joined in on the drums and then Bill followed. It was a simple little thing a warm up. I then played ‘All My Loving’ by the Beatles which Tom figured out was a Beatles song once I started singing.

It was fun. Tom kept cramping up occasionally after not playing drums for so long. I switched to his electric and tried to tune it to no avail. I just played the top E string with little bass type sounds. It was fun and we tried to maintain that groove. I suggested to Tom who was hurting somewhat that he play guitar and I’d play drums. So we switched and Bill was surprised to see me handing brushes on a snare drum. I tried to use the high hat, which took some coordination.

I was surprised that I was able to do what I did. I never really ever played the drums before. The rare occasions that I did it was usually with the owner of the drum kit over my shoulder reminding me that I’m not holding the drum sticks properly. That wasn’t happening now since Tom was concentrating on the guitar. It was a fun time. I was able to hold a beat most of the time. I definitely thought it was a good idea to switch instruments, especially since I couldn’t figure out how to play Tom’s song properly on the guitar and since he wrote it on guitar it made sense for him to play it on the acoustic.

After awhile Tom moved back to drums as his fingers were hurting from the acoustic and I suggested that Bill mess around with the guitar and I played keys somewhat. Bill never played guitar and I told him to concentrate on the top string since it’s closest in tune on the electric. We played around like that for some time until my forearms started to ache from playing the keys. Two and a half hours had passed with jamming which was just enough. Bill had to see his folks and I had to go to run some errands and get a haircut in Hoboken.

I wore a suit today. Well a suit with a dress shirt and no tie. Funky enough without the tie, an air of coolness. I was also wearing braces, or suspenders. I felt great and I think I looked great. It was a beautiful spring day. I was playing ‘Heart of Glass’ by Blondie and transported to my last months before graduation in high school. There wasn’t much to do for seniors, no real homework. I used to hang out at the Texaco gas station down the block from my house on the other side of Route 80.

I was hanging out with Henry Venegas from high school. We used to smoke cigarettes and listen to the radio with Henry occasionally pumping gas for a customer. Sometimes I did too. Henry was a cute dude, always, and I do mean ALWAYS, grabbing his crotch. He wasn’t gay, he was straight as six o’clock. But he was constantly pulling his pud. He liked disco and Aerosmith. I liked punk and new wave.

We would just hang and smoke and shoot the shit. He was going into the Navy, I was going to work. College didn’t appeal to me at all. I had the awakening when my math class was told by Sister Reginald that no one is going to make you go to class when we go to college. I didn’t realize that. I hated school so much that going to college wasn’t a real option anyway, but the fact that no one would make me attend, well that just sealed the deal.

Sister Reginald was a tough old nun by the way. She taught my worst subject, Algebra. On my final algebra exam in high school I wrote an essay stating that it would be futile to send me to summer school because I will never understand algebra. I swore that I would never have anything to do with algebra, ever. I also begged her to let me pass, because my parents would definitely kill me. And I was a senior, damn it!

Well she passed me, earning a special spot in heaven, conveniently knocking Sister Mary Octavian off her perch. (For those playing at home you can do a search in the archives for ‘Octavian’ or go to the January 2 posting called, Do Ya)

Today was a nice day. I took my time going to work, just enjoying the morning. Things are relatively quiet in the Village at 8:15 in the morning. I got in ten minutes later and started up the office. The new thing is Iced Tea and Iced Coffee in decanters that hold over a gallon. I took the decanters out of the refrigerator and put them on the counter.

Once again I greeted most everyone, and a few times, some of them greeted me first which was pleasantly surprising. It was day eleven and things were shaping up to be pretty good. They were used to me, even walking around in dress trousers and braces with dress shoes of course. I was used to them. We’re settling in as it were.

I walked around a bit for lunch and headed back in after getting my usual salad. Afterwork I smoked a Padron and walked up Seventh Avenue to 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue listening to Outkast ‘The Love Below’.