Category Archives: Iron my Shirt

11:11

Well yesterday was a day of despair. Didn’t want to write about it lest some people get overly alarmed. So I wisely skirted the issue. Nothing bad happened just an overall bottoming out and spending too much time in my head, in my apartment, in Hoboken.

I knew I could get through it and that today would be a different day. All I had to do was to get to it. And I did. Last night was no great shakes. After watching Olbermann, I watched Arrested Development but even that didn’t help.

Bill came home in time to watch a really funny show following Arrested Development on IFC, the Jon Dore Show. He’s a funny Canadian guy and we stumbled on his show a few weeks ago. Bill offered to listen to me about whatever it was that was bothering me, but by then it was too late.

I had gone through the worst of it and did not want to revisit. All I needed was to make it to today. He was tired and went to bed around 10:30. I stayed up watching a show from BBC Manchester called Ideal which was OK, but the Mancunian accents were a bit too thick even for my ear.

Stayed up for the Simpsons and then some of Craig Ferguson who is really funny and worth catching if you’re up at 12:35AM. I went to sleep after that. Not a deep sleep. Felt like I was sleeping on the installment plan.

I have been getting about 8 hours of sleep each night so that meant I woke up around 10:00. I know, some of you are up at 6:00 or even earlier and it sounds like laziness on my part. But it isn’t. Just can’t find a reason to get up earlier and in any event, I don’t want to get up earlier.

I discovered that my computer updated itself last night and since I had a few USB cables hooked up, it didn’t restart. So I had to restart it after disconnecting those cables and hopped in the shower.

Wednesday is the day I usually get my unemployment benefit and since today was Veterans Day, a Federal holiday, my direct deposit didn’t go through even though it was set up on Monday. That was upsetting somewhat.

Apparently robots and automated services had the day off as well. There was nothing I could do about it. I did check the New York State Department of Labor’s website and logged in the ‘Looking for a Job’ section. I expected it to be bottom feeders but it wasn’t that bad.

Almost immediately I got an email from an agency inquiring about my inquiry. I tool the bait, made a phone call and set up an interview for tomorrow at 2:00PM. Posted that on Facebook and a nice group of people wished me well and good luck.

Once again the routine is to go to the agency and have them check me out before they send me anywhere. The position they want to see me for is for a midtown position. I set about getting a suit and shirt and tie all together.

I haven’t had a hair cut since July so my hair is a bit unkempt. That was another factor yesterday. A bad hair day. This morning before I knew anything, I decided to gel the hair again like I used to when I was employed and it’s manageable but still I will need to see my barber Tony on Saturday.

He’s been forlorn as he sees me walking by all shaggy. So as I thought, today would be a better day than yesterday and so far it has been.

It’s off to Wall Street tomorrow afternoon and I’m looking forward to getting dressed up again with fingers crossed, which can make for difficult buttoning but I don’t care.

Over and out.

Talk of the Town

And here we are on a Monday. Not much going on here. Just cooked up some chicken and pasta for the next couple of days, since Stine’s cooking is now gone. Just another hum drum day really. Not too much going on.

Heard from Janelle who gave me the names of her contacts so I can send my resume out to them and she what will happen. I’m grateful so if she’s reading this, Thank you Janelle. And she just posted on Facebook that she just got a job.

Walked around a bit his afternoon in Hoboken. Not much going on here. Stroller set, dogs and dog shit. Hoboken is starting to look like Union City with the dog shit.

Had a fun talk on the phone with Julio. Asked if there was a job at his company. I’d sweep if need be. I conveniently forgotten the fact that though Julio and I are good friends, we can’t work together. But there’s no job to be had there.

Last night was a good night with Bill. We watched a documentary on the making of a Steinway piano. Bill mentioned that he wouldn’t want a Grand Piano and I remarked, ‘Oh great. Now I have to cancel that order for Christmas.’

Then we watched Curb Your Enthusiasm which was funny and Bored to Death which was funnier. For a change we watched Mad Men which we had never done before. It was the season finale and it was very good. Couldn’t get into the previous seasons but this season was worth catching.

We both agreed that not only do I ‘look like’ Phillip Seymour Hoffman and perhaps even Drew Carey, we can add Jared Harris to the list. I knew that from the 1990’s when I saw him playing Andy Warhol in “I Shot Andy Warhol” which Julio actually worked on.

Jared Harris is the son of Richard Harris by the way. It’s an OK movie despite Lili Taylor and some excellent carpentry work.

It’s getting dark at 4:30 now. I may go for a walk later after eating. Where to? The streets of Hoboken? It’s a well trodden path.

Listened to the Feelies a lot today. Mainly since I was trying to download some free songs that my friend Andy recorded at the 9:30 Club in DC. It was a free download since I actually bought the CD last month.

I remember when I first saw their album. It was at Crazy Eddie’s on Route 4 with my brother Brian. I thought to myself, ‘who are these nerds?’. A few months later I was hanging out with Laszlo Papp who was good friends with their bass player, Keith.

In fact, one summer night in 1980, I hung out with Laszlo, Keith and Keith’s wife Kim (who it turned out was a good friend of my roommate in Weehawken, William) playing soccer at 2:00 in the morning on a field from St. Leo’s church in Elmwood Park.

I was sober and not high, just having a good time. Came home around 3:00 and promptly got my head handed to me from my father who was angry that I was coming home so late.

Things got convoluted in all my relationships with Laszlo, Keith & Kim and my father. But that’s another story for another time.