Category Archives: Love Love Love

I Missed Again

So it’s a Wednesday here in Hoboken but it’s even better than that, it is my sister’s birthday today! She is one of my favorite people on the planet so I am happy to send her birthday greetings, as well as a nice package that I made and sent off on Monday. It’s due to arrive in foggy California this afternoon and I am awaiting confirmation via tracking. Just something to obsess upon today. I was running low on obsessions and this came along quite nicely. I did speak with Annemarie on the phone and she sounded great and is going out to dinner tonight.

As for me, I took some melatonin last night and had difficulty waking up. Going to sleep was slow going, but as usual the waking up is difficult. But I rallied, I shuffled out of bed a mere fifteen minutes later than usual. That meant catching up to my daily routine wasn’t that hard to do. And it wasn’t. There was nothing out of the ordinary (except for Annemarie’s birthday) today. Laundry was done, resumes sent out once again, busking planned. It was all rather low key, almost humdrum. It’s been a nice enough day.

I was out busking this afternoon, slow going this weekend. I really think a lot of people took this week off from their jobs. Can’t blame them really. I had a visitor this afternoon, good old Chaz stopped by. Once again if a friend is near I have no problem singing and playing. With no friend around I merely play, rarely singing. Though the toddlers usually get me singing when they come by. They marched on over and I sand Sunshine Superman to them. I was going to do Rock Around the Clock when they returned but it didn’t happen.

It seems that when the toddlers got to their turn around point they ran away from their minders. So they were all sullen and hanging onto the rope when they walked by. No stopping for the guitar man this time. It was good to have Chaz around though. He’s still looking for work. He’s been doing the Geico dance. They’ve been after me for a while and they got Chaz in their sights. And it costs money to get a job with them. Seemed fishy when I first heard about them and now Chaz has confirmed the fishiness of it.

Some dark clouds (literal not figurative) came rolling in so my busking time was cut short. I walked Chaz back to his car, on the way stopping and buying two CD’s, the Priscilla Queen of the Desert movie soundtrack and Big Audio Dynamite II, The Globe. Not bad at fifty cents each. Last night Bill and I watched a documentary on Joe Strummer- The Future is Unwritten. To my surprise Bill seemed to enjoy it, Punk and the Mescaleros. Bill didn’t know how much The Clash meant to me and I explained it all. He seemed to have gotten something from the documentary and how I feel about music.

I thought he knew already.
Package delivered to Annemarie’s mailbox! Woo hoo!






I Love College

Today is Bill’s birthday. He turned 48 and he’s having a very good day, as am I. He took the day off from work and had a head shot photo shoot planned, so he was up and out a little bit later than usual but still earlier than me. It’s also been unbearably hot. Not so much hummus, but still oppressive. I was dreading going outside and knew I had errands to run before Bill got back. So around noon, high noon I headed out. Bad timing of course since the sun was directly overhead there was very little shade to be had.

And I’m also referring to the ‘shade’ I have been told I gave. It’s been too damn hot for attitude and a cutting remark. I could have gone to the CVS that was closer but decided that the CVS by City Hall was the one I preferred. And despite the heat I did want to get out of the apartment. I did some cleaning, put away the laundry that I washed yesterday which was dry thanks to the heat and it was too hot for anything else. On the street there was no breeze at all, but quite a few people.

It felt like a holiday weekend, maybe because of Bill’s birthday or maybe because the 4th of July is less than a week away on Wednesday. No three day weekend for the working stiffs, of which I used to be a member. I didn’t see anyone I knew which of course could be that ‘they’ saw me first. I got a few birthday cards for Bill and headed home a different route, still lacking on both kinds of shade. I stopped by the Guitar Bar and chatted with Mr. Wonderful Jim Mastro for a little while. Nice and cool in the store in more ways than one.

Jim’s daughters are going to Scotland next week for two weeks which is exciting. They have a cousin that lives over there so it’s all good. I’m excited for them, someday I will do something similar with Bill, though not to Scotland. Probably London or Dublin, or both. I just hope Hoboken Daily News gets their lottery machine fixed very soon because it’s constantly giving me the wrong numbers. Maybe I should send a letter to the manufacturer, a company called Shirley Jackson Enterprises, somewhere in New England if I remember correctly.

So tonight Bill and I are going out to dinner, and not to Arthur’s Steakhouse for once. I asked Bill where he wanted to go and he suggested Maxwells. That was fine by me and could help me out a bit. Some friends are going to see the Feelies tonight and I will be able to say hello to them. I’m not going tonight obviously, I’ll be going on Sunday, thanks to Stan who is putting me on the list with a plus one, and I am taking my brother Brian. He expressed an interest so it’s all working out quite nicely.

A nice dinner with my spouse, seeing some old friends. I could live with that. And it was quite nice. Bill and I had burgers, he had a pint of Guinness and I had a Sam Adams Summer Ale, which I won’t ever have again. Not a fan of Sam Adams beer and thought this time would be different. It wasn’t. After I finished the Sam Adams I had a Stella which made all the difference in the world. For dessert we had chocolate mousse which our waitress put a candle on for Bill’s birthday but the fans kept blowing it out. Bill liked it so much he had a second. Why not, it’s his birthday.

I saw Patti Quinn, Pat Longo and Allison Lee, Alirio and his girlfriend Christine, Andy Peters- sound engineer extraordinaire, Chaz, Lois and Fred and of course Ro Da as well as Todd. They were all going to see the Feelies and I saw a few of the Feelies hanging around eating dinner before the show. Bill has to drive this weekend so we made our exit and walked home enjoying cigars. Bill had a good day and I am glad I was able to help out with that.

We hope your day was good too.

Last night with the NJ Symphony Orchestra


The birthday man and me




Birthday moon


03 Old Man Will