Category Archives: So how’s band camp?

I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind Of Thing

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Well somethings are just dumb. And one of them happened to me today. I woke up (I should have stopped right there) and got myself together for another day of work. Shower, cereal, coffee and then I was out.

At the bus stop shortly after that. Bill was off filming an infomercial for his dentist. And then rehearsing a play at the Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe. I forgot that was what he was up to and only remembered when I called him and got his voice mail at work.

I rode the bus into the terminal and listened to The The when I walked to the subway. Got to the area where the shop and headed in. There was Calvin & Bradley wondering what it was I was doing there. I said I was there to work and Calvin said that I was off today.

Calvin did offer me overtime and I’m sure I could have done some work until Sean came in. Don called in sick and so it was Calvin & Bradley. But I’m not insane, I just occasionally make boneheaded mistakes like this one.

I could have sworn that I had to work today but since I was off I decided to get a cigar and head home, walking to the Path train. Since I got a hopeful call from my cousin Joe last night, there was a certain bounce in my step. It’s not definite that my cousin can help me, but I do have hope.

I also got a text from my brother Brian who told me he was texting with yet another cousin, my cousin Jackie’s daughter Jaclyn who told Brian to tell me to email my resume to her. So I did. I thought it was humorous for me to head into work when I didn’t have to and I had no one to blame but myself.

Regardless, it was a beautiful day and I had a relaxed stroll down Sixth Avenue to the Path train. It would have been nice to have had lunch with Bill since I was in the area of his office and it was a nice day but he wasn’t around.

Still I walked around my old haunt, past that office building where I refused to return after 2 days of drudgery. Got a seat on the Path train and read some of the latest New Yorker.

Rand lent me the latest collection of Love & Rockets and it’s supposed to be amazing. I’ve left it at home since it’s Rand’s and I wouldn’t want it to be damaged or anything like that.

I was able to do some laundry which is now drying in the bathroom and hanging on racks in the kitchen.

I forgot about what happened last night. Around 10:30 PM, some alarm went off in the building ringing on every floor. Bill was getting ready to go to bed so it fell to me to find out what was going on. We live on the top floor so that meant I met just about everyone in the building if they were out in the hallway.

On the second floor is Antonia, a very old woman in her bed clothes absolutely terrified. Her English is no so good and I did my best to reassure her. Something went off in the basement and Julio and his neighbor Patrick on the third floor figured out what it was and silenced the alarm.

It can’t have been anything too bad since we’re all here today.

On my way back upstairs from the basement I let everyone know what I knew, which wasn’t much but at least the alarm was off. I stayed up later than usual, watching Craig Ferguson interview Alfred Molina. Didn’t watch the whole interview since it wasn’t as funny as I hoped it would be.

But really, what is?


I Am A Lonesome Hobo

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It’s Labor Day. I used to have off on Labor Day but not any more. Insert ‘At least you have a job mantra’ here. Yes yes, at least I have a job. But oh so tired.

Had to get up earlier than usual since the buses were running on a Sunday schedule and I was scheduled to be at the cigar shop at 9:30. Bill was coming in as I was going out and repeated the mantra which didn’t do me any good.

He was home for the day whereas I was going to work. Early. The 9:00 bus would have gotten me to the bus terminal at 9:25. So I had to catch an 8:00 bus which dropped me off at around 8:20.

Decided to have some sort of breakfast in midtown Manhattan. Thought about the Cosmic Diner which used to be at 58th Street and Broadway, now it’s at 53rd and Eight Avenue. I looked at the menu and decided not to pay $7.00 for bacon and eggs.

Instead I walked another block and got a bacon and egg sandwich with a coffee for about $4.00. Still after that I had about 45 minutes to kill. Hardly anyone on the streets besides tourists.

I got to the cigar shop about 15 minutes early and took off my sneakers (it’s a casual day) and put on my dress shoes that I leave at the store for the weekend shifts.

I opened the store before Calvin and Don Birch made it in. Calvin is accustomed to working on holidays that everyone has off and was happy go lucky. He gently mocked my pessimistic attitude which was more in regards to being there so early, not so much the holiday since I had known about it for about a week already.

This part of the day crawled. It was quite slow, not much business going on. No bomb scares, no sanitation depot fires. Just ennui.

I did get a very nice cigar from Jorge Padron, of Padron Cigars. He’s in town for a special dinner tomorrow night and was kind enough to give me a 1926 Anniversario cigar which is quite good and a bit expensive, but free is good.

It was an early day nonetheless. The store was closing at 6:00 and I had an early lunch at 1:00. I called Annemarie who was busy making brownies and burning CD’s for some reason. Or making CD’s and burning brownies.

I came back from lunch, and found that I had all the difficult and pissy customers. Really irritating people who didn’t spend much money. As luck would have it, the next couple of hours flew by, not very fast but fast enough.

Calvin closed the store which allowed me to leave a little bit after 6:00. The sun was still out as I lit up a cigar and opted to walk to the Path train figuring the Lincoln Tunnel would be pack with cars all coming home from the Labor day weekend.

The Path wasn’t too crowded as I thought and listened to The Name of This Band is Talking Heads. The car did fill up by the time we got to Christopher Street and I buried my nose in the Andy Warhol biography.

When I was back in Hoboken I phoned Bill and suggested we order a pizza from Napoli’s since Grimaldi’s have fallen out of favor with us. And we just devoured it. It was quite good.

Now we’re watching Broadcast News which Bill had never seen before. It’s still a good movie and it holds up for me after repeated viewings.