the day after yesterday | johnozed

Well today it was back to the cigar shack for me and today has been a ‘meh’ kind of day overall. I did not sleep too well last night and when I finally started getting that coveted REM sleep (not the Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe kind either) it was time to wake up. Bill of course was up and out with no problem, and I lay there in bed after he kissed me farewell for the day.

I knew I would have to get out of bed and reluctantly, I did just that. A shower, a shave, some coffee and some cereal is how I once again started the day. I was on the street once more, walking on the sunny side of the street, enjoying a small cigar outside of Hoboken Daily News. I chatted briefly with Bill who is such a font of positivity, that sometimes it can be off-putting. He truly is the yin to my yang.

I got on the bus and at the next stop neighbor Deborah was on board. She is having work done in er apartment and let the repairmen in before she went to work. Major work needed to be done and after some cajoling the landlord relented and sent his boys her way. We parted ways at the bs terminal and I walked up the avenue once again in an attempt to save me some dosh.

I came in and I thought I would be working with Thomas and Zack but it turned out to be Bradley and Zach. A change of plans but not so bad. The day progressed quite slowly, yet sales were steady. I did have to scratch my head at the way Zack sees things. I ordered FedEx supplies for the cigar shack and they came in.

But the wrong kind were ordered and Zack was a little upset since ‘these supplies cost us money’. I told him they didn’t, that they were free but he insisted. So I made arrangements to have the incorrect supplies returned and while I spoke with the FedEx customer service person on the phone, I asked them if there was a charge for supplies and they confirmed what I had known, that there is no charge for supplies.

Zack still insisted that he saw a charge for supplies on the bill and I did not know what to say about that so I merely walked away to start another project in this tobacco filled fish bowl. Lunch was nonchalant and now we are in the end of the day when things really slow down to a crawl in the realm of the cigar shack.

I took Jimmy Seltzer’s suggestion and got a PG Wodehouse book from the bibliotheque. Now I just have to pick it up. I need to read some fiction since all I have read for the past number of years has been non fiction and Jimmy Seltzer is good with his suggestions. As is my friend my friend Bruce. A little over an hour to go at the cigar shack. Bradley is helping a customer in between bites of a pizza.

Now I am home and it is snowing outside. Not much, a dusting and it looks nice.

03 – I’m Not In Love

Well it is a day off today and overall it’s been so so. Really lackluster. It had the potential to be that type of a day and it certainly did it’s best to live up to my low expectations. There was a tentative plan to go back to Chelsea with RoDa and see the Doug Wheeler installation that was too crowded to attend last Friday, but it fell through.

To tell the truth I didn’t really want to head into Manhattan today, but left it open for RoDa to approve or veto, or even postpone. As it turned out, RoDa was unable to go so that left me in on the Jelly Side of the Hudson River.

A trip to the supermarket, a wave to Tony the Barber, things seemed to be going nicely. Isis was the cashier again, she said she hadn’t seen me in a while and it was true since I hadn’t seen her in a while either. My schedule and Isis’ schedule are not in sync so there are more moments when we don’t see each other than when we do. The life of retail clerks.

I came home and had a nice breakfast. I stopped buying the newspaper a few weeks ago, so I just reread parts of old books as I eat. I surfed the net and read some emails and Facebook postings for a while as I waited for the laundry cycle to end. There is always laundry to do it seems. I decided to get a new pair of Airwalks since my last pair were falling apart, coming apart at the seams.

That meant a trip to the Newport Mall in Jersey City. It was a nice day as I walked down the avenue, stopping into the local record store to see if the latest Mojo and Uncut were in. Empty handed I headed to the train station. I figured I would take the light rail to the mall but just missed it when I got to the platform. The next train was in 15 minutes which would be almost the amount of time it takes to actually walk to the mall, so I decided to walk there.

For some reason ‘My Little Town’ by Simon & Garfunkel was in my head so I played it on my iPod. That’s the song they came up with when Simon & Garfunkel reunited in the 1970’s. I bought some socks at the Sock Store and walked into Payless which seems to be the only place that sells Airwalks lately. And of course they did not have them.

While there I got a text from Thomas. I found out yesterday that the cigar shack will be having a little to-do in the man cave for the super bowl. And Jerry Vale will be working it and since Jerry Vale is a part timer, a full timer has to be there too. And I am sure it will be me. Having written that just now I realize it is no big deal. I’ll have a few cigars, watch the game and eat some food and get paid for it too. A positive spin if you will.

I left the mall with a few pairs of socks and saw the light rail headed back into the station. As luck would have it again I missed the train. And since it was still a nice enough afternoon, I walked back to Hoboken. I decided to treat myself and get a milk shake at Ben & Jerry’s, the aptly named Chocolate Therapy. But they were all out of Chocolate Therapy, I walked over to Crumbs instead and got myself a Chocolate Blackout cupcake to salve my soul. I haven’t had it yet, it sits in the fridge just waiting for me.

Like I wrote, a lackluster day.

Tom Verlaine 1982 Words From The Front 06 Coming apart