Category Archives: What are you looking at?

I Don’t Know How To Love Him

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Well today has been a day off. And an out of the ordinary day, though certainly not extraordinary. I went to bed later than I hoped. After going to bed at a decent time the night before, my good intention fell by the wayside. I slept soundly and as I slept Bill kissed me goodbye around 6:30.

I stayed in bed until about 8:15, then got out and got myself ready for the day. I had an appointment last week to meet with Misha, an associate or possibly Joe Monaco’s supervisor. I decided to visit Occupy Wall Street last Friday, and Misha rescheduled the meeting to today, this morning at 10:30AM.

Not an ungodly hour but still an hour I would rather have been pushed back until later in the day. I had the idea of taking the light rail over to the meeting in Jersey City and walking back to Hoboken. I was not expecting much of anything at all.

I had visited Joe Monaco’s office in 2009 almost 2 years to the day and this time I had the advantage of having a good idea on where the office was. Last time I wasn’t sure and had a panicked call to Bill to find out the exact location.

This time I had the smartphone and was able to pinpoint it exactly, though they hadn’t moved and the building was still there. I made it to the office about 15 minutes early, filled out an application and added some more info and detracted some info from the paperwork from 2 years ago.

I started to read Bob Mould’s autobiography as I waited in the reception area but not too much since I was told to go into a side office to wait for Joe Monaco. A few minutes later in comes Joe Monaco. I forgot what he looked like but did remember that he was cute.

We sat and chatted for about 10 minutes, me explaining that I am basically looking for a Monday to Friday job, that I’d even settle for janitorial work. The retail experience has been humbling enough and after dealing with the wanker last night I would rather deal with trash instead of trash masquerading as people.

I headed out after the meeting, Joe Monaco telling me he would get back to me should something pop up. I was not holding my breath as I exited. Outside it was a nice enough day and I changed my mind, instead of walking back to Hoboken I took the light rail back.

A 10 minute ride instead of an hour long walk proved to be the right idea and I was back in my apartment by 11:30. Finally was able to have the type of breakfast I like to have on my day off and I ate and read the paper. I changed out of my suit and made the usual errands and talked with Bill on the phone.

A whole lot of nothing going on for me today but I was OK with that.

Happy birthday Rand! And thanks for updating and fixing the no pix bug!





I Can’t Stand It

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Another decent day at the cigar shack. Does this mean tomorrow won’t be? I can’t say. It’s been fun working with Thomas once again. We bust each other’s chops all day long. Tomorrow Bradley will be in the mix therefore changing whatever chemistry exists between Thomas and myself. Maybe. It’s all speculation.

It’s been a long day nonetheless. I slept really well last night and have been getting up earlier than I had been. Slept too late earlier in the week and had to rush around, which I would rather not do. 15 minutes makes all the difference. Thomas has headed home for the day, after getting his craft beer.

Now it’s me and Jerry Vale doing his Maria Eftimiades imitation. Actually he isn’t. I just wanted to throw her name in the mix since it popped into my head the other day. She was an editor at People magazine when I worked there in the late 1990’s. She playfully smacked me on the arm when she overheard me talking to Pedro on the phone, talking about chicks.

She was shocked to hear that. She is probably in deep shock now that the word chicks is being used everywhere, even by women. When she playfully smacked me, I told her to consider the alternatives. No harm was intended by the use of the word and of course, no chicks were harmed in the writing of such a line.

It’s a summer evening on a Friday, the area of the cigar shack is quiet now. Not much foot traffic. Not much of anything actually. One hour to go for me, then I’ll go home, sleep for a few hours and then come back for some more. It’s OK. It’s a job, not an adventure.

Jimmy Seltzer graciously invited me and Bill out to the Hamptons. It doesn’t seem likely with our schedules being all over the place. I told that to Jimmy and he said it would be fine if I went out there by myself on a weekday.Mr & Mrs Seltzer wouldn’t be there and I could have the place to myself. That is an extremely gracious offer from Jimmy Seltzer and I would love to take him up on it. I’ve never been out to the Hamptons anyhow.

Less than an hour to go now. I might as well do something rather than stare at the few stragglers passing by the cigar shack. And now I’m home again, back on the mainland. It was a fast hour at the shop, Jerry Vale regaling me with stories about seeing Led Zeppelin in Chicago in the 1970’s. He’s only 7 years older than I am and seems much older.

He’s trying to keep his head above water while working part time in the cigar shack. He doesn’t know how to deal with Thomas and myself and since Bradley acts like he’s the boss, Jerry Vale falls in line with whatever it is Bradley has to say.

I am just glad to be home. One more day until a day off. Hooray for me.