What’s for Dinner? | johnozed

Thank Zeus it’s Thursday! I have off tomorrow which I think is a good thing. I would not have minded having off today after last night’s glass blowing demonstration. That and a few Stella Artois made my head ache a bit this morning. Thomas counted me having 5 bottles, I counted 4.

In either case, Advil was my rescue. The bus showed up like it was supposed to today, and after I got on the bus, a few stops later coming on board was my friend Lois’ husband, Fred. Fred’s a really nice guy, very chatty and he engaged me in a decent chat about his job and my job.

We both work retail you see, though he works in Hoboken and I have to commute every work day into the city whereas Fred can walk. He was off to satisfy his comic book addiction and I was off to find the sky, or rather the subway.

By the time I got into the cigar shack I was fine, headache was minimized. Calvin and Thomas and me today, all recovering from the glass blowing demonstration. I was home around midnight, Thomas made it home around the same time and Calvin, well Calvin did not get home until about 2:00AM. Well at least that’s what Calvin told me.

The cigar shack was not busy at all and here I was working with two money makers. There was work left over from yesterday, work that could not be completed last night since Jerry Vale, Bradley, Thomas and I were due at the glass blowing demonstration and could not be late.

So since Jerry Vale and Bradley were out today, it fell to Thomas to pick up Jerry Vale’s work and I finished what I could not start last night. My work was the general stuff that I’ve been doing for a few months now so I was able to knock it out without much consternation. That freed me up to do some work, interacting with people and I was able to get a few things done that needed to be done.

Lunch was nice, sitting by the park once again and enjoying a cigar while I read the latest New York magazine, a double issue all about 9/11. And reading that certainly brought back memories of that day, and also the days leading up to it, specifically my friend Donna’s birthday the night before at a restaurant at 43rd and 10th Avenue.

Crazy rain storm as Bill and I huddled under my umbrella as we walked to the bus terminal. I was headed to Weehawken and Bill was headed to Stuyvesant Town where he was living with his parents. Looking back those were the last hours of a type of innocence never to be regained.

I returned the library book, Starting Over, all about John & Yoko’s Double Fantasy album. the book was bumming me out since I knew how it would end. Here I am again, reading all about 9/11, remembering that I too, helped out and volunteered at a restaurant on Canal Street, feeding rescue and recovery workers from the World Trade Center site.

I’m too invested in the magazine article to stop reading it now. For those who have the weekend off, I hope you have a good weekend. For those who are working I hope it is profitable and enjoyable. For those in between, whatever.

♫ he’s a lonely little fat and balding man, never could do what I can ♪

Moody’s Mood for Love by James Moody is playing currently at the cigar shack. I used to listen to the late Frankie Crocker’s show on WBLS back in the day and Frankie always closed his show with this song, which is the first time I heard it. I was smitten at first hearing.

Someone just walked by carrying Music for Mechanic by Los Bros Hernandez. The chap carrying was soaked which leads me to believe it is raining outside. Thomas went out to check. I guess it’s a good thing that I closed the windows before I left the apartment this morning.

Close by shoppers at Whole Foods are regretting the use of paper bags when shopping and heading out into a maelstrom. It’s been an odd day overall and it ain’t over yet. People always seem to cut me off when walking and if they’re not cutting me off, they’re suddenly stopping right in front of me when I walk. It’s somewhat infuriating. Actually it’s more frustrating than infuriating.

Thomas was on fire today sales wise and I wasn’t too shabby either. It makes up for the less than stellar sales that both of us did yesterday. And we certainly left Calvin in the dust with the sales today as well. Not that you would care about such a thing.

I’m very hungry and against my better judgement I ordered food from a nearby place that has messed up my orders lately. Thomas egged me on since he would like to see pop a blood vessel.

Now Waterloo is playing. ABBA, Waterloo. Wasn’t fond of it then, but actually like it now, enough that I bought the Millennium Collection of theirs. I always think of swimming with the late Susan Lucas, a girl I grew up with. Nice pool, WABC always on the transistor radio.

Her passing came as a shock to me, but apparently she was sick a lot of her life when we were growing up. I didn’t know but a mutual friend told me that she was in the hospital frequently back then in the 1970’s.

Hot Stuff by Donna Summer was just on. That reminds me of going to see the NY Cosmos at Giants Stadium in 1979 with Henry Venegas. Hot Stuff just came out and Henry and his girlfriend loved it. Of course they did, they were into disco whereas I was into New Wave which everyone related to as Punk.

And true to form, the food I ordered has not yet arrived and in 3 minutes it will be an hour since I placed the order. The place is only around the corner and of course I can’t leave the cigar shack to pick it up. I can’t say I’m disappointed and I’m certainly not surprised. I will give them a call i 0 minutes if the food hasn’t arrived by then and you can have my word (for what it’s worth) that I will never call them again.

I am hungry though, but I might just wind up saving money. And saving money is what I just did. I cancelled the order, the guy who answered the phone said ‘Sorry man.’ Of course about 5 minutes after I call and cancel, the food shows up. 50 yards from the cigar shack and it takes them over an hour to get here.

Don’t fuck with my food. I had a banana which will hold me over until I get home. Home again, Bill driving to Atlantic City. The edgy day is over I hope. Tomorrow a day off. It’s supposed to rain which is par for the course. Right now The Royal Tenenbaums is on. Such a charming movie.