What’s it doing outside? | johnozed

I should actually get started sooner rather than later. Since I did not sleep as well as I would have liked I am not so sure if I would be able to write when I get home. So why not now? Last night, well I had a new cigar from La Flor Dominicana and it was good and it was incredibly strong.

Strong enough that I think that was why I wasn’t able to sleep. And the fact that Bill wasn’t asleep in bed next to me. Probably more related to Bill. I never sleep well when he is not around. So today was more like a hang over day though I did not have a drop.

Went to bed at 12:30. Slept quickly, woke up at 1:30. Got out of bed, went online. Felt tired enough to try sleeping again. At 2:30 I took a melatonin and tossed and turned until something resembling sleep happened.

Then at 4:30 I was up again. Finally was able to fall asleep if only for a few hours, but it surely was not enough. 8:30 came and I was hitting the snooze button. A little before 9:00 I was out of bed, shuffling along to the shower, made coffee and had a bowl of cereal.

Bill made it home, just as tired as I was, but he had worked the previous hours, driving a bus. All I did was try to sleep. I made it to the bus stop and could barely tolerate the crowd. Weekend riders are the worst. Just pandemonium and lots of little kids with helicopter parents indulging their every whim.

I expect more of the same when I head home soon, only with less kids. I could not get any breakfast this morning. Since it was nice and sunny out, everyone was out, tons of tourists, everywhere I went there were lines out the door. I settled for the shortest line and got an iced coffee and a muffin.

I got to the cigar shack where the great Thomas was working as well as the brain dead Bradley. And of course once I write how easy it is to ignore the brain dead one, the next time isn’t. I’m not a violent person but I could easily see getting violent with regards to him. He just seems to invite such feelings. I do my very best to submerge these violent feelings.

Now I am home, still quite tired. Bill was here that’s for sure. Things plugged in that weren’t plugged in before. Items that are almost always in the same spot are now in a different place. I make a sandwich, bread gets toasted and stuck in toaster. I smack the toaster. What? I am tried. This is why we can’t have nice things my mind tells me.

2 more days of work lay ahead of me. Tomorrow just me and Calvin manning the board, Monday a repeat of today with the brain dead Bradley and Thomas. I try to reassure myself I can get through it.

I just found out there is a birthday party for Alexander tomorrow. Stine sent the email to an old Yahoo address of mine. I don’t use Yahoo. If I had known I would have tried to make it but now it’s too late. It would have been nice. A party at the park underneath the George Washington Bridge by the Palisades. I could have used a good time.

Instead I will be in the cigar shack, all day since it’s just me and Calvin and there is no leaving for a lunch hour. Get food, bring it back, that’s the routine. It’s a short day though, only 8 hours.

I think it's a trap

here comes the storm. again.

Oh how to start, where to start. I keep expecting to see Hyman when I turn the corner at the bus terminal. I expect that to go on for a few more days. Today was a long day, a double shift. Calvin asked me a few weeks ago and I agreed to it.

Couldn’t really say no. I didn’t mind really. I was going to be working with Thomas and he’s actually a pleasure to work with. Getting there was the problem. Actually waking up was the problem. Alarm clock set, took melatonin last night so that was a good night’s sleep.

Had a dream where I was frantic because my iPod lost its power. Oddly enough I did not plug it in last night and I wanted to delete a track from a playlist I created, don’t really need to hear Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Darlene Love in the middle of May. I did delete the track, before heading out into day three of the rainstorm.

Before that I did get a phone call from Bill asking me if his keys were on top of the stove. They were and I put them in my bag and headed down the stair when I realized I did not put my knee brace on. Quickly put it on and headed down the stairs into the aforementioned rainstorm. It was crowded on the bus, filled up quickly. And there was traffic heading into the tunnel.

I texted Bill as we approached the tunnel so he could meet me at the bus terminal. His office is only a bloc or two away so it was no problem for him. The helix outside the tunnel was closed and all the NJ bound traffic was being diverted.

I made it to the terminal and saw Bill who walked me to the subway, letting me use his unlimited Metrocard to pass through the turnstiles. A quick kiss and I was on my way and Bill on his. Luckily, since it was still rush hour there was a train pulling in almost immediately.

Made it to the cigar shack with time to spare to get an egg sandwich and some coffee. I made it in, turned off the alarm. Luckily since I closed last night I knew everything was going to be in order giving me time to enjoy the sandwich and drink some coffee.

I was going to be alone for 2 hours and so I needed to take care of a few things before things really started to happen. A few calls for Marcus and for Calvin, both of whom were unavailable for the day. A couple of customers came in, asking about pens of all things and found the pens I showed them either not up to snuff or merely too expensive.

Thomas eventually showed up and he was great. A lot of fun to work with, while still maintaining an air of professionalism. Many laughs were had and he really helps bring out the best in me. The day didn’t fly by as expected and Thomas kept things competitive always trying to one up on sales which made things interesting.

He maintained the lead in sales throughout most of the day, I jumped ahead when I took a call when there was an order from a cigar bar nearby. Unfortunately I messed up the order and had to correct it, so when things quieted down in the shack I made my way over to the cigar bar, they were happy to see me there and offered me a beer.

I would have taken it but had to get back to the shack and finish up with Thomas. And after that was when I had started to crash. 12 hours on my feet didn’t do me any favors but thanks to Thomas it didn’t hurt too much either. Fave customer Jimmy Seltzer came in and mentioned that I reminded him of Stephen Fry which isn’t so bad.

I am glad to be off from the cigar shack tomorrow but there is something that I will be involved with for the first time tomorrow. If it goes well I will probably write about it somewhat, and let’s face it, if it doesn’t go well I will probably write about that as well. Fingers crossed.

Have a good night, I know I will.