Category Archives: Wonderful World Beautiful People

I Don’t Have To Be Me ‘Til Monday

I won the Mega Millions the other day. $2.00 which is $2.00 more than I had when I first walked into Hoboken Daily News. Now I just have to get the remaining $999,998 and I should be set. I can wait, but hopefully it won’t be too long.

Today has been a day off. Nice and sunny, it made for a beautiful autumn day. I planned on getting up early, but not as early as it was when I woke up to Bill going through his laundry as I lay sleeping. Who knew folded clothes in a bag could be so noisy?

Bill left wearing clean clothes and kissed me goodbye as I lay trying to go back to sleep. I intended to get up even earlier than I do when I have to work but of course that is not how things turned out. I slept a few minutes later than I usually do. Not that I am complaining, I do enjoy my sleep.

So I got up, made some coffee and showered. I emailed an associate of the do nothing counselor Joe Monaco who Joe arranged a meeting with. I had big plans and I know I could have worked it all out with some hustling but I didn’t need the stress. Plus I had a lot of laundry to do.

After a cuppa I headed to the supermarket to get some items that we were running low on. Not too many people roaming the aisles, no rock stars (Ira!) suggesting I buy organic milk so I was in and out in no time.

Came home and had a nice breakfast and started on the laundry. Three loads altogether, and after it was done I headed out into a beautiful afternoon. A stop at the bibliothèque to pick up two books I requested on impulse. The Letters of Samuel Beckett 1929-1940 and a bilingual edition of Waiting for Godot/En Attendant Godot.

I keep going back every now and then to Samuel Beckett for some reason. He is/was stimulating. I planned on heading into the city to visit Occupy Wall Street, the encampment down on Liberty Street by the World Trade Center. I made plans to meet Jimmy Seltzer there.

On the way to the Path train I stopped by the Guitar Bar and said hello to Mr. Wonderful, Jim Mastro. Jim is on Letterman tonight playing behind Garland Jeffries so I definitely plan on catching that. I stopped off and bought a few pounds of bananas for the Occupy Wall Street crowd.

They’ve been out there for weeks and could use the food, and most everyone likes bananas. And they are good for energy, stave off the blues and help prevent nasty leg cramps in the middle of the night!

The Path train from Hoboken to the World Trade Center is remarkably fast, must faster than it is to Christopher Street and midtown. It being a Friday afternoon, quite a few people were leaving work early, and there were also a lot of tourists as well as hawkers of 9/11 memorabilia.

I called Jimmy Seltzer once I followed the sound of the drums to the demonstration and we met up. He was with a co-worker who split after a few minutes leaving Jimmy and me to walk around and chat. I took a few pictures of the people and their signs.

Jimmy soon headed back to work and I hung about for another hour. I thought I would see someone I knew but didn’t. Once again they must have seen me first. I decided to head uptown and take the bus. In midtown I ran into my old pal Jesse and we talked for a few minutes.

After that I was in the queue at the bus terminal. I nabbed a seat as the bus filled up and once again stared at my smartphone. At one point I looked up, past the heads of people seated in front of me and saw a young woman who looked a lot like Lily Mastro.

I texted her and she eventually scanned the bus and saw me. I waved and decided to get off the bus a few stops after mine and walked her to the Guitar bar where she was meeting up with her father. We hugged once we got on the street, and she’s enjoying college life and majoring in Biology.

After using the loo in the Guitar Bar I left my faux daughter with her real father and headed home. It was a good day off and a great day out spent with some really nice people.


Bag O'chalk











I Just Called To Say I Love You

A late start tonight after an amazing day. It started out once again, Bill kissing me goodbye as I lay sleeping. A nice way to start the day. I soon stumbled out of bed and shuffled along to the kitchen, making coffee, pouring cereal and getting in the shower.

It was a bit nippy in the apartment and I then set about closing a few windows that were left open in the night, no squirrels as of late. It was cool enough that I wore the wool suit, grey pinstripes instead of the sharkskin.

I was working with Thomas and he certainly ups the ante with suits and I do try to hold up my end. A ride into the city, riding with downstairs neighbor Deborah who’s just so sweet. I hadn’t seen her in a while but I saw her yesterday and she was just a supreme boost to my ego after telling her about the interview on Monday.

The whole nonsense of ‘oh you would be bored after 15 minutes’ made her chuckle. She said something that a number of people have said over the years. I have too big a personality, though I’m sure the ¼ Xanax suppressed that enough.

According to Deborah, I’m just too interesting a person, not as nondescript a person as a lot of people are. I could only agree. I’ve always marched to the beat of my own drummer, or drum machine and I will more than likely to be that way for the rest of my ever lovin’ life.

I made it to the cigar shack, safe and sound. It was Calvin and Thomas working today and it’s been slow lately. The regulars have been in and hanging out all day. I was in the humidor when a rather large gentleman came in, I did not see who he was with until they passed the door.

The large gentleman turned out to be Stevie Wonder’s minder and he was escorting Stevie Wonder to the rest room. Apparently Stevie was in need of a pee and wandered into the cigar shack after asking a neighboring shop if they had a loo.

Luckily, the neighbors frequently use our loo and recommended us. Calvin and I were quite excited, Thomas was as well, but not like us. Stevie came out and thanked us, shaking our hands. I asked if I could take his photo and he said yes, so Thomas took my picture with Stevie Wonder and I in turn took pictures of Calvin and Thomas, both with Stevie.

More handshakes, more thanks given. I asked Stevie if he smoked cigars and he said he didn’t but his son does. And with that they were out the door. The minder asked where the really big and expensive supermarket was and I walked them towards it. Not many people in the neighborhood recognized Stevie Wonder except for a man and a woman and they were noticeably overwhelmed.

It was the highpoint of the day, followed by a few hours of Stevie Wonder songs. That’s all I need to write today. The photos are on my Facebook page so go there if you want to see them.