Wonderful World Beautiful People | johnozed

Still pretty tired from yesterday’s bicycle riding and despite how tired I was last night, I did not sleep well at all. Lot’s of tossing and turning and very little rest. Bill slept like a log of course. He was up early for another bus excursion.

Last night we watched some Beatles stuff on VH-1 after a dosage of Lawn Hors d’œuvre. Basically the last hour of John Lennon: Imagine which has a great scene where John and Yoko are strolling through Central Park and they come across some guy who’s absolutely thrilled to meet THE John Lennon.

Of course he asks when the Beatles are getting back together and John says ‘Tomorrow’ which makes the guy laugh and say ‘You’re full of it.’ The next scenes are about John being brutally murdered at the Dakota in front of his wife.

Bill was off to bed, and I joined him after entering my unemployment claim at 12:01AM. And from there on in it was an uneasy sleep. Woke up, Bill was on the road. I made some coffee and had a cup before deciding to head out in the world.

I was out of coffee and decided to get some more so I wouldn’t need to stress that tomorrow morning. But since the was a holiday weekend, Empire Coffee wasn’t opening until 10:00. There was a young woman standing outside as I walked up and she asked me the time.

I told her, ‘It’s not 10:00!’ She laughed, and I told her the true time, 9:35. Then she asked if there was a Starbucks nearby and I told her there was and set her in that direction.

I decided to do some other errands, bagels, newspapers to pass the time but despite walking a few blocks up and over and getting those items I was still waiting in from of Empire Coffee 10 minutes early, despite taking my time.

This time I waited with some members of the stroller set. I was a gentleman and let them in before me for their lattes, their chai tea before I got my pound of ~~flesh~~ coffee. Then I came home and read and ate and tried to figure out what to do today.

I was still tired and achy from yesterday. I thought about going to Tomkins Square where Rand and Lisa had a table for the Jack Kirby Museum.

Also thought about walking up to Central Park again, this time through the Brazil Day festival on Sixth Avenue. I wound up heading into the city on the Path to 14th Street and walked down the street enjoying a cigar.

Walked by the former Farfetched which is now a black hole of goth. Such a drag. Walked down St. Mark’s Place, surprised to see a new sneaker by Vans, featuring the Pixies, or at least their logo.

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Crazy crowded on St. Marks, lot’s of tourists and perhaps NYU students which is basically the same thing. Saw Rand & Lisa and their friend Richard and hung out with them for a while.

The Lady Gigglepuss

Jerri Meyer, Lady Gigglepuss & El Jefe

Jerri Meyer showed up, former girlfriend of my former roommate Jimmy Lee. Nice to see her, she’s still employed at Sony much to her surprise.

Rand & Richard for the Jack Kirby Museum

Spent over an hour there and had an enjoyable time. After Tomkins Square I walked over to First Avenue and caught an uptown bus for a quick stop in the office.

I wanted to check Greg Stevens stuff before he came in on Tuesday and all was in order.

Then a walk to the bus terminal, skirting the Brazilian Festival and most of the gawking tourists in Times Square.

Came home, made myself a nice supper and now here I sit, not as tired as earlier but still pretty much tired.

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at risk of sounding like an old geezer, I remember when this neighboor was all cement windows and very rough...

at risk of sounding like an old geezer, but I remember when this neighboor was all cement windows and very rough...

skirting the Brazilian Street festival

Well I just got back from a fun visit with Harpy to the American Museum of Natural History. It’s a great place to visit, to see your relatives. Always busy and always crowded though.

The first time I had ever gone to the museum was on a class trip with St Francis de Sales in 4th or 5th grade. Somehow they had gotten it together and got a bus or two full of students into the city which was not as kid friendly as it is now.

Eventually, we were herded together into the museum and the Hayden Planetarium. It must have been 5th grade because word was Jimmy Murray had copped a feel on a girl during the planetarium show in the dark.

He said he did, whether or not that was true remains unknown. She was a girl that I recently re-friended on Facebook and if we ever meet again I’ll have to ask her.

I do remember the big blue whale in a great hall. Not as darkly lit as it was today. Creating an environment that looked as natural as possible wasn’t a concern then.

The other thing I mainly remember was most of the boys fleeing from the class mother, Mrs. Munafo and running wild up and down the stairwells in the museum creating a ruckus.

The second time was probably 15 years ago with Meghan Taylor, the funniest girl alive. Meghan and I took Meghan’s daughter Lily to the museum. I believe it may have been an early spring day, with Meghan and myself pushing Lily in her stroller.

Meghan and I enjoyed ourselves as did Lily. The main thing I remember from that is that the three of us with our Irish faces looked like a family which cause a few other people to comment on what a lovely family we were. We didn’t discourage them.

That is when Lily became my ersatz daughter basically. We decided to run with that and we are still running to this day. The other time was when I took Perry Brody for a trip to the museum.

Perry lived around the block from me in Weehawken, the son of Cheryl Welch and the late Don Brody. Cheryl thought I would make for a good male role model in Perry’s life at that time and a trip to the city sounded like a fun idea.

Perry must have been around 6 or 7 at the time. We rode in on the bus and took a subway. I chose the first car of the train and Perry and I stood looking out the door window next to the engineer. It had a roller coaster effect that we both enjoyed.

Perry, of course loved the museum but we had to hurry through the dinosaur skeletons since they were a bit overpowering and scary for his young mind. Basically I picked him up and hustled him from one end of the hall to the other which his face buried in my shoulder.

After that was a trip to a playground in Central Park where Perry fell and nicked his knee. He cried a bit so I made it looked like I had hurt myself too and I wasn’t crying, so why should he?

It seemed to have worked but that was the last time I ever went anywhere with Perry. I did babysit a few times for him and his sister Molly though where I was declared to be cooler than Coolio.

I went once again after going with Perry, this time with Annemarie and Earl when he was a kid. Another good time with Anne and Earl but the main thing I remember was running around in the summertime heat in the Diana Ross playground, getting wet in the sprinklers.

So today was a visit with Harpy and it was a lot of fun. But by the end after schlepping around the museum, dodging strollers and restraining ourselves from braking the mini-mega phones that a few kids had going on and on, we were exhausted.

We parted ways, Harpy and I. He getting on the C train heading uptown and me trekking south to get a hot dog at Gray’s Papaya. Most of the pictures were posted on Facebook but there are some posted here as well.