Category Archives: WTF

I’ll Work For Your Love

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Man am I tired. It’s been a long day and the last two hours I was on my own. It was fairly busy too. Thanks to Calvin’s inept scheduling and Marcus refusing to get someone to help out for a few days until we get on our feet, it was a monstrous day.

Raymond would have worked with Don and myself today but since he was let go last Friday, it was down to Don and me.

I really don’t know how much longer I can take working at the cigar shop. I’m exhausted all the time, the hours suck, the pay sucks and trying to get 1/3 of 1% commission is ridiculous. And I don’t like who I am becoming.

I resent a lot of customers and hold a lot of people in contempt. I had some words with a customer about taxes. Some idiot saying that taxes were so high due to pension plans. I mentioned that taxes were needed to maintain roads and for education. He scoffed at that and I said in turn that I didn’t really give a shit if the roads fall apart since I don’t drive.

Even though I was unemployed and broke most of the time, I was happier then than I am now. Really, if any other job offer came through I would more than likely jump at it. I’d even work for the Susquehanna Investment Group if they would ask. I’d even hawk Sally Maurice’s Cafe Press items if there was an offer.

I’m miserable, Don Birch is miserable and even Sean is miserable and he’s 20 years old and knows nothing. And Marcus and Calvin, ineptly playing the role of management have not a clue.

My mind is so scrambled right now. When I was closing the shop, at 9:05 there was a knock on the door. Now I was instructed to never let anyone in the shop when it was closed and I don’t let anyone in the shop.

Many a time as I stand there counting money, some knucklehead pleads with me to let them in to buy a cigar. They tell me through the door they know what they want and it wouldn’t take a minute. But no. Once the store is closed it stays closed until I leave.

Tonight, I’m there counting money, about a thousand dollars in front of me. There’s a knock on the door. I look up.

It’s a woman. She says she’s a neighbor of the store. She’s smiling as she says it. I stand where I was and ask what can I do for her. She says she needs help. I ask why. What’s wrong? She says forget it and walks away.

I never saw her before and truth be told I don’t pay attention to most of the neighbors. Some neighbors I do know and speak with on occasion, but I never saw this one before. Perhaps she saw the money in front of me and wanted to get to know the cash better.

Anyway, she certainly didn’t look distressed. I didn’t pay it no mind and when she walked away, all I could do was laugh. When I left the store, I didn’t see her at all. There were a lot of police officers around since there was yet another bomb scare in the area and any one of them could have helped her if she needed assistance.

I also heard from Calvin who was calling in to see if everything was alright. He sounded a bit drunk. His drawl gets thicker when he drinks. He said that Marcus had gone by the shop and said it looked closed.

That was bullshit.

I was in a hurry answering the phone since I abandoned 3 customers in the humidor to answer his drunk dialing. I did try to call him back on my cellphone but he probably saw my area code and decided not to take the call. I didn’t leave a message.

Tomorrow it’s work again for me. I’m working with Sean. Don Birch is playing the Hebraic card once again and leaving as soon as I get in. So that means I have to do most of the work since Sean is usually staring into space or dealing with baby mama drama on the phone, or any of the other chicks that he’s currently trying to fuck.

Please, if there are any leads for work, preferably and 9 to 5 job, Monday through Friday I would appreciate hearing about it.

I’ll Remember You

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It started out as a good day off. Slept until 9:00 which was quite nice. Didn’t have much to do really. Had some breakfast, took a shower basically.

Some errands to run and also a trip into Manhattan to go to Macy’s and exchange the Star Trek cufflinks that I bought for Bill for his birthday in June. Basically they had fallen apart, at least one of them did.

I Krazy Glued it back together and wrote an irate email to Macy’s customer service about it. To my surprise a customer service representative called me back and arranged for an exchange despite the fact that I didn’t have the original box or the receipt.

So I headed into the city in the early afternoon and wandered around Macy’s, getting different directions to the executive offices from most every salesperson and security guard that I asked. Finally found the offices and spoke to the woman I was supposed to speak to.

She arranged for me to go to the men’s accessories area and speak with Wellington who was able to find a different pair, not the exact same cufflinks that I originally purchased. Still satisfactory since it was still Star Trek.

Then it was the Path train back to Hoboken. Went to the bibliothèque and returned the Andy Warhol biography. It basically ended shortly after Andy was shot in 1968, after the move to Union Square.

Just a brief mention of the 1970’s and his death in 1987 after routine gall bladder surgery.

Picked up 2012, the Roland Emmerich / John Cusack disaster movie about the end of the world. A lot of fun to watch, short on character development since basically a lot of people die throughout the movie.

I loved watching disaster flicks when I was a kid and saw almost all of them when they came out. And I do like the current batch from Roland Emmerich, however dumb they might be. I’m just glad I didn’t pay to see this in the theater. It’s certainly corny as hell.

I stopped by Mr. L’s barbershop by my house. I noticed in the Hoboken Reporter they were looking for a barber/stylist. I wondered what happened and noticed that my barber hasn’t been around. I spoke to Nick his son and he told me that his father had fallen off a ladder while tending to his grapevine.

Missed the last step and took a tumble, breaking his arm. I guess Tony isn’t coming back, since they have a help wanted sign in the window. If only I had known this when I had the idea of becoming a barber earlier this year in my unemployment days.

I would have graduated from the school by now. But then again, I didn’t want to know how to do make up or dye women’s hair, I merely wanted to be a barber.

In an unrelated employment news, I came home and found an email from Raymond asking me to call him at 9:00, when he gets out of work. That can’t be good and I can’t get any info from him until then. I can’t help but wonder if it was anything I did.

Just what I needed on my day off, some work related stress. Maybe it was something that someone else did and he just wants to gossip. Regardless it’s still unnerving and I resent Raymond a bit for this intrusion into my day off.

I just returned from the bibliothèque and dropped off 2012. It was a fast 2 hours to watch and didn’t have enough time to pick up something fun to watch.

Now I have an hour to kill until I call Raymond with whatever news he might have to say. Can’t help but think, I’m in trouble. I’ll fill you all in, once I know.

And now I know. It seems on August 27, some guy came into the store wanting to buy vanilla flavored cigars. We don’t sell flavored cigars and I told him so. Well he thought I was just rude and wrote to the corporate headquarters, complaining about me, describing me.

So maybe I am in trouble, but it’s no big deal. I certainly don’t have the back up that I used to have when I worked for Susan and Lois at Farfetched. No I have a ego maniacal asswipe named Marcus, upset that we’ve only sold one ticket to a cigar dinner at the Grand Havana Room. The ticket is $250.00 and you get a few free cigars as well as a steak.

Even if I had the cash to spend on that, I wouldn’t go. And no one has the cash to spend on that sort of thing. Morale is sinking fast at the store, what with most everyone looking to get out as soon as possible.

From yesterday