Category Archives: Yesterday’s News Tomorrow

Run For Your Life

Well it’s Sunday again, and it’s been a pretty nice one. Yesterday the temperature almost reached 80 degrees, today it was in the 60’s and noticeably cooler. I was going to go for a bike ride but the bike needs some work so perhaps next week?

I wound up walking around Hoboken, reading the New Yorker near the soccer pitch on the river for about an hour, thats when it started to get a little too breezy for my oh so delicate self.

Last night Bill was around and that was good. Watched 2 back to back episodes of House which I never really watch. It was good, as good as people like my brother Frank says.

After that I decided to do my bit and visit Tunes, the only record store in Hoboken. It was Independent Record Store day. I had problems with Tunes in the past but I got over them.

I wandered around and picked up Mott the Hoople’s Greatest Hits and Me’Shell Ndegeocello’s latest, ‘The world has made me the man of my dreams’. Mott was good, proved to me that they had a few other good songs besides All the Young Dudes (which is an all time fave) and All the Way to Memphis.

Me’Shell was merely ok, venturing further into avant jazz territory than I would like to go. I used to really like her. Peace Beyond Passion is probably her best and worth owning.

As I was browsing, the store’s PA system was playing some music that was really a lot of fun, especially when played loud. As I was checking out at the register I asked what was playing and they told me it was MGMT.

I immediately turned around and picked up a copy. That turned out to be the best purchase of the evening and since Mott and Me’Shell were used CD’s they were cheap. MGMT was full price, but since it was Independent Record Store day, every thing was a dollar less than listed which turned out to be a nice deal.

Came home around 10:00 after spending an hour in Tunes. Plenty of people roaming the streets last night, out strolling Washington Street and enjoying the nice weather.

Came home, Bill was watching Southland which I watched on Thursday night. He walked in on it halfway through then so he was catching up.

After that we gave up on the late news and watched Grey Gardens on HBO. That was in the news all week, interviews Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore played Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, an aunt and cousin of Jackie Kennedy. It was good.

I never saw the Maysles documentary of the same name all the way through. Drew Barrymore was outstanding and stole the movie from Jessica Lange. Ultimately a melancholy movie but worth watching.

That was about all for the night.

My niece Meghan is running in the Boston Marathon tomorrow, in the front groups, not among the hoi polloi. Yes, she’s that good. Her number is 7629 if you feel like tracking the marathon. It kicks off at 9:00AM. Go Meghan! Yeah!

Here are some pics from this afternoon.

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Natty Dread

Well, it’s Thursday this time. For most it’s just a Thursday but for me it’s the last day of the work week. Still not used to it. I start thinking on Friday that it’s Saturday, then on Saturday I think it’s Sunday and on Sunday I have no idea what day it is.

I usually figure it out before I go to sleep, after I get the feeling in my stomach that there is homework that I hadn’t done and boy am I going to get it tomorrow.

Last night I watched Lost which was good. Sawyer/Le Fleur is calling the shots and there little or no Jack involved which was fine by me. I think it’s building up tot the reappearance of John Locke. The season finale.

Plus with Sayid taking care of little Ben last night, you know that it’s not the last we’ve seen of Ben. Last night was mainly about Sayid. He was dosed with a sugar cube of LSD, administered by William Sanderson. It made Sayid loosen his tongue and he almost gave away Sawyer’s identity.

It was a bit of a chore staying alert after coming down from the bourbon buzz. I found that Woodford Reserve is a very nice bourbon, a little bit sweet which helps it going down the gullet.

Bill was so tired that he didn’t pay any attention to Lost and didn’t stay up to watch Lawn Hors d’oeuvre, which was enjoyable. A little bit of the Madoff disaster, mixed in with an investigative TV reporter being killed and behind the scenes at a local newscast.

That was followed by the local news on Channel 4 and featured a celebration of Chuck Scarborough behind the desk for 35 years. I did think it was odd that the newscaster on Lawn Hors d’oeuvre resembled Chuck Scarborough.

On the news last night was an item about a proposed fare hike for the MTA. They had a guy complaining that he pays $272.00 a week already and the fare hike would cripple him. He said he wouldn’t be able to take his son to McDonalds or give him money so his son could buy extra tickets to the movies.

Whatever happened to parents saying, ‘No, we can’t afford it?’ I heard that often enough as my mother would buy sneakers for me at the A&P. Plastic soled sneakers that always got me unwanted laughs during gym class. I didn’t like it, but weren’t about to spend $40.00 on sneakers.

I know parents want their kids to have a better life that they did growing up but is giving the kid everything they wanted the way to go?

After that there was nothing to do but go to sleep. Woke up with Bill heading out and me getting out of bed at 6:30. Soon I found myself on the bus, finishing up the New Yorker from last week and starting on this weeks issue.

Walked across town and got to the office earlier than usual. I figured out that I am the office manager for 6 different companies. There are currently six companies working in my office and I support all of them though I’m only getting paid by one.

Maybe two if I count Vivek and his partner’s Cable box scheme, selling cable boxes to hotels and motels usually owned by Asian Indians. They’ve cut my work days to four from five and I figured I’d make up the money I lost with one company with hours worked for Vivek’s other company but I haven’t seen it yet.

One of my managerial duties is looking after the phone system. I had placed a call on Tuesday about a phone problem and hadn’t heard anything regarding it. No, that wasn’t the phone problem. My phone was working just fine, it was someone else’s phone.

I called the phone company today and they had no trouble ticket. They didn’t seem too concerned about it but I was, since I was going to be out until Monday. I got off the phone with them and asked the woman if she was still having phone problems and she said it was taken care of yesterday.

No, no one told me. I felt like an idiot. My old boss Risotto always used to say, ‘Communicate early and often’. It’s true, you do that and most problems can be avoided or solved. Just so frustrating. I called the phone company back and sort of apologized.

Their end was surprised that no one called me about the phone line being repaired. Bill always mentions that my astrological sign, Virgo, symbolizes communication so maybe that’s why I get hung up one communicating.

Today was also the day that Amy Sachs stopped by my office. She’s the woman who stopped me on the street last week to tell me how good I looked. She was nice enough to say that so I was nice enough to allow her to try to sell me a suit.

She was a bit new at the sales thing so she was accompanied by a supervisor, A Kristen Chenowith type named Brianne. I guess they were expecting a boy and were going to name him Brian. Surprise! It has a va-jay jay!

It was a nice pitch they threw and the fabric were incredible. Alas, a suit that usually goes for $1250.00 and now on sale for $950.00 is still rather expensive. Buy a suit? Or pay the rent?

I told them midway through their pitch that due to budgetary reasons, buying a suit is out of the question. My, how their faces fell. Still they took some information from me and asked me questions, like any golfing partners that might have the funds to afford such a nice bespoke suit.

Maybe my stockbroker? Fraternity buddies? No, no and no.

I love dressing up and looking like a million bucks with my off the rack suits, but no, I don’t have a million dollars and the bespoke suits are just a fleeting memory. I can always enjoy looking at the models though.

I overheard a conversation in the lobby of my office building today,
Guy #1: So are you bringing your girl to the bar tonight?
Guy #2: Dude, that’s like bringing sand to the beach!

Loved it.