Guiding Light

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I just got back from Stuyvesant Town, helping Bill shred documents from over the years and helping to make a space for the home health care aide from the visiting nurses program for Bill’s father who should be released from the VA hospital this week. Bill mother was there, she said hello and at first she mistook me for Fred, Bill’s friend (and onetime dreamboat) who helped Bill out yesterday. We reassured her who I was and she kindly offered that I stay overnight in the apartment, but I had to turn it down since I did have to come home and write as well as get ready for work tomorrow. There are still many boxes to go through and still plenty of junk mail to be shredded from the last century.

And occasionally while going through the papers and crap there are snapshots from years ago, which makes Bill stop and reminisce. I remember doing that when we were cleaning out my father’s house back in the day. It’s a nostalgic trap which can stop everything, when you’re making progress on the boxes of papers. Luckily when I was cleaning out the house in Lodi Annemarie was around to prevent falling into the pitfalls of old photographs. Today I played the role of Annemarie, bearer of common sense.

Last night I went to Chaz’ party in Jersey City Heights. I walked out into a light rain without an umbrella. It wasn’t so bad but I didn’t feel like climbing up the flights of steps again, it took a lot of energy to get me out of the apartment. I walked to the Path train where it was plenty crowded, all the hipsters heading into the city, and a handful of us headed to Journal Square. The ride was uneventful and unmemorable. I baked some cookies for the party and carried them in a plastic bag, running across Kennedy Boulevard to buy some Guinness since one doesn’t want to show up with one arm longer than the other.

On my way I had a nice Padron which I smoked in the light rain, then the teeming rain, then the light rain again, then no rain, all in about five minutes. Got to the party relatively dry and saw Alice Genese and Martha Griffin as well as a few other people that I only see at these holiday parties. Chaz’ old friend Andy was there. He was the guy who told me about the Bob Mould DJ parties last summer and hyped up the December event so much that by the time the day came for the party in December, neither Bill nor I was much into it due to the late hour it was going to start, that and the fact that we like being old stay at home farts. Martha regaled us with tales of colonics followed by smoothies at some spa outside of Palm Springs.

Alice and I caught up on old times with Martha. Marianne who I mentioned last night zeroed in on Martha, ignoring most everyone else. Really obnoxiously too. Alice introduced herself and was brusquely dismissed which was funny to watch. I didn’t see Alice’s reaction, but she was cool about it. After a few hours and after drinking most of the Guinness I brought, I was able to get a ride home with Alice back to Hoboken. She had a nice ride and since she didn’t know what happened between Chaz and Kathe, I gave her a sanitized version of the events, taking care not to make it sound like gossip. Alice went out with Chaz a few times in the eighties and basically thought he was gay.

She didn’t have any problems with his being gay, she’s been bisexual herself, and she got over the lackluster sexual performance since it was over 20 years ago anyhow. She also thought my ex-roommate William and I were lovers. True we lived with each other for 11 years, and it still make the both of us laugh, but I had to tell her, no we were not lovers. She bemoaned her problem of trying to find the right man, we’re both in the same age group, she has a 19 year old son, but getting a good man and getting him to stay is a problem. She was amazed at my relationship with Bill, being an open relationship and all, but there are still the hazards of jealously and loneliness.

She dropped me off in front of my building and we made plans to stay in touch and maybe see a movie. We both love going to the movies and we both hate going by ourselves so it seems like it could be fun to have someone to do that with. I was back by midnight, and watched most of Saturday Night Live before turning in. Woke up after a sad dream about looking for one’s mother, but in the dream a phone call from Juan of all people, set it straight, the dream that is.

and here are some pics.

Waiting on Track 2
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Last of the season…
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Martha!
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Alice with cheeses!
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Marianne, Chaz back to camera
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William, former roommate, never lover
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Plastic Man

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Well today certainly is/was/has been lazy. Yesterday at least I had laundry to do, today not really. In fact one high point of the day was cleaning up a broken pint glass. I had one pint of Guinness last night and washed the glass, but this morning as I was getting something from the dish rack the glass fell shattering in so many invisible pieces. Of course I wasn’t wearing any footwear, no slippers, no sneakers. And I know only a handful, or less than a handful have been to this apartment. There are white ceramic tiles throughout the apartment. Other apartments in the building have hardwood floors, my apartment was the one where the landlord decided to try an experiment with tiling the floors.

Because of that, anything that might break if it hits the floor, will break when that happens. At least having a wood floor, you might get some bounce. Too bad the only way to drink Guinness is from a pint glass. Most everything that we use to eat or drink from is unbreakable. Plastic tumblers and unbreakable Corning Ware plates. I would like to think I got all the shards of glass, but you never know. I’ve swept quite a bit, but transparent objects on a white background don’t seem to appear to the naked eye. The naked foot perhaps.

Last night Bill was at his parent’s apartment clearing out a room for the home health care attendant. Apparently it’s a room full of crap that needs to be thrown out. He was going through some boxes and what her found was mainly years old junk mail. So he’s been going through it and shredding wherever his father’s name shows up. It’s been a very emotional week for Bill, fraught with tears. He’s been spending most nights here, trying to avoid going back to the apartment, and facing the inevitable. With Medicare taking Bill’s father in account, sooner or later Bill’s old bedroom would have to be cleaned out, from being a storage room to being a bedroom again. There’s also the situation of if this person, the home health care aide, will they be able to deal with Bill’s mother? Will Bill’s mother be able to deal with the aide? If it doesn’t work out with one, would another aide be sent in their place? These are questions that will be revealed next week.

Tonight is Chaz’ Holiday Party. He used to throw it with Kathe his estranged wife, but there was no party last year and I guess enough people mentioned how they missed the parties, so he’s doing it solo this year. I don’t think Kathe is going to be there. She does subscribe to this blog, maybe she knows about it since I think I mentioned it the other day. It would be nice to see here since I haven’t seen her in a while. I expect other faces from the past should be there as well. My former room mate William will be there as well as this woman Marianne who used to come onto me quite hard. She’s nice but given the chance would monopolize my time throughout the party. Chaz said the soirée starts around 7:00 and 8:00 sounds like a good time to arrive. Still have to figure out how to get there. A cab perhaps, or maybe a walk. If I’m going to take a cab, maybe I’ll split one with Rand and Lisa. Rand mentioned that they were going the other day, so maybe I should give them a call.

Just called, they made other plans, so if it’s cabbage, it’s a solo cab ride. Not going to be a late night anyhow since tomorrow I’m helping Bill with the spare room clear out.