Bloom in 10

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34° on A Monday night in Hoboken. It’s been quite an out of the ordinary couple of days. It’s March 3. Friday night had Bill, Mike, and myself watching Ted Lasso. Mike seems enamored of the show as Bill and I had been in the past.

Bill did his last minute packing thing, running around the apartment before he went to sleep for an early departure Saturday morning. Mike soon fell asleep on the couch, I turned everything on low on my computer before turning in.

Bill gave me a goodbye kiss and I went back to sleep. I regret not walking to the door to see him off. I was up an hour after that, Mike was up already. Mike had expressed a desire to shoot some photos in Jersey City and I was game.

The day before we discussed it and he had packed a bag with his wardrobe and accoutrements so I wasn’t taken by surprise. And Saturday was a nice day, the temperatures reaching 60°. We took a Lyft to Jersey City since the baggage was too unwieldy to walk over, though we agreed we would walk back.

Between Mike and myself I have a better cameraphone and I wound up taking shots of Mike in different shirts, sneakers, and even a leather harness. He has his admirers online and I provided artistic direction while I took the photos.

It was fun working underneath an overpass that had some wonderful graffiti that Mike ably posed in front of, smoking a cigar that we shared. I wound up taking a couple of hundred photos, with maybe a dozen of myself smoking the shared cigar. It was a good time.

We walked home as it had started getting chilly and windy. The walk was enjoyable. Mike just takes it all in, the view and whatever it is that I was saying, my personal history of Hoboken. He never says anything.

It was like that in December when Bill, Mike, and I went to see the Rockefeller Xmas tree. Bill giving his spiel about midtown Manhattan, me interjecting and Mike just listening to our history lesson.

So it was more of the same on Saturday with just me spilling my guts about Hoboken, how it was, and how it is now. I made pasta for the both of us and we finished watching Ted Lasso. Mike works on Sundays so he was off to bed and I too was off to sleep soon after.

Bill wasn’t around so I had Mike sleep in the bed instead of the couch. Mike was up early and off to work. On Sundays, I just stay in bed until it’s time to watch Jane Pauley and Sunday Morning on TV. It was a lonely day and I am just no good on my own.

Bill was on the road and mostly unavailable, Mike was at work and sort of unavailable. I wandered off to the supermarket to get various items. Mike was coming over again, the plan was to have him sleep over so I wouldn’t be alone. Bill agrees that this is a good idea.

We watched the Oscars on TV and texted with Bill back and forth. It was enjoyable, Mike was disappointed that Wicked didn’t win much. I was disappointed that A Complete Unknown, the Bob Dylan movie got nothing. Bill has a copy of the evening’s winner, Anora which we will watch on his return.

Today was not such a good day. Bill was fine being where he was, Mike was at work, and I was home climbing the walls. There was a drastic mistake of chatting with Mike online before I had enough coffee and it went south soon after. Nothing bad was said but nothing bad was said with me being argumentative and Mike being somewhat accusatory.

Then it turned into Mike saying he was just going to go home, the hanging out here in Hoboken had run its course. I was a bit hurt by that and told him his bags were packed and he could call a Lyft home. The phone call ended badly obviously.

I talked to Bill about it and he suggested seeing Mike and talking about it face-to-face. Mike brought it up earlier and I said no, but after Bill’s idea, I changed my mind and met Mike after work.

We met and it was good. He had a bona fide problem with his work situation so we discussed that. It went well and seemed like a remedy to our conversing on the phone earlier. We came back home and ate some Mexican food, and just talked.

I did my best with advice, knowing that I couldn’t really say much but be supportive. He needs a new job so I will help him with that as I myself look for work. I’ve set him up in the bed again, we cuddled, which he desperately needed. He soon drifted off to sleep as the Brian Eno Bloom 10 app played its notes. I am two rooms away writing on the computer as he sleeps.

So many plates

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What is going on, on a Thursday night in Hoboken with a 51° temperature? Not much. The Rastas I used to hang out with back in the day would say I was looking Asian, specifically Chinese, if you get my non-racist racist statement.

I had an interview this morning and I think it went well. The interviewer sat me in their office and instead of reviewing my resume, proceeded to tell me all the tasks I would be doing if I got hired. I was charming of course. And the tasks were nothing I hadn’t done before, and quite well I might add.

The whole thing took a little over 30 minutes, with another 15-minute tour of the area where I would be working. If I got hired. And the phone interview that was going to be rescheduled was rescheduled, and the brush-off from the same company regarding a different position was made official with an email.

I sort of had to force the hand of this phone interviewer reminding them of my reply two days ago that I was still interested in the position that was offered. They sent another invite and I picked 9:00 AM, figuring that I had gotten up at 8:00 AM for today’s in-person interview, then I could get up at 8 AM again for a 9:00 call. Coffee will be ingested as well as a shower if there is time.

So many plates in the air!

It’s been a good day I think. It’s not over yet though. Bill is off to bed soon, then the phone call with Mike. That’s the routine lately. ‘It works nicely and everyone benefits’ he wrote sensing a foreboding that faded quickly as foreboding sometimes does.

The Rastas were right 35 years ago. I do not have to look in the mirror to check, them eyelids be heavy. Julio would have had a laugh at that himself back in the day, while he looked like a resident of Saipan.

The interview was in an area I worked, for the Algerians. After the interview, I strolled the old haunts and found most of them were gone. The store where I hoped to get a cigar was no longer selling cigars.

The super-deli I would get an egg sandwich was now a furniture showroom. The two floors at 360 Park Avenue South were vacant, the Algerians having left a few years ago. Restaurants had changed names and menus.

I didn’t meander too much since it was raining a bit. Took the PATH train back home. The station was shut down for a makeover for almost a month and only had just reopened two days ago. It is brighter and somewhat cleaner.

The new staircases were nice too since the old ones were quite old and probably about 100 years old. One platform was finished and the other was covered in plywood. Maybe they’re both finished and one platform is an art installation. Yeah, that’s more like it.