I Whistle A Happy Tune

3 Replies

10:00PM and all is well. Surprisingly it has been a good day. No time spent at the hospital since I had to go to work, but Bill was in contact with Hyman Gross who they were keeping for one more night. I spoke to Bill a few times today since I ordered some flowers and a teddy bear to be delivered today.

In the past I always had problems getting whatever it was I ordered to Bill’s office, so I decided to be proactive and had them delivered today so they would be on his desk Monday morning for that Valentine’s Day thing. And it was cheaper too.

So I kept calling asking if anything arrived and finally they were properly delivered. I don’t know why I was in such a good mood today, but I didn’t question it, I merely accepted it. I wasn’t exactly whistling a happy tune all day but nothing really bothered me.

It was like a fresh pair of eyes looking at the world. A fresh pair of eyes, still using the same corrective lenses. It was me and Calvin most of the day, with Der Fred coming in, in the late afternoon. Calvin and I got along fine. It was like I mentioned to Pedro last night on the phone.

I get anxious before going to work but once I’m there, everything is generally manageable. And by the way, I thought about taking a Xanax this morning but forgot about it, remembering when I had started walking to the bus terminal. It was fairly busy today as well.

Quite a few women buying cigars and accessories for their husbands and boyfriends and whomever. And even Keith Olbermann came into the store today. He was basically trying to be unnoticed but I noticed him. Calvin had mentioned a few times in the past that Keith Olbermann would come into the store from time to time, and since Calvin waited on him then, I figured Calvin should wait on him now.

That meant interrupting Calvin’s lunchtime smoke, and for once he didn’t mind. No dirty looks. I even told Keith Olbermann that it was good to see him, he was missed and shook his hand. No big fanfare, all quite self-contained.

He is going to be on Current TV in a few months, and I did not tell him that where I live, there is no Current TV available. Unless it gets picked up by Cablevision, I’m sure I will hear all about it.

An interesting thing happened as well today, with a different customer. She was buying a pen for her husband and wanted to see various pens. I showed her, since it is my job and she liked this one and that one but wasn’t sure about either.

I showed her another pen and she said it looked kind of gay. I mentioned that I was gay and it didn’t look gay to me at all. That made her very embarrassed and after a while she decided she wanted to think about the pens and left the store a bit flustered. I loved it.

So that’s about it. Nothing else to report. Bill is still at rehearsal, should be home by midnight. I have to work tomorrow, as well as Sunday and Monday. I don’t mind (at least right now I don’t) it’s something to do.

For those playing at home, or merely trainspotting, the past couple of weeks have been titled using songs sung by Frank Sinatra. Just mainly from a list from Wikipedia. Tonight’s title, I Whistle A Happy Tune was also mentioned tonight, in regards to my good mood and I only noticed the song title was next in the list of Sinatra songs after I had written tonight’s entry.

True story!


I Went Down to Virginia

6 Replies

It’s been quite a long day and a busy day at that. Last night was just as I wrote, helping Hyman Gross get into an ambulance. I had hoped Bill would be awake when I got home but he was fast asleep. We did chat on the phone when I was walking home and he offered to stay up, but I said there was no need.

I thought he would have stayed up anyhow, but no. He’s been so exhausted lately and as soon as his head hits the pillow he is in nearly a REM state. I could have used some contact, a hug, but no, there was none of that waiting for me when I got home 10 minutes after we disconnected on the phone.

My own garden of Gethsemane. Couldn’t you bastards stay awake for just a few minutes?

Anyway I wrote and wrote till I was done. Got a lot of positive feedback from my Facebook friends after I posted about helping an old man and picking him up off the ground. Didn’t say it was Hyman Gross since hardly anyone on Facebook would have known who he was.

According to my friend Kevin, he looked like a William S Burroughs type and I could see what he meant. He also looks like what Patrick Morrissey would look like if Patrick were in his eighties.

I got up around 9:00 this morning since it was my day off. I had an interview this afternoon with another recruiter which led me to believe I wasn’t blacklisted yet. I made some coffee and there wasn’t nearly enough so I had to go out and get some more.

So it was out into the street, getting coffee, the paper and some bagels. Came home and was going to fry up some eggs when I realized I was out of eggs. No matter, I was happy enough with the bagels. I did go out again, this time to the supermarket and the dry cleaners.

Picked up a nice suit for my interview and after some more coffee when I came home I was out again on the street. I had enough time to be early for the interview and walked on the sunny side of the streets, taking my time so I wouldn’t be too early.

10 minutes seemed fine and I sat in the reception area of the agency and filled out paperwork which took just a few minutes. A 30 minute interview with Lauren, who was born in Ridgewood, grew up in Oradell and now lives in Cranford. A Jersey girl.

The interview went alright I suppose. I was soon out on the street and headed to the Path train for a ride back to Hoboken. Stopped by the Guitar Bar and saw Mr. Wonderful, Jim Mastro who was busy with a customer.

Then I headed to the hospital where I saw Hyman Gross, back to his usual cantankerous self. Understandably he was anxious to go home but I told him it would probably be best that he stay one more night.

He was worried that his cellphone had only one bar of juice left and since it was a Samsung phone, I told him I would bring him a charger later, as well as the New York Times. And so I came home, changed out of the suit and had some food before heading out to get Hyman’s papers as well as my charger. I did not buy the NY Post, but I did get the Daily News. No money for Murdoch.

Hyman was eating dinner when I got back to his hospital room. He ate and asked me questions and seemed back to normal. We discussed having someone clean his apartment. Someone with no sentimental attachment to the various things he’s collected and picked up over the years. He agreed but to me it seems unlikely that he would do anything about it.

I also spoke to Bill on the phone and he is so proud of me, for the way I took care of Hyman over the past 24 hours. I didn’t think it was anything special, it’s something anyone would do for a friend isn’t it? Perhaps if I find myself in a similar state when I’m Hyman’s age there will be someone to do the same should I need it. But by then it will all be Logan’s Run and if that’s the case I’m a sitting duck.

where Skyline Studios used to be


the view from Hyman's hospital room




photo by Hyman Gross