I Should Care

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Well today has been a day off and it’s been OK so far. Slept in until 9:30 and was awoken by the sounds of people scraping the ice off of the sidewalks. It was a good night of sleep, with a strange dream involving some strange tiny white person/thing that did not want me to know that it was sharing the bed.

When I was about to reveal who or what it was, it shocked me into waking up. And going to the bathroom. Perhaps the two were related. I shuffled about the apartment, making coffee and watching the rest of the morning shows, deftly avoiding Kathie Lee Gifford.

After some coffee and checking emails as well as sending out resumes as news about Egypt and the ice storm here, I headed out into the world, dropping off shirts at the dry cleaners, getting the News, some bagels and groceries at the supermarket.

Spoke with Bill on the phone a few times. He forgot to ask me to drop off his trousers for mending. He slipped on some black ice the other day and tore his trousers. It was slippery outside, lots of ice on the sidewalks and stairs, as well as the stairway railings outside.

Quite a few people had shoveled and scraped the ice away, but not many. Don’t know if it was because they were lazy or out of town, or just unable to. There were plenty of day laborers roaming the streets with shovels willing to shovel for a price.

I came home and had a nice breakfast, read the paper and had some more coffee. And more resumes were sent out, more scanning websites and online newspapers hoping for the best. No word from last week’s contestants, so I guess that one went by. This is why it’s good to not have so much hope. Just gotta keep on keepin’ on.

Laundry needed to be done and so I did that while watching last night’s Daily Show and Colbert Report. Got a text from the former co-worker Sean asking if he could use me as a reference. I said it was OK. I think he’s applying to a few stores in the area of the cigar shop.

I have to get him credit, he’s hustling for a job. If only he used that hustle instead of goldbricking around the cigar shop. He really got too comfortable, enough so that he acted as if he owned the place. But then again he is 20 years old.

I had a chance to go out once again into the ice world, which had started to melt. The snow was beginning to melt along with the ice making it foggy out. I brought the trousers to the dry cleaners instructing them on where to put patches.

Then a walk over to the bibliothèque, returning A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow and not getting anything else. Came home after that and watched two episodes of Southland, which Bill and I both really like, but never have time to watch it when it’s originally broadcast.

It was good and as intense as ever. We love Regina King a lot as well. So that’s that. Not much else to report, write or say. So I will just leave it at that. Cheers.


I See Your Face Before Me

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It’s now Tuesday. I did not get fired from work. Instead Sean who can now be called Ryan Ramos got the axe. Ryan was a good guy, but 20 years old and full of piss and vinegar and shit and testosterone and puppy dogs tails.

They caught him on camera being off the floor for almost two hours in the past week. He was getting paid of course and that is what upset Calvin and Marcus.

Calvin took me aside and asked how I was doing. I answered truthfully that I was burned out, retail is a drag. He was surprised to hear that and I also told him that most days I come to work I can’t help but feel that it was going to be my last day.

Apparently I was not the only who felt this way, a general malaise had settled on the staff at the shop. I felt better getting that off my chest and the day did not seem so bad after that. I knew Ryan was getting the ax and when Ryan called before he came in, asking me if I knew what was going on, I had to lie.

I knew and could not say a thing. A life lesson had to be learned and I was no student teacher like Karen Valentine in Room 222. The rest of the day went at a steady and strange pace, strange since someone had just gotten fired.

Marcus is a sommelier and had scheduled a class in the back room, after the man cave had been cleared out and the regulars sent elsewhere. Marcus had also taken me aside, asking me what I was doing after work on Thursday night.

I told him I had no plans and he mentioned he wanted me to stay and have a cigar and some scotch with him and Calvin and talk. He expressed concern since he felt he was responsible for my working at the cigar shop.

Apparently he remembered that I had sent him my resume in February of last year and he had finally offered me a job in May. I didn’t apply for the job, but he made the offer. It was nice to know and I agreed to stay for a cigar and some scotch on Thursday night which was fine since I am off on Friday, as well as being off tomorrow.

And tonight a major storm approaches from the west, what is being touted as an ice storm, six inches have been predicted. That will be my day off, and I guess it will be mainly spent indoors.

Another thing that I told Calvin was the fact that the days off here and there are getting to me, to have two days off in a row is so much desirable. A schedule like most of the working stiffs would be ideal.

I can’t expect to get Saturday and Sunday off but perhaps something can be done like a Tuesday and Wednesday off, at least that’s the impression that I got from Calvin.

Strange days indeed. Most peculiar mama, whoa!

I accidentally deleted Kat Charas’ subscription to this blog and was surprised that after all these years, her email doesn’t exist anymore. Come in Kat Charas, your time is up.