I.G.Y.

Well this is how it’s going to be until after Jesus’ birthday. I went into work today a little later than usual. That’s my new schedule for the holidays, 12:30 to 10:30PM. And it seems that having 2 days off in a row is not going to happen either.

A day off here, two or three days on and then another day off. Oddly enough that doesn’t bother me. Having two days off in a row lately makes it difficult to go back to work, at least willingly. Today was different since I would have liked to have had off today, the day after Thanksgiving when most everyone has the day off.

I was glad to have slept in late, late meaning to 9:00. Bill was worried that I wasn’t going in and I told him the itinerary. I had coffee and cereal before I headed out. Bill decided to wait for the bus with me. It was a nice time waiting and I really didn’t want to go, but I really didn’t have a choice.

Bill went to have his breakfast at Stacks as I headed into the city on the bus, once again staring out the window, looking at the top of the Palisades, thinking about Weehawken, and 11 years spent there. Soon we were hurtling through the tunnel and I was walking through the bus terminal in no time.

Not as crowded as it was on Wednesday, and the trains seemed to be running on a weekend schedule. I paid my fare already so all I could do is wait. Had to hop on a local train, I thought I was running late and didn’t want to risk the train on the express track to foul up.

I had a few minutes before I went into the cigar shop so I called up Bill as he was finishing his pancake breakfast. Just a quick ‘I love you’ before I headed in. And in the shop were Marcus and Bradley. Marcus in his office and Bradley manning the counter.

Bradley does many things that I used to do years ago, and eventually gave up. Still he can be somewhat humorous which makes it easier to get through the day. And it was a long day. Everywhere else where there was shopping it was Black Friday, lot’s of people, sales that run for only a few hours.

Unfortunately where the cigar shop is, it was dullsville. Neither Bradley or I did the sales we did on Wednesday. Really slow. Few regular customers came in and the ones that did come in were generally not my favorite people.

There were one or two that made the cut but the rest were mainly paste. It took a while for the closing hour to arrive, Bradley left 2 hours previously. I sat in the back and smoked a small cigar, music off so I could hear the door open.

Working with Calvin tomorrow and closing with Sean so that should make closing that much more enjoyable. He’s been very agreeable since he’s been inducted into the fraternity he pledged to.

Surprisingly I was able to make the bus earlier than the one I expected to catch. I waited at gate 323, something like the twentieth on line when a guy come up behind me. I was playing music so I didn’t hear what he said, so removed one of the earphones and asked him what he said.

He asked if I was waiting for the 323. I said I was waiting at gate 323 for the 126 bus. That turned out to be what he meant. I placed the earphone back in, but heard him say something else so I turned and said ‘Sorry?’.

He looked at me and said ‘deleted’. Different crowd for the after 10:00PM buses. Not my type of crowd.


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I Am Kurious, Oranj

It’s Thanksgiving evening now. Bill and I got home about an hour ago, after having a nice dinner at Oscar’s Brasserie with Hyman Gross. Hyman and his companion June used to have Thanksgiving dinner at Oscar’s every year, then last year, June up and died around this time.

He had mentioned how blue he was feeling the past couple of weeks, not looking forward to a solitary Thanksgiving dinner. So Bill and I decided to stay local. Not just for Hyman, but also because I didn’t want to have to spend 5 hours in a car or a train going to Bill’s cousin’s house. It would have been about 2.5 hours in each direction.

Last night as I was home, as I was writing I kept thinking that I had to work today and had to keep reminding myself that I had off. It was somewhat disconcerting and it wore me down.

A very brief phone call with my brother Frank also happened last night, discussing Janet Wygal’s side projects from 25 years ago and almost veering into a discussion about what is going on in my life, when Patti Lupone, Michael Cerveris and George Hearn starting singing a song from Sweeney Todd on the Stephen Sondheim 75th birthday celebration on PBS, cutting Frank’s interest in my life of turmoil short.

I was all set to go to bed around 1:00 last night, Juan was a no show. Bill phoned as he was about to leave Washington DC and head back to the tri-state area. He felt like closing his eyes for a few minutes so I offered to stay up until 1:30 and give him a call so that he wouldn’t oversleep. And that’s what I did.

I threw in Iron Man 2 from Netflix and started to get into it, pretty amped up and called Bill at 1:30. He had just woken up a minute before I called. I watched a little bit more of Iron Man 2 before I went to bed for some tossing and turning. I don’t fall asleep easily when Bill isn’t around.

When I woke up around 10:00 this morning, there was Bill sound asleep in bed, sleep apnea mask on. I puttered around, showered and made breakfast for myself, thankful that Bill made an extra special effort to get some bagels from H&H while he was in the city this morning.

I woke Bill up around 12:30 so we could start to get ready to head into the city. I was determined not to be late, so as to prove to Hyman that Bill had indeed made it back on time. We got to the Waldorf Astoria before Hyman and were seated when he came in. I found him and directed him to our table.

Hyman didn’t have much to say to me, possibly because I told him I did want to hear his negativity and when he did speak to me, I was probably best described as cheeky. It wasn’t bad, we all got our salads at the same time, but went for the entrees without Hyman who went on his own. He also purloined one or two cloth napkins which he put into his bag.

We headed out after Bill and I decided to split the bill and treat Hyman. A walk through the lobby to get a cab on the Park Avenue side, Hyman opting not to ride back to Hoboken with us. He went his way and we went ours, running into Denise Foster in the queue for the bus. Denise used to cook fabulous holiday dinners before she started witnessing for Jehovah.

Now Bill naps, I write and Juan is making his way down to Hoboken to hang out for a bit. Work tomorrow, going in later. The 12:30 to 10:30 shift starts tomorrow and that is what my holiday schedule looks like. This is why I desperately wanted to be out of the retail world before the season. Too late for that now.

John Ozed, Hyman Gross and Bill Vila


Denise Foster


Bill Vila


the John Ozed guy

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