I’m A Lonely Petunia (In An Onion Patch)

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Oh my, what a day this has been. It started out OK, I slept in a bit since I was working the late shift. I was able to relax and start the day at an easy pace. It wasn’t as hot out as it was yesterday and that was a plus.

I soon found myself walking up to Washington Street where I waited for the bus opposite Hoboken Daily News. Got on the bus. Another advantage of going into work later is that there are less people on the bus.

Still plenty of traffic at the tunnel though, but like yesterday I had a competent bus driver who knew to aim for the middle tunnel and avoided a lot of congestion headed into the right tunnel. I soon found myself on the A train, making it on board just before the doors closed.

The strap on my Eagle Creek bag broke, just days after getting it back from Inwood NY where they fixed the zipper. Totally threw my body English off.

Bill phoned to tell me his supervisor had just been let go from the law firm. That was unnerving for the both of us. They’ve been letting people go every few months and I hoped this wasn’t that again. And I was worried of course for Bill’s standing at the firm.

He’s OK which brought some relief.

I had a few minutes but decided to head into the cigar shop. It was Marcus and Raymond, both telling me that I just missed something. Apparently they banned a customer who was caught on tape cramming something into the door after the store was closed.

It was a goofy thing or so I thought.

Little did I know the situation was going to go swiftly downhill. Raymond came in a few minutes later and soon he was in the office with Marcus and Calvin, door closed. I did whatever it was I do in the morning.

Marcus had me counting boxes in the humidor which is when Calvin and Raymond slipped out. Apparently Raymond messed up on something and though he owned up to it, they don’t trust him anymore, taking away his key and not allowing him to close the store anymore.

They also took his vacation days away. He’s on probation. Having written that I realize that I think Raymond might have had someone in the store after closing. The person bought something and since the register was closed, he took the money and put it away.

Later on, that someone crammed something in the store door. Of course I could be wrong and this is my deductive reasoning. Law & Order is on right now and Bill’s watching it so that could be the impetus for my detective skills.

So that hung over the store all day. Yesterday it was a lot of laughs and good times with Sean and Don Birch and Calvin & Raymond. Today it was all about the pall. Raymond also organized a cigar dinner which he is now dis-invited to.

He told me these things in bits and pieces while mumbling. He told me he left a note about the money and he also sold more things that Calvin and I did today. He sold $2,000 worth of items where Calvin & I made just under $1,000 a piece.

On July 1, I will get a key to the shop and also be closing as well.

It was a long, long, long day. I’m glad it’s over. I have no plans for the weekend and I have no plans on making any.

Maybe I won’t write. It depends once again on what happens I suppose.

Lot’s of slow sausages on the street tonight, and having to carry my bag instead of slung it over my shoulder, made my hustle from the shop to the bus terminal last 21.9 minutes.

I’m a King Bee

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Here we are at the end of another day. Not such a bad day either. First off I slept really well, probably from not sleeping so well the night before and being exhausted towards the end of my shift yesterday at the cigar shop.

I decided to avoid the theater crowd on Eighth Avenue and opted to walk down Ninth Avenue which turned out to be a bit of a mistake or a misstep. Hell’s Kitchen is almost as Gay as Chelsea and I did not take into account the sidewalk cafes set atop narrow sidewalks.

Won’t be making that mistake again.

I usually walk with a purposeful gait and the strolling couples, headed for dinner slowed me down considerably. Still I made the bus I needed to make with no look of NJ suburbanite panic on my face.

I woke up the morning around 7:45 and set about doing my thing. I didn’t have to go in until 11:30 so that was nice. I needed bread so I went grocery shopping around 8:30. Nice that the store was relatively empty and I was home by 8:45.

Had some more coffee and got my suit ready to wear. Yes, I’ve been wearing a suit to work but no tie and I generally drape the suit jacket over my forearm, looking a bit dashing, feeling like Jean Paul Belmondo and showing off my braces.

I swear I’ve been loosing weight since I’ve started work and the pants aren’t as tight around the waist as they used to be. And the neck size of my shirts aren’t as snug either, so I don’t think I look like my late cousin Jackie. No between meal snacks, lot’s of water and standing around for 9 hours a day seems to do the trick. Pedro even mentioned the weight loss the other day.

The day flew by as opposed to yesterday which was crawl crawl crawl. Had a cigar for lunch today and I was going to go outside and smoke it but it was even more humid outside than it was in the humidor. And it rained for about 3 minutes.

I decided to come inside and sit in the backroom with the cigar smoking men. It was a full house, all of them watching the World Cup and kvetching. Some closet cases too from what I gathered. I’m out at work once again, everyone seems cool about it.

But there’s a certain customer who my co-workers think is gay and deep in the closet despite being an opera singer. He doesn’t ping on my gaydar but I probably ping on his and he might resent my being out or perhaps fears my being out will out him.

Sometimes during the day a customer will leave and Sean or Raymond or Don Birch will ask if I think that person is gay. One guy left the store and they asked and I said ‘Flame on!’ and called him Johnny Storm.

It was pretty much a good day. Calvin headed out at 7:30 and mentioned that he saw I was scheduled to come in at 9:30 tomorrow morning. He asked if I would rather come in 11:30. I said yes. Closing the store is one thing and coming in to open the next day can be so difficult.

We received our schedules for July and the majority of the days are the late shift. I’m fine with that. Raymond asked if I would miss hanging out with my friends, and I said no, since I really didn’t hang out with my friends much in the past year or so. An occasional evening here and there, but overall I usually just hang out at home.

So I guess it’s getting better all the time.

16.8 minutes from the cigar shop to the bus terminal tonight.