This Charming Man

Just woke up from a dream, where I was on the phone with a former co-worker. She’s been out of work too and there wasn’t too good a connection so I had to ask her a few times what she had just said. In the dream I was in the apartment and walking through the kitchen and all of a sudden there was a water leak from somewhere where there isn’t any pipes or anything like that.

Just thought it was odd and it’s what actually woke me up from a fairly deep sleep of about a hour.

The day has been OK. Last night was cool too. Last night was watching Olbermann and then Radio Days with Bill. Funny thing is, when I first saw Radio Days in 1986 I didn’t much care for it. It was good, but I thought it was too treacly.

Too close to Neil Simon territory for me. It wasn’t until a few years later did I realize that it’s probably one of Woody Allen’s best. Seth Green was excellent in in. I wonder whatever happened to him?

We totally bypassed the news and watched instead 30 Rock from the other night. That had to be one of the funniest episodes ever, if only for Alec Baldwin on the subway. He had the panhandler spiel down pat.

It was hilarious, not to demean panhandlers of course. At least the ones who actually need to beg for money, not the scam artists.

It was 11:30 when Bill decided it was the best time to start shredding papers. That was a bit unnerving. I wound up going to be around 1:00, leaving Bill to watch Colin Ferguson with Ewan McGregor alone. I did catch the Pixies on Conan O’Brien and they were actually pretty good. Looked like they all were getting along too.

Never quite got into the Pixies though even after I’d seen them at McSwells. Slept well and woke up to see Bill shredding some more paper. The room was more crowded than it was before I went to sleep. Bill was off for some physical therapy, deep tissue massage for his knees.

I went out and got the paper and some bagels. Nothing for the third floor family though. Bill came home with his own bagels and eventually did what he does all the time with his bagels. He puts them in the oven until their charred and then he eats them.

Drives me crazy and stinks up the apartment with the odor of burnt bread. He’s a strange one that Bill, but I can’t help but love him. Despite that, with each gnaw of a burnt bagel I climbed the wall an inch or two.

I decided to head into the city just to get away. A walk around midtown on a Saturday afternoon. No one around except tourists and they were easy to avoid.

I hadn’t had a cigar in a while so I bought one at Barclay Rex and wandered around. It wasn’t as exciting as it sounded though and soon enough, I was on the Path train heading back home to Hoboken.

Bill was off driving to Atlantic City today and isn’t coming back until tomorrow. So no burnt bagels tonight.

Everyone Says ‘Hi’

So they tell me it’s Friday. That means tomorrow is Saturday. And the people that work will be roaming around on the streets. Today people who do work, well some of them took off to cheer their favorite baseball team, the Yankees.

Nice to have the fans all corralled somewhere, easily identified and tagged before being let into the wild again.

I really can’t say anything bad about the Yankee fans since Bill is a Yankee fan. The exception to the rule. He didn’t make it to the parade in Lower Manhattan. He has a job and wants to keep it.

Despite the shooting at Fort Hood yesterday in Texas, the big news around here was the parade. Just as well though since I’m trying to ween myself off the cable news lately. Just too much information and most of it bad news. Perhaps the Yankee parade could be seen as a relief, a tonic for the troops as it were. Also an office shooting in Orlando FL this afternoon.

Instead of all that I watched Mad Men. I’ve been watching this season since there is a free on demand service on the cable system here. No Ovation channel but free AMC on demand. The last episode I watched takes place on November 22, 1963.

When that happened, I was only a year and two months old so my recollection is mighty fuzzy. It was interesting to watch how life stopped for a few days for some, and for others it went on, slightly adjusted due to then unforeseen circumstances.

Just had a very nice interruption. Julio’s wife Stine gave me some meatballs and a cabbage, carrot sauce. She was making them and texted me that she was making them as I was eating dinner myself. Jet taught me years ago that you should never turn down free food.

Stine made me an excellent meat sauce the other day, which I’ve had half of with some pasta. I will probably finish that off tomorrow. I’ll have the meatballs for lunch. It was nice to spend a little bit of time with Stine and Alexander.

Kicked a ball back and forth with Alexander and if I might make a prediction, he has the potential to be an excellent soccer player. He rarely let the ball get past him and kicked it directly back to me. He’s amazing.

Maybe other kids are just like that, but Alexander is actually the first kid that I’ve seen with regularity, watching him grow and develop every couple of days. Today he danced and laughed and kicked a ball. According to Stine he does a lot of this to impress me.

Just like his father. But I’m more impressed by Alexander, no matter how many times Julio screams, ‘Look at me! Look at me!’

I also watched RockNRolla, directed by Guy Ritchie. Not as good as Snatch but somewhat enjoyable. I got it from the library and went back to drop it off, I noticed I had a little bit of swagger in my walk. Just a little bit.

I’m just happy to have my food this weekend all set and just needs to be reheated.

I plan on getting Stine some flowers tomorrow as a thank you.

Yankees Good. Phillies are bad = Gay. Yay let's hear let's hear it for sportsmanship! Gotta love those classy Yankees fans!

Yankees Good. Phillies are bad = Gay. Yay let's hear let's hear it for sportsmanship! Gotta love those classy Yankees fans!