Tag Archives: Andrew Frost and Joel Greenberg

Your Eyes

I’m pretty tired. Pounding the pavement today. It actually went well. Walked from the Path train to 40 Wall Street, where I took the elevators to the Third and Fourth Floors.

It wasn’t the dank hole I expected it to be and I didn’t see any dank holes like I expected to see. I don’t know why the Susquehanna Investment Group has such a bad reputation.

You might think that a privately held global investment, trading and technology firm servicing securities markets worldwide would have their slack cut for them but apparently that’s not so.

Arthur Dantchik, Jeff Yass, Steve Bloom, Eric Brooks, Andrew Frost and Joel Greenberg all sent their warmest greetings and regards. Yass and Dantchik are a pair of regular jokers, with the knock knock jokes and other Pennsylvania humor.

They seemed like good guys though behind closed doors, the refrain of ‘watch the teeth, watch the teeth’ did raise some eyebrows. I didn’t stay too long, just long enough to make my presence known. Susquehanna Investment Group certainly gets it’s name in the news often enough, oddly though it doesn’t involve insider trading, at least not yet.

Soon I was on my way to Broad Street, to Barclay Rex. Nice situation, Wall Street area, good looking men in their suits and ties. I’d be happy to be one of them should the need arise. I had a good meeting with the manager and the assistant manager.

Never had a meeting before where I was offered a cigar. Of course I said yes and sat there smoking a cigar and answering questions. I answered honestly and truthfully and that seemed to be what they wanted to hear.

No trying to figure out what that might be, just saying it and them looking a bit amazed at my responses. After about an hour our meeting was over. They said I could sit there and finish the cigar so that’s what I did.

Walked over to the train and headed uptown. Saw David Allen Grier on the street as I made my way to see Bill. Also took a look at a spot where Tariq said he sometimes plays for the tourist dollar but the only people besides tourists were sketch artists.

It was good to see Bill. He’s so supportive, saying things about how good I looked and really happy to hear that the meeting went so well. I was certainly glad to be able to tell him some good news for a change, especially after me being a bit gloomy the past couple of days.

We walked over to Godiva where Bill bought a bag of dark chocolate truffles for me. They were almost as sweet as Bill. Walked over to Macy’s after that. They’re having a sale on eyeglasses so I checked them out. Of course the frames on sale were crap, and not my style.

I did see some nice ones that were more expensive and maybe the insurance will cover them somewhat. Despite all the care I put into the eyeglasses I have now, somehow they’ve wound up scratched. And I rarely used paper to clean the lenses, always used the special cloths that were recommended.

Maybe I’m paranoid but one of the last times I was at Cohen’s Optical and had them fix a screw, I could swear they were given back to me more scratched than they were originally. Another meeting is scheduled for next week and Bill suggests I wear the exact same thing for my ‘call back’. Seems like a novel idea.

In that case, I had better get the shirt and tie to the cleaners forthwith!

Forsooth!

That's my Bill

That's my Bill


Me, smoking 'their' cigar

Me, smoking 'their' cigar

Be Stiff

Yes it’s a Friday again. Nothing special on this end. Would have been the end of my first work if I stayed at the place I wasn’t too comfortable in. I know I did the smart thing though. Feeling better today than I would have if I stayed, despite what someone in Bala Cynwyd thinks.

Some people call him ‘Maurice’, cause it speaks for the pompatus of the working stiffs. But it wasn’t the Maurice that I knew and loved though. I did hear from him, I guess he’s still happily married in Portland.

Facebook suggested getting in touch with him a week or so ago, and since I do just about everything that Facebook suggests I sent him a message. He replied in kind, with his phone number so I might just call him up and check in this weekend.

Today was spent doing laundry, cleaning up and buying groceries. Big snowstorm expected. Bill was supposed to drive to Atlantic City tonight but all trips were canceled since down in South Jersey they’re expecting about a foot of snow. He was disappointed in this, but I was glad I didn’t have to spend the night worrying.

A while back at the old job, the real one that I enjoyed working at, I received a gift certificate for a restaurant group in Manhattan. Nice pricey gift card too. I called to check to see if it was still valid and was told that they didn’t expire.

So since next weekend is Valentine’s Day I thought taking Bill out for a nice dinner would be cool. Get dressed up, have some good food and just enjoy a night out. I asked Bill if he would be available but since he’s not driving this weekend, he’s looking forward to driving a bus next weekend, leaving me to play the role of Alice Kramden in Hoboken.

Valentine’s day has been a varying thing each year. The first couple of years it was all good, but then there was a year that Bill was complaining about all the hype and the crass commercialism of Valentine’s day.

The next year he was in the swing of it and has been for the past few years. Last year Bill won a contest at his company cafeteria and had a very nice lunch for us. It’s not your average cafeteria, and we had poached salmon and some nice wine, followed by a nice dessert.

He also gave me a Cuisinart coffee maker last year too which I use every day. He doesn’t use it since he doesn’t drink coffee. Let’s face it, I’m a bus widower. Still it could be worse.

Tickets for The Specials in April went on sale for Terminal 5 today. Cheap too, $30.00 but not in this weeks budget. I could scrimp and save next week if they’re still on sale. Even though Jerry Dammers isn’t in the band these days, (he was the founder you know) the original band is still intact.

I just hope there is a ticket available on Wednesday. Other than that, just looking forward to the big snow, or any snow. I’ll go out and take pictures if and when I can. Other than that, I do have some DVD’s from the library (there I go suckling at the teat of the government, thanks Mo).

I have the Led Zeppelin collection that came out a few years ago, 2 disc set mastered by Jimmy Page, Zack & Miri Make a Porno- which looks very silly, directed by Kevin Smith, My Dinner with Andre- which I had never seen, directed by Louis Malle. That’s a 2 disc set as well, and in the player is Up, the Pixar flick that came out last year and is supposed to be very good.

It’s in the DVD player so I can surprise Bill later and just turn on the machine and it should start playing. Thanks BCCLS!

And just so you don’t think I only take DVD’s out from the library, I have a biography of Robert Mapplethorpe ready to be read.