Bill | johnozed | Page 184

Well I slept well last night and with Bill not going to the day job I couldn’t depend on his good bye kiss to gently wake me up. He lay in bed with his apnea mask on and I tossed and turned and did my usual bargaining with the snooze button, eventually getting out of bed and shuffling into the kitchen to make coffee, poured the cereal and then stepped into the shower.

Bill did not get out of bed until about 15 minutes before I left, a nice hug and a kiss occurred and soon I was trampling down the stairs to the street. It was breezier than it’s been the temperatures were in the low 60 degree range.

The bus wasn’t that crowded and once again there was no sign of Deborah from the fourth floor in my building. I didn’t mind, I just stared out the window as we drove up Washington Street. Into the city in no time, and after the subway ride uptown I got an iced coffee and started my day with Bradley and Thomas.

Both were in a good mood and it turned out that yesterday was a good day sales wise for the cigar shack. It was a slow start for me though, and then one of the registers crashed. We restarted it and the usual password was no longer effective.

A call to Calvin was made, but since he was off performing his familial duties he wasn’t getting back to us right away. A call to Marcus who is now persona non grata offered no help with the password. SO a call had to be made with the IT department of the cigar shack headquarters, and they weren’t exactly available. A message was left for them to get in touch with us since it was a relatively urgent matter. No register, no sales, no money coming in. Not a good thing.

I eventually went to lunch, leaving Thomas to deal with the IT guy when he finally called back an hour later. It was a slow day at the shop. Most everyone now buys their cigars on Thursday before the weekend so they could make an early getaway from the city, so the one register would have to do.

Thomas had also planned Friday afternoon movies, just a little entertainment, free of cost, just buy a cigar sit back and relax. Unfortunately some of his choices are movies that I generally avoid. I was given the go ahead to pick the next line up.

Today’s movie was Hear No Evil, See No Evil. The last team up of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. I remember going to the movies with Julio when this movie came out, both of us quite red eyed.

We went to Secaucus and everyone was going to see the Harrison Ford/Sean Connery movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark 3 and since we were both contrarians, we opted for Hear No Evil, See No Evil. Despite being in a mellow altered state, it was quite a lousy movie.

Thomas has also picked up both the Godfather 1 and Godfather 2 as well as Godfather 3 which he picked since it is a series. Just that part 3 is not very good at all. He also picked up Scarface, not the classic starring Paul Muni, but rather that atrocious piece of shit starring Al Pacino and directed by that awful hack, Brian De Palma.

I’ve only seen it on VHS and it was a 2 tape set. I never made it beyond the first tape. I always chuckle at the young idiots today wearing t-shirts with Tony Montana’s visage on the front, thinking that this generation does not know good films at all. Then again that generation (as well as older generations) have no problem with branding.

I forgot to mention I met NJ Senator Frank Lautenberg yesterday. He was near the cigar shack as I was coming back from lunch. I called out ‘Senator’ and he stopped and shook my hand and introduced myself as being from Hoboken to which he mentioned that he loves Hoboken. It was a nice and brief meeting and he went his way and I went back to work.

Hitting the ground running. That’s how it went for me today. Last night wasn’t so bad, chilled with Bill which was quite nice. I could not fall asleep fast enough, though Bill of course falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.

After an hour of lying in bed and sweating I was soon in front of the computer seeing if any insomniac friends were awake and online. They weren’t and after a few minutes I was soon able to fall asleep.

It wasn’t the usual amount of sleep since I had to get up a little earlier than most days. I was opening the shop after arranging to switch hours with Bradley. I am going to see Karyn Kuhl play with her band on Pier 13 tonight.

I made it to the store on time after riding the bus with an entirely different set of commuters. These people seem to have their act together and the bus which was a coach was comfortable and air conditioned.

Within 60 seconds of me opening the store a woman came in, wanting 3 items that she showed me pictures of. We had all three items and one was designed to look distressed. That was the one she wanted polished.

I did my best to polish it up but it wasn’t to her liking. She left the store having other errands to do and said she would come back. She told me she was a personal shopper and that she was buying silver items for someone’s 25th wedding anniversary.

It was all rather hectic, probably more hectic than it is when Bradley opens up the store. I did about $1500.00 worth of sales before 11:00 and that didn’t even count the personal shopper. She came back when I went to lunch and I gave the commission to Bradley. I had made enough money for the day.

Now I am back home. I left work early after dropping off some cigarillos at a customer’s apartment near the cigar shack. I walked with Sean who has been working in the area. He was on break and decided to walk with me. He’s going to Six Flags with his fraternity brothers tomorrow and I advised him to be careful.

A quick ride home via an express train and a waiting bus. I climbed the four flights of steps, threw the last of Stine’s hot dogs on the George Foreman and changed from my suit & tie into blue jeans and a shirt.

Knowing that I would be on the river and that it would likely be cool, I wore a suit jacket on top of all that and once the sun went down I knew I made the right decision. Rand & Lisa showed up and the three of us had a good time, hanging out.

We saw various friends from all over Hoboken. Rand had a beer, Lisa had wine and I smoked a cigar while Karyn Kuhl rocked hard in a funky place. It was a long enough set and the crowd was nice enough. My body clock was all messed up from getting up earlier than usual this morning and I was feeling pretty tired.

Plus I was still standing around, not in a cigar shop, but on a grassy pier on the Hudson River. Still I am glad to have gone out and see friends. I hope to do the same thing in August when another friend plays Pier 13 with the Neutron Drivers.

It is a fun place to see a show and the bands are generally entertaining and you certainly can’t beat the view.