Tag Archives: Bill

I’m Gonna Lock My Heart (And Throw Away the Key)

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It’s Friday! I made it through! And now I have three days off! And Annemarie’s flying in tomorrow! And I am going overboard with exclamation points! But I don’t care!

It was an decent day. My stress last night from work still haunted me enough, that when Bill was kissing me goodbye as I slept he mentioned that I would have a good day at work.

Work. The mere mention of it freaked me out. I didn’t have that good a night’s sleep last night and the last hour after Bill left was anxiety ridden. I rallied and got out of bed. Suit hanging up, more ready for the day that I was.

Shower, breakfast, coffee. Soon I was at the Washington Street bus stop. Not too hot out, it was in the 80 degree range. I had a smoke while I waited for the bus, away from a dad and his baby strapped to his chest.

He was hoping to catch the 89 bus but he didn’t wave his hand so the bus just went right on by. I figured he was waiting for a bus to take him up Washington Street and told him that another bus would soon be approaching. But it wasn’t the 89 bus so he walked away.

I was in the bus terminal in no time, and soon on the subway hurtling uptown. I had enough time to hang out but decided to be proactive and head into the shop to clear up the things I thought I neglected to do last night.

But apparently what I neglected to do was remedied easily enough, just a simple point and click. All that wasted anxiety! After that it was all easy and I bought some red grapes and shared them with Don
Some of the good customers came in today, meaning the customers I like. I also sold a pricey box of cigars and shipped them off to Connecticut. The day went well and I also picked up the latest Mojo and Uncut magazines.

Another favorite customer laid a Cuban cigar on me since I recommended he pick up You Never Give Me Your Money. He’s a Beatles fanatic as well. He too couldn’t put the book down and when he finally did he felt like taking a shower afterward.

It was awfully nice of him to give me a Cuban cigar and he asked when the last time I had a Cuban and I answered in the 1990’s. I’m sure someone, somewhere down the line gave me a Cuban stick. Probably at Right Track.

I enjoyed a strong, full bodied cigar at lunch time. My daily freebie. Raymond recommended it after I told him I wanted a cigar that would fuck me up. It didn’t really, but it was strong enough and a good smoke.

The afternoon went by rather quickly. I played a few Beatles albums, the Dark Was The Night compilation, Bob Marley & the Wailers- Kaya and Bob Dylan’s Bootleg series Vol. 8.

I turned a customer into Nick Drake enough that he ran out and bought a collection after hearing River Man.

I had no problems with closing tonight, Raymond was around to answer any questions that I might have had. It got me out of the store soon enough.

I couldn’t tell you the time it took to get from the cigar shop to the bus terminal since I played Feed the Animals by Girl Talk, the one continuous track. But I would say it was the average 16-17 minutes, me marching down the avenue like Harrison Ford chasing Joanna Cassidy in Blade Runner.

This gent was making a mandala at 3:55 at Columbus Circle.

I’m Coming Home

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Well it was back to work after having off yesterday. And yesterday when it was 100° I was home in my underwear. It’s a nice enough image. Today when it was 100° I was in a suit and tie. That was what the temperature was when I had lunch at 3:30.

That’s the time to have lunch when you’re starting later than usual and also closing the store. It wasn’t so bad to have lunch at a late hour. Once again I sat by the park on a bench, reading the New Yorker from May and enjoying a free cigar.

A $25.00 cigar at that.

It was Marcus for a little while then he was off to get ready for his upcoming nuptials. Calvin and Raymond and eventually Sean came in. Raymond and Sean are both on thin ice, Sean because he was spending too much in the backroom and not working.

He’s a 19 year old father of a three year old and doesn’t care if he gets fired since he can always get a part time job at Hermes and his only expense is school books. No child support from him. He actually asked that if he gets a phone call from someone to say he’s not there.

Yes, he’s avoiding the mother of the baby boy, and not offering any child support.

Raymond offered to stick around while I closed the store, specifically reconciling the register. AT 9:01 he was out the door. So much for sticking around if I had any questions. In any event I was able to close the register and I’ll find out tomorrow whether or not I did it right.

I listened to MGMT after leaving the shop and got from there to the bus terminal in 16.1 minutes. Luckily I caught the bus and got a nice seat just seconds before the bus left the gate.

Last night things were quite heavy here in Hoboken, specifically in the apartment. The whole Bill wearing a guayabera thing blew up and got quite heated. Lot’s of yelling and getting in each others faces.

I yelled that I was willing to cancel the party and Bill said go right ahead. In the middle of this my cousin Joe called. He might be making it to the party on Sunday. I tell you, that if it weren’t for Joe’s call I probably would have canceled the whole shebang.

It was good to hear from Joe. I don’t believe I ever spoke to him on the phone before. He’s older than I am, closer to Frank and Annemarie’s age group than mine. Theresa and myself are the youngest in this group of cousins.

There is a younger cousin, Terrance but I haven’t seen him in 35 years. And that branch of the family tree doesn’t seem to want to have anything to do with the rest of us, possibly from having bad feelings regarding their late father, my uncle which is the point of contact between us and them.

Doesn’t matter to me though. They’re somewhere out on Long Island along with other cousins that are unreachable or otherwise engaged.

I’m just glad the cousins I like are coming. And also glad that you might be coming. You know who you are. And Bill and I are just fine, thank you very much.