Birthday | johnozed

It’s a dreary gray Friday afternoon. I got out of work around 2:30 this afternoon and rather than walk across midtown enjoying a birthday cigar I took a subway which I rarely do. It was raining but not hard enough to warrant an umbrella since I only had to walk a block or so.

Now I have that ‘I might have napped too long’ feeling despite the fact I didn’t really have a restful nap. Phone calls and phone buzzing kept interrupting. Missed a birthday greeting from Chaz, but earlier I did speak with my sister Annemarie, as well as a voice mail from her and my nephew Earl.

Also heard from Queen Jane Approximately, Constant Connie, Sweet Sarah and Brenda Bubbles, Adorable Adrienne and Lovely Rita and Harpy and Julio and Stine with a picture of that adorable little man, Alexander.

Text messages from assorted nieces and maybe my brother Brian or his son Brian. I just can’t tell. Actually I can tell. I just checked and it was from my brother. My other brother Frank hasn’t called and that means if he doesn’t call later, he will call on the weekend and feel bad about not calling on my birthday.

It’s not a big deal. It would have been years ago. It might have been last year. But this year? Eh, no biggie. Last year Bill gave me a saucepan for a birthday present. I found it an odd present since I’m not much of a cook or a foodie.

I don’t watch the Food Network, or Armenia’s Next Top Chef or Gordon Ramsey or whatever. But since the spot where I get my penne, pesto and chicken in Manhattan, Cafe Fonduta went under I have been lacking pesto in my life.

So having watched the guys prepare the pesto, I think I can do it myself and finally have a reason to break out that sauce pan. It’s still in the box. I figure I can take a teaspoon of pesto, some heavy cream, some olive oil and imitate the guys. Or I can try to look it up online somewhere.

Perhaps there’s a video on YouTube that shows the How To.
Or perhaps you dear reader, would have a recipe to make a nice pesto sauce.

Bill just came home and we’re going to go out for some steaks at Arthur’s steakhouse on Washington Street. Hopefully it will be better than last year, when we went for my birthday after a few other things going wrong earlier in the day.

My churlishness towards the saucepan (embarrassing 365 days later) and the fact that some disgruntled mail room worker wished that I would die since I had decided to smoke a Padron and walk along Park Avenue during my lunch hour.

Birthday wishes also came from some new Facebook friends (Andres et al.) as well as a dear friend, Betti Cola. It’s still raining and my bones are tired after tossing and turning in the late gray afternoon but in a few minutes Bill and I will head over to Arthur’s where hopefully they will have their credit card machines up and running, unlike last year.

Just got back, excellent dinner with Bill. Arthur’s wasn’t too crowded, credit card machine in order and I was caught by surprise with a few waitresses singing Happy Birthday to me with a wonderful slice of chocolate mousse cake with a candle on top. I turned a thousand shades blushing.

A walk around Washington Street followed, me finally enjoying my birthday cigar in the misty evening.

That seems to be it for the day. Loveliness abounds.

Here’s some quite recent snaps as well as something else. Thank you for your good wishes

and here I thought I wasn’t going to write tonight!

It’s hummus out once again. Much like sitting in a sauna, wearing a damp wool sweater that itches. Today was the day of Bill’s birthday. Bill is 44 today and at heart he’s 14. Which is a nice position to be in sometimes.

Last night Bill stayed at his mother’s apartment in Stuyvesant Town, he’s been keeping an eye on her since her supposed leaving the apartment the other night and getting lost on 14th street. Bill was able to take his mother to church today and then they had a nice lunch, finally dropping her off at the apartment.

Bill and I made plans to go out to Garfield for my niece Meghan and her husband Rob’s first wedding anniversary, so a BBQ was in order. I made arrangements to have Meghan’s sister Cory pick Bill and myself at the train station, as well as getting a ride back to Hoboken.

Everyone was there excepting Annemarie, Rex and Earl since they’re stuck in Northern California much to their consternation? Dismay? Rotten luck? And it’s smoky out there, no sun which a 50 degree average temperature.

Unbearably hot and sticky here with intermittent rain showers that make the humidity worse. Much like it is now. It was good to see most of my family again, Brian and Karen with their three kids, Hillary, Brian and Cassie. Brian’s got summer school this year which is something both his father and I could relate to.

I told Brian how I used to have to go to Hackensack High School my junior year for summer school, usually hitchhiking up Essex Street. I was able to get a ride a few times with no bad results and I eventually passed the class somehow while my parents went on vacation to Disney World without me. Brother Frank was there of course, with Elaine.

Brother Brian mentioned to me that he sometimes reads this blog of mine which was a trip to hear. I guess he knows about it, he sends me emails to johnozed, so perhaps he took it a step further and did a search, or more than likely I told him about it back in 2005 while we were both getting our drink on at his wife Karen’s 50th birthday party. I didn’t think he would remember it, but here he was telling me about reading it. I mentioned that he should write a comment about it, which is what I tell everyone.

Everyone was in good moods and having a good time. All very pleasant, no heavy drama and just a thunderstorm that lingered for about 15 minutes before turning the Field of Gar into a swamp once again. Excellent cake by Elaine as well a great grilled food by my nephew in law, Rob. Bill enjoyed the cuff links I got him and I told him about the tickets, but not actually showing him our access to Xanadu.

Bill brought up that when we watched a clip of the show on TV, there were people on the stage sitting there. Originally he thought that it was a chorus, but then noticed that they weren’t singing. He asked me about that and I decided to tell him that was we were going to be seated.

On stage, watching the show from behind the performers. He got super excited about that, and I have to admit, I am super excited about it too. That’s next Sunday, something to look forward to.

Tomorrow is back to work, a full three day work week, how horrible. Boo hoo.

Does sarcasm translate online?

Time to chill out for the evening. Bill’s coming back later with some things from his mother’s apartment so I have to wait for Bill to ring the bell so I can go down stairs and help him up with whatever it is that he has.

Here are some snaps from todays festivities. Have a good week and Happy Pride to all!

The birthday boy, farty far this year.