Tag Archives: Bus Terminal

(I’m) Stranded

1 Reply

Late news breaking, late news breaking. Not really news, just the usual blah blah blah from me. Just got back from a late snack with Julio. He with his hummus and pita and me with a burger. And some Stella Artois to accompany the meals.

A good time, a nice talk. He’s still a good guy and a good friend.

It was quite a hot day today, 90 degree range, closer to 100 degrees than I would have hoped. Quite humid out, so much so that by the time I got to the office I was drenched with sweat.

I don’t take the subway on weekends since the service really falls off on Saturday and Sunday. I did stop by the Farmer’s Market and picked up some cookies for the co-workers again. Just a little something nice, something sweet to glue the team together.

No Richard III auditions today. But there was a different type of royalty that visited the cigar shop this afternoon. Specifically the Prince of Morocco. Really.

There were a number of Middle Eastern guys standing outside the shop for an hour or so this afternoon, no one paying them much mind. Then a few of them came in and checked things out, followed by a handsome man in an emerald green polo shirt.

He checked out a few cigar punches and almost didn’t buy them until I demonstrated how they are used best with a large ring gauge cigar, which just so happens to be the ring gauge I prefer. He bought 2 cigar punches.

Then he asked to see some lighters and I showed them to him. He picked out 5 different lights and then left, leaving someone else to pay the $1500.00 bill.

It was my sale and I couldn’t have completed it without the help of Raymond, Don Birch and Sean, so I treated them to some milk chocolate covered pretzels from Godiva. They were surprised by my gratitude, so unaccustomed to behavior like this.

Luckily for me the pretzels were on sale, 3 boxes for $10.00.

It was the highlight of my day. The Prince also stopped by the leather goods shop next door where he dropped $20,000. It was more low key after the visit from Moroccan royalty. The 4 of us just passing the time, Don Birch waiting until he can leave at 7:30.

Sean, Raymond and I hung I there until 9:00. Sean and Raymond split after that, I stayed behind to close up the shop as that is my duty.

I hustled down to the bus terminal in 15.9 minutes, from Something About England to The Crooked Beat from the Clash’s Sandinista.

It being the weekend people in the terminal didn’t know of escalator protocol, instead of staying to the right if you’re not climbing the stairs on the escalator. I opted to climb the stairs next to the escalator, taking 2 at a time to make my bus.

I was doing well, listening to the Clash until I got to the top step where I tripped and landed on my hands and knees. It must have made for a sight for the escalator clots.

I gathered whatever it was that I dropped and quickened my pace to my gate where I found the bus had departed. In front of me was an Asian dude who started talking to me about how hot it was. As It got more crowded and I inched toward him I could smell the booze coming out of his pores.

I was glad to make it to Hoboken and glad to have a late meal with Julio who couldn’t stop laughing when I told him of my fall at the top of the stairs. I knew he would get a giggle out of it.

Still quite hot and Bill’s in Atlantic City.

Loudmouth

Leave a reply

Well it’s Monday yet again. Not thrilled about it but I feel I have a new lease on life job-wise. And I’m also convinced Tom Chin is a stupid asshole. But that’s neither here nor there. Last night, came home after wandering aimlessly around Fun City. Had some ravioli and watched a few seconds of the Super Bowl. Scrubs was on and I decided to watch that instead. Though I’ve probably seen most of the episodes, I preferred it to watching football.

Never enjoyed watching it, though I used to play in the street on Gunther Avenue in Lodi. Just touch football, counting Mississippi, and no clearly defined boundaries, as well as an occasional timeout so that cars could pass, but besides looking at big men in tights, there was little else to hold my interest while watching a game on TV or at Giants Stadium where I was often dragged to. And I always hear about the commercials during the Super Bowl but they’re never on when I watch, or they’re on, and the fact that they are commercials, I tune them right out. I’m sure they will be repeated ad infinitum, though I did try watching a few of them online, but they were pulled off whatever website I was attempting to watch.

I did watch Pioneers of Television a series of shows about the history of television. It’s been very entertaining, and a good way to lead up to The Wire. That was good, things are falling into place or falling all over the place, depending on what plot you are following. I was surprised that throughout the show, my sister Annemarie called me up with, ‘Did you see that play?’ I told her that I was watching The Wire. That didn’t stop her from calling every time something happened during the big game. It was a big deal around these parts since this is Giants country and Annemarie comes from a family of Giants fans it was justified I guess.

I tried watching via the Picture in Picture program on the TV screen but it was too distracting, especially when Omar got caught and almost killed if it weren’t for his sudden leap from a balcony 5 stories up. Somehow he got away, so we’ll see what happened to him next week. Watching the show you do hope Omar kills Marlo and soon since there’s only a handful of episodes left. After The Wire I finally tuned into the last 10 seconds of the Super Bowl.

The Giants were winning, the coach of the New England Patriots left the field and was headed to the locker room. A bunch of congratulatory speeches were made, a god was thanked a few times, because it would not have been possible if the god didn’t favor a football team from East Rutherford New Jersey, though labeled a New York team over a football team from Massachusetts. Yes, some god was on the side of the Mara family, not smiting the opposition, just sending them to the showers earlier than they had hoped. Then it was off to bed, falling asleep and waking up 6.5 hours later to go to work.

I was busy all day trying to find restaurants near the Hamptons so Greg Stevens could host a business lunch near one of his homes. It took a while since I don’t know the difference between Nassau and Suffolk counties, not that there is much difference between them. Found a few for Greg, did some inane tasks for Tom Chin and was hoping to get out early today only to have Vivek ask me to help him out with something that I offered to help him out with last week.

I didn’t leave the office until after 6:00, in time to get on a long line at the bus terminal. I didn’t mind much. The bus had only fifteen people on it when the driver was told to leave the gate. That made for a comfortable ride home, which is where I am at now. And I’m happy.

Yes We Can Can