Cigar Shack | johnozed

It’s Thursday today. It was quite hot, when I checked the outdoor thermometer near the cigar shack it read 98 degrees. A bit much if you ask me. Quite warm out, felt like everything was as slow as molasses, with the exception of tempers. And one of those tempers could have been mine but I kept a cool head and carried a light bulb.

Last night I had fun with Bill. He was auditioning for a part in a play, that involved playing some rock & roll piano. Bill doesn’t know much about rock & roll, so it turned into Bill sitting in one room at his keyboard and me in another room in front of the computer playing songs by Little Richard, Elton John, Joe Jackson, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, the Beatles, and the Kingsmen.

It’s a good thing I played the Kingsmen since when Bill played that at the audition, it was a tune they recognized and jumped in and played along. I mean really, who can resist Louie Louie?

Bill stopped by the cigar shack after the audition since the audition was just around the corner. It was definitely good to see him, made my day. Such a positive force and spirit in my life, I am sure I would have been lost without him. So I am going to keep him.

Tonight the Black Eyed Peas were scheduled to have a show in Central Park on the Great Lawn. A benefit for the Robin Hood Foundation, a free show, but tickets were required. Then the skies opened up, lighting and thunder and now no one knows if the show is going on after all.

LL Cool J, Debbie Harry, MC Hammer, Tony Bennett & Carole King were scheduled to appear on stage but it could very well turn into a Diana Ross debacle. They kept postponing the start of the show from 7:30 until 8:30 when it was officially cancelled.

I remember the Diana Ross show in Central Park. I was driving a van for the school book company and sneaking my way through the park on the eastern drive. It was early enough, around 4:30- 5:00, to see people heading to the Great Lawn and as I headed out of the park I could see ominous clouds on the New Jersey horizon.

Dark clouds, with lightning and thunder approaching. Well they went ahead with that show and it was a disaster. I wasn’t going to the show anyway and I don’t know anyone who was so basically I didn’t care. They were smart enough to cancel the show tonight. Only 60,000 tickets were given out as opposed to the 150,000 people who attended Miss Ross’ catastrophe.

It was an interesting day other than that. I received a message from an old Maxwells friend. Someone I like but can’t afford to worry about. He’s fond of the drink and has sobered up and fallen off the wagon way too many times to count. He asked me to call him and when I did I woke him up from a nap.

He tried to get into rehab again last night and was turned away due to the late hour. He’s also seeing a friend of mine and she’s nice and nurturing and I would hate to see her get hurt from his alcoholic antics. Within moments of calling him I couldn’t wait to get off the phone.

There were customers to deal with and I didn’t want to hear again the story of the last woman he dated who he now routinely calls a skank. Next time I will just communicate via emails or online messages. Sleepy, slurred words don’t help anyone.

Another hot day before the start of summer. Tomorrow I am off and the temperature expected is supposed to be around 94 degrees which is crazy. It’s been a somewhat busy day at the cigar shack.

Thomas opened up the store, Bradley was off today and probably still ill. I came in at 11:30 and was followed by a new part timer, Jerry Vale. Jerry came in a little before his appointed hour, 1:00 and immediately set about going to work.

He’s older than me by the way which makes him the oldest employee at the cigar shack. After Calvin, I’m the oldest serving employee, or rather the longest serving. He’s a nice guy, affable and of course nervous.

Nervousness when starting a new job is certainly understandable. Last year I had a near perfect meltdown when starting. My personality (or lack thereof) was so tied into what I was doing as an employee that after 11 months of unemployment I had no clue about who I was and what was expected of me.

Not that I have any clearer picture now, but I think I am closer to knowing something about myself. And that is I simply don’t like working retail. Still it’s preferable to driving a truck for US Beef, casually turning vegetables into vegans.

It’s almost summer in the city and the area where the cigar shack is has a declining population lately. The guys I work with are enjoying the scantily clad women walking by and I have to say the men walking by have been an eyeful as well.

And now I am home. It was a long-ish day, not necessarily long, but it felt that way. And getting home at the end of a long-ish wasn’t easy. Too many people, too hot, crowded buses. Really not my cup of tea.

Tired of writing, hitting that wall.

This time last year, I worked my first 11:30 to 9:30 shift. I had gotten tickets to see The Colbert Report taping but had to turn them down since I was working. When I requested the tickets I was out of work, but there I was, employed.

The night before, June 6, 2010 I saw Bill at The Theater for the New City in a play called Tiger Tiger where he played a super creepy father who molests his daughter. Really Ewww.

Bill went to the cast party and I came home and exchanged emails with a friend of a friend on Facebook who told me that I was more that my job. That’s something that I seem to always have difficulty remembering.

At the cigar shack last year, Harold the guy who I would be replacing in July was fired. The cigar shack received a letter a few weeks later after the firing while Harold was collecting unemployment benefits that Harold was working as a male escort or at the very least, showing off his muscles to be worshipped.

Calvin received the letter which directed him to Rent Boy, a website that has that type of stuff. Definitely not safe for work.

That’s it. I’m beat. Tomorrow is a day off.