Tag Archives: Cigar Shop

If Dogs Run Free

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Well it’s a Friday night and here I am in the cigar shop. Thought I would be leaving early tonight but it seems like that is not going to happen. We’re not playing with a full deck, understaffed as it were. Raymond got the ax this morning.

Apparently the complaint from a customer about being rude was all about him. According to Calvin, Raymond tried to throw me under a bus. But with all the video cameras here in the shop, Marcus and Calvin deduced that that I was the one actually helping the customer and it was Raymond who came off badly with the customer.

The customer who thought he was treated badly did not mail a letter to headquarters in New England but instead wrote a letter to the ultimate headquarters in Geneva. Now with Raymond being on probation since June, this was the final straw. The straw that broke the camel’s back.

Raymond did help throw together an evening of classic boxing and since he’s no longer here I am taking his place which is quite funny since I know barely nothing about boxing that isn’t considered homoerotic. Joyce Carol Oates knows more about boxing than I do.

So I’m just standing around while the guys smoke and drink in the back. Outside the shop it’s Fashion Week and it sounds like a disco. Loud music and girls in fuck me pumps, looking like harlots. Which happens to be the shoes that harlots wear so it works out quite nicely for them I suppose.

I’m rushing through this, trying to get 500 words under my belt. It sucks what happened to Raymond, but what really sucks if what Calvin said is true that Raymond tried to get me fired. I can’t believe it, but right now, What Is Love playing,outside which I always associate with Saturday Night Live.

I did see Mos Def walking through trying to look invisible. It looks like I won’t get home until after midnight, since I also have to clean up this mess after the boxing match. It shouldn’t be too bad since there aren’t that many guys.

Most of the guys who said they were coming were Raymond’s Friends and now that he’s gone, he probably called up and said not to go. C’est la vie. Less mess.

I did over $2500.00 in sales, Calvin did $2300.00. Not bad, but it was very busy for us two.

I have less than 100 words to write. It’s loud outside the shop, sounds like 2 competing DJ’s going at it. Heard Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order and a bunch of other stuff thrown on top of that.

My second cousin Kerry is into fashion night and I suggested stopping by the store if she’s in the area but she’s downtown I believe and in any event I might be in the back of the store smoking a cigar if she shows up. I won’t be able to hear her above the din.

And that’’s over 500 words. Watched two halves of a Sugar Ray Leonard boxing match. One with Tommy Hearns and the other with Kulale from Uganda. After that, Calvin said I can get the food cleaned up and I could go home. Quite happy about that, for now I am home.

Writing this on Bill’s Mac since my computer is behaving quite strangely.
Now I’m back on my computer.

My new hair style

I’ll Remember You

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It started out as a good day off. Slept until 9:00 which was quite nice. Didn’t have much to do really. Had some breakfast, took a shower basically.

Some errands to run and also a trip into Manhattan to go to Macy’s and exchange the Star Trek cufflinks that I bought for Bill for his birthday in June. Basically they had fallen apart, at least one of them did.

I Krazy Glued it back together and wrote an irate email to Macy’s customer service about it. To my surprise a customer service representative called me back and arranged for an exchange despite the fact that I didn’t have the original box or the receipt.

So I headed into the city in the early afternoon and wandered around Macy’s, getting different directions to the executive offices from most every salesperson and security guard that I asked. Finally found the offices and spoke to the woman I was supposed to speak to.

She arranged for me to go to the men’s accessories area and speak with Wellington who was able to find a different pair, not the exact same cufflinks that I originally purchased. Still satisfactory since it was still Star Trek.

Then it was the Path train back to Hoboken. Went to the bibliothèque and returned the Andy Warhol biography. It basically ended shortly after Andy was shot in 1968, after the move to Union Square.

Just a brief mention of the 1970’s and his death in 1987 after routine gall bladder surgery.

Picked up 2012, the Roland Emmerich / John Cusack disaster movie about the end of the world. A lot of fun to watch, short on character development since basically a lot of people die throughout the movie.

I loved watching disaster flicks when I was a kid and saw almost all of them when they came out. And I do like the current batch from Roland Emmerich, however dumb they might be. I’m just glad I didn’t pay to see this in the theater. It’s certainly corny as hell.

I stopped by Mr. L’s barbershop by my house. I noticed in the Hoboken Reporter they were looking for a barber/stylist. I wondered what happened and noticed that my barber hasn’t been around. I spoke to Nick his son and he told me that his father had fallen off a ladder while tending to his grapevine.

Missed the last step and took a tumble, breaking his arm. I guess Tony isn’t coming back, since they have a help wanted sign in the window. If only I had known this when I had the idea of becoming a barber earlier this year in my unemployment days.

I would have graduated from the school by now. But then again, I didn’t want to know how to do make up or dye women’s hair, I merely wanted to be a barber.

In an unrelated employment news, I came home and found an email from Raymond asking me to call him at 9:00, when he gets out of work. That can’t be good and I can’t get any info from him until then. I can’t help but wonder if it was anything I did.

Just what I needed on my day off, some work related stress. Maybe it was something that someone else did and he just wants to gossip. Regardless it’s still unnerving and I resent Raymond a bit for this intrusion into my day off.

I just returned from the bibliothèque and dropped off 2012. It was a fast 2 hours to watch and didn’t have enough time to pick up something fun to watch.

Now I have an hour to kill until I call Raymond with whatever news he might have to say. Can’t help but think, I’m in trouble. I’ll fill you all in, once I know.

And now I know. It seems on August 27, some guy came into the store wanting to buy vanilla flavored cigars. We don’t sell flavored cigars and I told him so. Well he thought I was just rude and wrote to the corporate headquarters, complaining about me, describing me.

So maybe I am in trouble, but it’s no big deal. I certainly don’t have the back up that I used to have when I worked for Susan and Lois at Farfetched. No I have a ego maniacal asswipe named Marcus, upset that we’ve only sold one ticket to a cigar dinner at the Grand Havana Room. The ticket is $250.00 and you get a few free cigars as well as a steak.

Even if I had the cash to spend on that, I wouldn’t go. And no one has the cash to spend on that sort of thing. Morale is sinking fast at the store, what with most everyone looking to get out as soon as possible.

From yesterday