Tag Archives: Cigar Shop

I’m Afraid of Americans

3 Replies

Back to work today after a nice day off. Weather was quite nice again. I saw Samantha Bee today. She’s pregnant again.

It was Calvin, Raymond and Sean today with Marcus flitting in and out. It was a good team to work with. I also received my personal code and the key to the store, so it’s official, I will mainly be closing the store from now on.

And I’m fine with it. It’s not like I had much of a social life the past 11 months or even before that. I see my friends from time to time and that’s fine. I’m not exactly a shut in. Everyone has their own lives to live and I’ve got mine.

And now my life is tied to this job. I suppose it was fortuitous timing since the republicans have blocked unemployment benefits for people who have been collecting for over 6 months.

Apparently like that stupid crank from February, the dumb as fuck republicans think the unemployed are lazy for not taking jobs that pay less than the unemployment benefit. So if Mom and Dad are out of work, trying to make ends meet you’d had better hope they take that job at McDonald’s.

I had to educate Raymond on how this current economic mess is actually because of that piece of shit Ronald Reagan and his dismantling of the New Deal policies of the FDR administration. How he and others dismantled the rules and regulations designed to make sure the banks don’t get into another economic mess like the great depression.

Yep, let the banks and big business run themselves without any oversight. Not like the crash of 1929 will happen again.

And here we are now standing on the verge of another great depression. It’s strange (for lack of a better word) that so many people are unaware of the bitch he-devil Reagan and the evil that he created, instead they revere this vaginal slang.

So if I were still collecting the unemployment benefit, I would be in serious trouble since I was out of work for 11 months.

And today made for the beginning of my second month, selling cigars. One of the shops nearby has a lovely manager called, Elizabeth. She stops by a few times a day, usually to use the loo. She asked how it was working out for me and I told her I thought it was working well.

I remarked on how I hoped my co-workers and managers like me and she reassured me, telling me that they loved me. That was nice to hear. And I guess getting the code and the key proves that they believe that I am doing a good job.

And they’re starting to appreciate my music in the store which is good. I also do not show a pout when a negative comment is made about it.

I played The Bird and The Bee, their first album and was told it was putting people to sleep. Some of the cigar smoking guys were shocked to hear the song, F*cking Boyfriend a few weeks ago as well so I’ve been wary about paying them.

This evening I played the Hall & Oates cover album and it was well regarded. More than likely because the songs were recognizable. I’m not complaining.

I played Hall & Oates as well which was ironic since I also played the Hall & Oates song Intravino when a gathering of sommeliers took place.

Twilight at Columbus Circle

I’m Affected

1 Reply

Notes from today. On the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) then a transfer in Jamaica to Far Rockaway. A woman sits across from me eating an ice cream cone with a spoon.

Last night before heading out to watch the fireworks, I watched True Blood. Bill phoned midway through causing me to miss some plot points. No worries I think, I will just catch the west coast broadcast later on.

And I do. And Bill calls once again at almost the exact same part of the show. So I will have to catch it some other time, perhaps when Annemarie is within the vicinity.

I got a phone call before True Blood from Rand. He and Lisa & Lois and Fred were going to have a cocktail and then go see the fireworks. I tell Rand my plan. Watch True Blood, go drop off a birthday card to Bill’s office and a note to my cousin Joe at the Post Office, and then watch the fireworks on Pier A.

Rand gently mocks me, for wanting to ‘watch my shows’.

As I headed over to the Post Office, sans iPod, I overhear a male couple returning from the Gay Pride parade talking about me, saying ‘Yeah, he is.’ I smile.

Train kept a rollin’ en route to Jamaica.

The fireworks were nice, would have been nicer if Bill was around, but he was driving a bus back to Wallington. Rand & Lisa and Lois & Fred watched the fireworks from Stevens Point. Difficulty sleeping last night.

Awake at 2:15 after going to bed at 12:15. Got up when Bill came home. Of course he’s out cold, minutes after his head hits the pillow. I think I finally feel asleep around 2:30. Luckily I didn’t have to wake up early.

While waiting to buy tickets for the LIRR, I get a phone call from Calvin. He had forgotten I was out on Long Island to take a certification test to sell cigars and tobacco related products in New York State. He arranged the whole thing for today a few weeks ago.

Thanks to train schedules and Bill’s planning (I love him for that) I am an hour early. I sit in the shade of a first story garage underneath an office building and smoke a cigar. I go inside the air conditioned building and sit and wait in a class room that also serves as a conference room for a lawyer that shares the office space.

The class is supposed to start at 2:00. At 2:10 I am the only one there. 10 minutes later 2 guys come in, gas jockeys, one of them wearing a BP polo shirt.

We watch a videotape of Linda McKenna teaching a room full of actors how to ask for ID when someone who looks under the age of 25 tries to buy tobacco. What to say, what not to say, how to handle the situation when a teenager needs his nicotine fix and has the potential to get cranky.

I remember buying smokes for my parents, Marlboro for mom, Kent for dad with no questions asked at Gallo’s drugstore. But there were no laws then regarding the sale of tobacco to minors then.

The class itself was directed by Ralph, an amiable older bloke with a passable toupee on his head. It was over in 90 minutes. Ralph pointed out the contradictions from the VHS tape and the Power Point presentation.

Immigrations cards are/are not valid forms of ID.

At the Lawrence trains station waiting for the train back to Jamaica to transfer to a train to Penn Station.

At 4:30 the town siren goes off.

At 4:44 the train arrives and I am once again leaving Long Island, heading towards Manhattan.

It’s Bill’s birthday tomorrow!