Tag Archives: Cigar Shop

About Face

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Updated 9:32PM
Well today is the day off. Next one is Sunday. Last night was a quiet night. Just spent time chilling out. Watched TV of course. Bill came home close to the end of the finale of Nurse Jackie.

He had major drama at work and proceeded to tell me all about it. I paused the DVR as he explained what happened in great detail. Quite an interesting story, but it’s his story and not mine. He went to bed soon after that and I stayed up and watched the Simpsons.

Then I went to bed and did not have an easy night of sleep. The weather has cooled considerably so the windows were open, allowing me to hear the smashing of bottles that were being picked up for recycling. The dreams I had were strange, and maybe a bit violent. I did sleep for about 8 hours though and that was OK.

Felt a bit unmoored, not knowing what to do. I knew enough to have breakfast after I showered. Caught the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, both of which I hardly ever watch anymore. I did have tickets for the Colbert Report taping last night but had to return them since I wasn’t able to go, being employed and all.

I started a playlist for the shop and headed out with about 50 songs on the list. I went to T-Mobile since I’ve been having problems with my sending of pictures to Facebook, to my email, and even to my cellphone.

I was on the phone with T-Mobile the past two days and followed their instructions, including if all else fails, go to a T-Mobile store. So I went to the one on Washington Street. I dealt with Laura who talked with an Eastern European accent.

She mentioned that I might need a new SIM card and she wouldn’t charge me for it. I was surprised that she would even consider charging me for the SIM card since the phone is relatively new, having only gotten it in December.

I mentioned that the customer service on the phone never mentioned it and as I said that she cut me off. She kept doing that, I guess she was expecting me to shut up. I don’t do that, I keep talking about what I was saying.

She’s been doing this for six years she said so she knew all about these types of things. She also mentioned that she had a smart phone and never had the type of problem, including losing a network immediately after a phone call.

The new SIM card seemed to have done the trick. I thanked her in what I thought was her original language, Russian- спасибо! She smirked and said she was Albanian but knew what I meant. She certainly wasn’t a charming salesperson like I try to be at the cigar shop.

I walked over to the Guitar Bar and saw Mister Wonderful, Jim Mastro. He asked me how the job was going and I told him despite some initial feeling of confusion and a general not knowing what the hell I was doing, it was getting a lot better.

He asked if I was getting psyched for the party next month and for a minute I didn’t know what he was talking about. Then I figured it out. He mentioned that his daughters Lily and Ruby were working on a set list. I headed out of there since Jim was dealing with a customer who was playing a bass quite loudly for my ears.

Walked back up to Washington Street and started taking cellphone pics of various flowers, just to see if the camera was working. Decided to walk up to Eleventh Street and listened to the playlist on the iPod. Sounded fine to me.

Headed to the supermarket to get some groceries and cash in a rain check from April before it expired. When I came home and looked over the receipt which seemed a bit odd and it was off. They over charged me and I called up the store who told me to come back for the refund.

Ran into Julio who was running home on his lunch hour and chatted for a few minutes before it started to rain. Dropped off and picked up some dry cleaning for Bill and myself. Came home and added a lot more songs to the playlist which runs from pop, R&B, some hip hop and even opera and rock and roll.

At last count it’s 12 hours long and has 176 songs in it. I hope it goes over well. And if it doesn’t I will try not to take it personally like I used to at Farfetched.

Back to work tomorrow, early shift, then Friday and Saturday I get the late shift. Off on Sunday, for which I hope will have good weather.

Update: I had a letter to the Editor published in the NY Daily News again on June 2, a reaction to a letter regarding Memorial Day.

They also serve II
Hoboken, N.J.: It’s a shame that what seemed to be Voicer Bill Lynch’s heartfelt sentiment regarding Memorial Day was cheapened by his politicizing and liberal-bashing. Liberals have fought and died for this country. And the ACLU will defend his civil liberties should they become endangered.

Action Time Vision

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Well I’ve been home now for abut 45 minutes. I think I’ve turned a corner. Not as morose or as despairing as I had been the previous couple of days. It wasn’t an easy transition but I think it’s nearly over.

The weather has been very cooperative and today was the second day in a row where I wore my suit to work, not scrambling to find a place to change from street clothes into a suit. I hope it lasts but I know, summer is around the corner.

The guys I work with are good guys it seems, though the guy I was replacing was fired yesterday. He was supposed to be working until the first of August. But apparently when he was supposed to be working the weekend and Calvin wasn’t going to be around, he would call in sick, or have something come up.

That took it’s toll on his co-workers and Marcus and Calvin decided to do something about it. They asked him to resign but he wouldn’t so they fired him. I liked Harold. He was a good looking guy with washboard abs, but he also liked himself a lot.

Too much ego said Calvin. Calvin also mentioned that he thought Harold had a few sugar daddies on the side. A handsome muscular model living in Chelsea is bound to have a few sugar daddies if he so desired.

So that leaves a core group of 5 workers. Calvin, Raymond, Don, Ryan and me with Marcus managing the two Manhattan stores. I actually prefer this store to the store I frequented which was around the corner from Wanker Banker.

Calvin allows me to pick the music and the co-workers seem to like my choices. Some Latin jazz, some Woody Allen music. Today I opened the store with a Brian Eno playlist which was about an hour’s worth of music.

Not so much ambient stuff but some of his more interesting fare. James Brown was in the mix today as was The Bird & the Bee. And Raphael Saddiq. I sort of took over the music choices on the second day. The day started with just me and Don.

It takes a while for Don to warm up, at least to me. For about 2 hours it was the two of us and hardly anything was said. That made for a slow 2 hours, but he liked the Eno stuff I was playing, saying that it sounded like Pink Floyd.

No, I didn’t throttle him.

Calvin showed up at 11:30, scheduled to work the late shift. I worked the late shift yesterday with Calvin and found that working the late shift one night and opening the next day is no easy task, at least not yet.

Once Calvin showed up things got easier, and it being lunch time it meant customers started drifting in. For lunch, a turkey sandwich at what seems to be my usual spot near the park. And of course Calvin recommended a cigar, a Tatuaje robusto which was really good.

It’s great to spend time outside in the open air, just looking at people. I did have a good chat with Don, who said I shouldn’t be overwhelmed by the situation of starting a new job. It was good to hear, and also good to see that Don eventually thaws out.

I’ve been having some problems with sending photos from my cellphone. The pics are usually sent to Facebook but haven’t been showing up there. I thought it was a Facebook problem but it is actually a T-Mobile problem so a visit to the local T-Mobile store is in order tomorrow, my day off.

Have a few things planned for tomorrow, and the number one plan is sleeping late. It’s actually number one on my list.

a lunch time view

I also had gotten tickets for the Colbert Report tonight, but had to give them up since I’m working!