Roda | johnozed

It’s a Friday. A wet Friday at that. Just Bill and myself last night, Juan back at school. I did have a short chat with Song online in Sydney though and I wished him well then as I do now, that he aces his exam. Roda is a father again, a baby girl born this morning. Congratulations and best wishes!

Watched the usual last night with Bill, actually watched a little with Bill. He was in bed fast asleep by 9:00. It started raining last night and continued into today. It sounded like a maelstrom when Bill was kissing me goodbye at 6:00 this morning.

He advised that I stay home. I agreed and continued sleeping after getting up and emailing Vivek and Tom Chin that I wouldn’t be in. Due to flooding. Imaginary flooding, but flooding nonetheless. I went back to sleep and slept like a rock with mother nature banging trash cans up and down the street.

Around 8:30 I got out of bed again and checked my email to see if it went through ok, if there were any glitches. Tom Chin thanked me for the heads up, Vivek wondered if I am generally up at 3:45 in the morning.

I figured out that the time stamp on the email was set at PST and let him know, that on Mondays through Fridays I am generally up at 6:00. I was worried that he might think I was partying and decided not to come when the bars all closed, like my supervisor Felicia used to do when I worked for McMann and Tate, or rather Wolff Olins.

Then I went back to bed, and woke up an hour later. Still wet and miserable outside and I felt uncomfortable staying home. I also had my nephew Earl’s birthday card and present to send out. That was the main reason actually. I made it in and took the subway across town.

Tom Chin was surprised to see me. I explained that there was stuff to be done, then I wished him a happy birthday. It’s true they are quite helpless without me. I did what I had to do then had lunch and left again a few hours later.

It had stopped raining mostly and the walk across town was mildly enjoyable. Came home and wound up taking another nap. It’s really the best thing to do on a rainy day, if you can get away with it.

Now, here I am, writing again, waiting for the debates which Cotton Hill tried to postpone as well as Peggy Hill’s vice presidential debate next week. Looking forward to Barack Obama showing McCrazy who’s the boss and I don’t mean Tony Danza.

Tomorrow has something to look forward to as well, Chris Rock’s latest special on HBO. Here are some of Chris Rock’s best lines this week according to New York Magazine.

• “If this was a boxing match, McCain would be holding on to Obama.”
• “McCain jokes are easy jokes. ‘I don’t want a president with a bucket list!’ You basically take the dust off your Reagan jokes and tell them again.”
• “You got a guy that’s worth $150 million with twelve houses against a guy worth a million dollars with one house. The guy with one house really worries about losing his house — because then he’s homeless! … John McCain could lose half his houses and sleep well!”
• “[Bill Clinton’s] wife was running for president. If you give me a choice of pissing off a whole race of people or my wife, I’m sorry, I gotta piss off a whole race of people. Sorry blackies! Go eat some chicken! … Right Larry? You’ve been married twelve times, right?”
• [On the choice of Sarah Palin] “I thought Al Davis made the choice, or something. That’s how bad it was.”
• “Jason Lee has done more interviews promoting My Name Is Earl than [Sarah Palin] had to run for vice-president of the United States.”
• “[Sarah Palin is] kind of like Kim Kardashian on Dancing With the Stars. All that ass and you can’t shake it!”
• “Bin Laden did more movies last year than Sam Jackson. I think he’s in Lakeview Terrace.”
• “America is broke right now, and nobody understands broke better than black people.”

Next belly up bank: Wachovia

apologies to Mike Judge

Just who is the elitist?

This guy!

But not these two!

One more

That’s it! Good night!

It’s certainly not a good time to be working in the financial world. Unfortunately I work in the financial world. Fortunately I don’t make enough to be worried about but things do change. What I have to my advantage is the fact that the people I work for are hopelessly inept and can’t do much for themselves.

That’s where I come in, making coffee, filing, distributing mail, making sure things are tidy and ready to go as well as knowing who to call when something goes wrong. It’s really easy to do but like I said, they’re inept. Total deja vu feeling, even writing about the deja vu was deja vu like.

Thank you Mr. Reagan and your cronies for the deregulation of banks. May you rot in the ground you wrinkled fuck.

So after eating last night I felt a lot better, and even sat on the stoop reading Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories. He finally touched upon Dudley Moore and Peter Cook. Dudley had insecurity to deal with, Peter had major alcoholism. Alan Bennett felt that part of Dudley’s insecurity was from the fact that he wasn’t a writer.

An entertainer, an actor, a jazz pianist but not a writer. He wasn’t a funny guy it seemed. Thanks to the movies he became more famous but it didn’t really help matters much.

Bill showed up as I sat outside enjoying a Padron. He was tired and carrying groceries that were perishable so he made it upstairs while I sat and read and puffed on my cigar.

Got a phone call from my sister in law Elaine last night. Initially I thought it was a belated birthday call but no it was bad news. My brother Frank had a seizure on Saturday night and was rushed off to Hackensack Hospital. By the time he got to the emergency room he was relatively normal and Frank and Elaine were back home at 4:00AM.

He last had a seizure in April. It seems stress might be or is a major factor in this situation, but what could be done about stress? I know there are many things that could be done regarding stress, but we’re talking about my brother and for him a lot of things are a chore.

Things such as taking a walk is a chore. As much alike as we are (and we are) things like that, walking, riding a bicycle are just some of the things that make up the difference between us. I called Annemarie and Brian and left messages for them.

Eventually they both called me back and I told them the news. Frank was home today and I spoke to him briefly and I could hear how annoyed he was with all this, the seizure and the medications.

Last night Roda came over. I had invited him a few weeks ago to come over and watch True Blood anytime he’d like. Last night he liked to come over and I couldn’t say no, nor did I want to. He’s always good company and it’s great he and Bill get along so well.

It was a rather low key affair, the two of them on the couch, me sitting where it seems I always sit, close to the computer. He stayed for Entourage then split, before heading down the stairs, telling me that he was going to be a father again, this time they’re having a girl.

I didn’t ask who the mother was, thinking it was Elly the mother of his son Logan. I’m sure I’ll find out eventually and how does one ask that question anyhow?

Tonight Bill and I are going to an art show at McSwells. It’s a show for the artists in the Neumann Leather building on Observer Highway. They’re in danger of losing their space, what maybe the last frontier from the artsy bohemian days of the late seventies, early eighties when I came into the Hoboken picture.

Bill’s having a nap right now, so there is a good chance that he won’t make it. I was surprised when he said he’d go with me this afternoon, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t want to go after napping.

Here are today’s New Yorkers.