Sean | johnozed

It’s a Monday and it hasn’t been a busy Monday. IN fact it’s been quite the opposite. A lot of returns, Fathers who did not like their present for Father’s Day having their wives or children returning items. A pain in the ass mainly. Calvin thought it was rude, and I guess being a father himself, he wouldn’t return any gift that his child gave him.

It started out as a weird day, at least it started yesterday. I received a phone call from a woman named Jennifer who was calling regarding a job reference that my former co-worker Sean put me down as. I was eating my dinner at the time and did not take the call.

Soon after that Sean called and told me what it was about, which I gathered when I listened to Jennifer’s voice mail. I decided to call Jennifer this morning. I called Jennifer and was told she was in a meeting. I headed to the bus stop and after my usual morning phone call with Bill, I called Jennifer again.

She was out of her meeting and I explained to her who I was and what I was calling about. After a minute she figured it out and asked if it would be alright if she called me back in an hour. I thought that would be fine since I more than likely wouldn’t be in the cigar shack then.

The usual uneventful bus ride into the city, followed by yet another phone call with Bill and no call from Jennifer. I did hear from Sean though, he was anxious to find out what was going on. I told him what was what and he had no choice but to wait.

It was Calvin and I for a while then Jerry Vale joined us. It wasn’t very busy at all though and the way it stands now, Jerry Vale is kicking my ass in sales. That’s alright, I was busy with other things, like unloading and unpacking new inventory and making sure the proper inventory numbers were affixed to everything came in.

Finally on my lunch hour, Jennifer called back. She asked me a few questions about Sean and playing up her ignorance I wound up telling her that Sean basically discovered penicillin. She did not know that. I guess she never saw Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet starring Edward G. Robinson.

I never saw it either but I do remember my mother talking about it a long time ago. But I did have the gumption to look up info about it and this was years before IMDB. So Sean got a golden review from me and everyone should be happy.

Yesterday I was sucked into the Star Wars saga, the original trilogy. A Facebook friend posted a while back that watching those movies with post 9/11 eyes is interesting. The rebels are the Taliban and whatnot, and the USA is the Empire. When watching it that way, it makes for some interesting viewing.

Now I am home. I was hoping that Bill would be home but he took his mother for an appointment at the beauty salon and I guess he’s still in Manhattan.

Today I was determined to smile more, and I did make the effort. Not an ear to ear grin but a nice smile upon my lips. One has to be careful with regards to where one smiles, you don’t want to look like a grinning fool while walking past a group of thugs and wannabees.

As I was making my way through the bus terminal I had that look on my face and figured everything was alright with the world, but it wasn’t until I sat on the bus that I realized that my zipper was undone. That made me laugh to myself as I headed home.

Another day in the cigar shack. After 2 days off it surprisingly isn’t so bad. Pleasant and a few laughs have been had so far. Today’s contestants are the Bradley and Thomas. And like a few Saturdays previous, they’ve been quite funny.

Each of us riffing and busting each other. It also helps that Calvin is off today and Marcus was out of the cigar shack within minutes of my arrival. I am starting to think that Marcus isn’t so bad and can’t help but feel that he’s been looking out for me. It helped I suppose that I was a customer when he was just starting out at another cigar shop across town.

Bill took off from work today, so many things on his mind and I am pretty sure a break from work and all that that entails is a good thing. Last night I watched Tropic Thunder which was funnier the first time around. It was still enjoyable to watch.

With the TV still out of walkabout, I threw in the DVD of Citizen Kane which is still fantastic. That is something I can probably watch over and over and I probably have. It used to be shown regularly on the Million Dollar Movie on WOR TV, Channel 9 to tri-state area folk.

It kept me up later than I expected but it was well worth it. Of course today being the day I go back to work the weather has been beautiful. The past two days, being the days I have off from work meant rain rain rain, or else a general dampness all around.

Still, at lunch I was able to wander over to the park bench where I usually go in warm weather and enjoy a cigar while I read the latest MOJO with the Bruddas on the cover, the Bruddas being the Ramones.

Great article about the recording of End of the Century, produced by famed murderer Phil Spector. I’ve been listening to the Ramones a lot lately. I regret only seeing them a few times, I would have liked to have seen them back in the day but I was too cowardly living in the suburbs and believing all the stories about how horrible New York City was.

It wasn’t until I started hanging out with Laszlo Papp and seeing things for myself that I found things to not be as bad as I was told. I mean I did go into the city on Easter Saturday in 1977 on my own and intentionally sought out the seedy side of Times Square.

When I came home I was smacked around by my brother Brian for not buying flowers with the money I had, instead buying a round trip ticket into Manhattan which I made sure that Brian never knew about.

I was 14 years old at the time and felt it was my duty to partake in the sexual revolution that was going on. All the places I was warned about were the places where I had carnal fun. Still I am quite lucky to be here today.

Today I also saw Sean outside and had a cigarette with him. As I smoked with him outside, up walks another former employee of the cigar shack, Der Fred, once again saying ‘I can’t believe you’re still here.’

A variation on his former standard of ‘I don’t know how you do this job day in and day out.’ It was good to see Sean though. He’s cuter than ever. I never really noticed it before. Sure he can be a pain in the ass, or was a pain in the ass, but sometimes being cute overcomes all that.

I just got the result from my ultrasound last week, all good. Nothing out of the ordinary. Good news indeed.