Tag Archives: Swine Flu

Working for the Clampdown

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It’s Tuesday again. Today I sent a few resumes to different staffing agencies. I won’t work at a staffing agency again but if they can find me a gig somewhere that would be nice. I’m sure they’re inundated with resumes.

The staffing agencies used to have resumes piling up by the fax machines when I was working for Staffmark and Golden Staffing and things were relatively good then. Haven’t heard anything yet, but maybe tomorrow. All I can do is continuously check the email.

I felt October would be a good month so here goes. I have been checking out jobs on my own for a while now, so if the staffing agencies want to take me on, they’ll be doing all the searching. I’m ready.

Last October, while I was still employed I think I had the Swine Flu or the H1N1 virus. I had never been as sick in my life as I was for that week and a half last year. I was so sick that I wound up going to the emergency room and left with a prescription for anti-biotics, which knocked the flu out of my system 5 days later.

I do remember when I came out of it, that I had turned a corner in my life. And I believe that was the Swine Flu. And I’m not getting the shot since I had never gotten one before.

Today I heard from Andy, an old friend of Chaz. Andy was at the National Equality March on Sunday and I might have seen him but wasn’t sure. He mentioned that several of his friends say that all the time.

That Andy, has such a familiar face and body type that other people get mistaken for him a lot. Such is the life of a bear and I’m glad I am a wolf.

Also heard from Kathe, Chaz’ wife. She’s back in Jersey City with Chaz but is heading down to Florida to help an aunt who has Alzheimer’s disease.

I was on the phone with Kathe for about 40 minutes. It was fun. I really hadn’t spoken with her since she left Jersey City a couple of years ago. We made tentative plans on gallery hopping next week.

I’ll try to steer the hopping in a different direction and perhaps see some art that I hadn’t seen before. There is that Dennis Hopper photography exhibition that I’d like to see that I missed last week with Harpy.

Juan stopped by last night. Always good to see him. He was looking good. No computer or TV so he doesn’t know what’s going on. His broken heart has healed and he’s happy about that, things back to the way they were, shuttling back and forth between Trenton and Ocean Grove.

I may even see him later in the week when he returns his mother’s car which he borrowed since his own car went kaput. He was only around for a couple of hours, before Bill came home.

Bill told me the other day that he will be singing the National Anthem at Madison Square Garden again for the fourth time, this time, singing before the NY Knicks basketball game on December 20. Very exciting news indeed. Something to look forward to.

I watched the Love Guru this afternoon. A certain someone said it was really funny and I listened to her. But man I had never seen a movie as bad as that since I don’t know what. I do like the way Romany Malco shaves his goatee. That’s about the only thing I ‘got’ from the Love Guru. I don’t think I can pull off his goatee though, literally or figuratively.

Today while wandering around Hoboken in the afternoon, I stopped by the Guitar Bar to say hello to Jim Mastro. It seems every time I’m walking around I stop by and say hello to Jim. He’s a nice guy.

When I stopped by on Saturday he was very busy which was good for the Guitar Bar so we didn’t have much time to chat. But we chatted this afternoon.

He mentioned a guy was in the store earlier today, talking to Jim and saying that the revolution will be coming and suggested that Jim get a gun for the upcoming insurrection. Jim is an Obama voter, which the tea bagger didn’t know.

Scary times and a bit unnerving to say the least. What the hell is going on with this country? Why do they hate Barack Obama so much? I disliked Bush intensely, for myriad reasons but still I never fomented revolution.

Is this the road we are headed down? Or are they just loud mouthed squeaky wheels making the most noise?

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Stay Hungry

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And it’s Friday again and it’s been a bear of a day. I’m back to a four day work week, this week at least, but somehow I was in the office five days. It’s a fucked up situation and these Indians are driving me crazy with their careless disregard of other people’s time.

Since I’m not working for the company that hired me three years ago and as of three weeks ago I’m working for another company, my payroll wasn’t done in time, missing this term. Vivek had to come in and cut me a ‘live’ check.

He said he’d be in at 11:30, he was in at 12:30. Said he’d cut the check in 5 minutes, an hour later I got the check. Then I tried cashing the check at the bank it was drawn on, but my official NJ State ID was not in their book of recognized identifications.

This was after getting a spiel about how much I would benefit opening an account with Chase Bank. A total waste of my time.

Then I schlepped across town to find my branch. I was trying to do this before 3:00, you know, banking hours. What a friggin’ hassle it was. Still I was able to deposit the check and my head is somewhat above water, at least for today.

Getting my check today was only one reason I went into the office. The other reason was to help out Greg Stevens. He’s also working for a new company and his IT person came in from Los Angeles to help him out.

Help him out with things that were done by our former IT guy last month, but he didn’t tell anyone. That IT guy, and perhaps most IT guys have bad communication skills.

I explained to the new IT person that I’m not an IT guy, that I only know a little bit more than Greg Stevens, who then said that I knew a LOT more than he does.

It’s something like 75 degrees out, quite nice and sunny. I have been home so far for about a half hour.

It’s funny, when you’re growing up, they hint at the pressures of life, but when you’re actually an adult, that is when you feel the pressure. Still I am home, decompressing.

Tonight Bill and I are off to the movies. Bill bought tickets to see Star Trek and it does look exciting. Bill is a Trekkie, I am not. He loves all that. I did enjoy Star Trek: The Next Generation somewhat but never watched it religiously.

I also enjoyed the occasional episode of Deep Space Nine and Voyager, and the Star Trek movies that I had seen. Never went out of my way to watch these shows though.

I saw some of the Star Trek movies, but not all of them. So while it’s nice to be home and relaxing, I will be headed back into the city in a little over an hour.

I’ll bring a book and I’ll have my iPod since I anticipate sitting in traffic outside the Lincoln Tunnel.

I just got a phone call from Abby. We shipped a TV set and a Movie box out yesterday via FedEx.

Before I left the office, I checked the tracking on the two boxes. Both were delivered at 10:04AM this morning to the Ramada Inn in North Brunswick. The guy who was supposed to get them said he only received the TV. I told Abby, reassuring him and talking him in off the ledge that both boxes were delivered at the time I mentioned.

It is nice to have some time home. I’m writing this and doing laundry while the news spews forth more news of Swine Flu. My hackles are raised with every strangers cough or sneeze that I hear. I pass by holding my breath and exhaling with force in hope that the virus passes me by.

Makes sitting in a dark theater with a hundred other people that much more exciting.

Happy Birthday to Brian Eno! 61 years old today.