Tag Archives: The B-52’s

Away From The Numbers

Oh what a day it has been. It’s been a Wednesday that’s for sure. But first, last night. Watched Olbermann. Rachel Maddow was on and it was announced she’ll have her own show following Olbermann. It doesn’t have a name yet, but will start after the conventions. That should be a good week starting with Rachel Maddow and ending with the B-52’s in Union NJ that Saturday.

After Olbermann, Bill came home from choir practice. He went to bed soon after that and I watched Enchanted on cable. It was ok, just as I expected. A half step behind funny. It wasn’t offensive and had some laughs. I wasn’t the demographic it was geared towards but I can see how the pre-teen girls loved it.

Saw very little of the Olympics, just enough to pass the time before the usual bad news at 11:00. Went to sleep before the sports report which was fine by me. Bill was out a little before 6:00 and I was out of bed a little after. No Casey again on the bus, listened to Tricky as I walked across town, stopping by to see West Indian Tony and got myself an egg sandwich.

Tricky is playing Irving Plaza in a few weeks, but I’m in no rush to see him. Saw him a few times back in the day, but I was interested in him then, now- not so much. Roda wants to go and is trying to get free tickets. If it’s a freebie I’ll go, but paying cash seems doubtful.

It was a beautiful morning and promised to be a beautiful day. Lot’s of good looking men on the streets today. We have some empty office space and I have been assigned to find people to fill the vacant spaces. I’ve posted online with Craigslist but so far no takers for a 13 x 11 office for $3300.00. The cheapest office is $1750.00.

I found out that someone was coming by to check out the space, a friend of a friend of the managing director. The visitor expressed some sort of interest but needed to hear from a partner about it and said he’d get back to me next week. I was told not to say this, but to say that. Don’t mention this, but it’s ok to mention that, things like that. Whether or not it went well remains to be seen. I guess I’ll find out about that next week.

I’ve also been trying to tidy up the petty cash for the bookkeeper. It’s been under control but as I added things up it was off by a few dollars. I decided to do everything over again, writing in a new ledger. That turned out to be a mistake and despite my careful adding and subtracting the balance was now off by $37.00.

That’s when I went to the well of despair. Just absolute zero self confidence. It wasn’t from not eating because I had a salad and when the blues hit I had a banana. I went out for a walk just to get away from the numbers. Had a cigar in Dag Hammarskjold Park by the United Nations. Sat next to another gent smoking a cigar. He called it the cigar section as the two of us sat there puffing and reading the papers.

Came back to the office after that, not feeling that much better. A woman in one of the offices in my office, Trudy mentioned that I carry myself in a certain way and when I speak people take notice of what I have to say. That helped me out a bit but still I had this petty cash problem to reconcile.

I decided to go back to the original ledger since that was off by only a few dollars and after adding and subtracting many more times, I found that I didn’t add up a certain item which was $36.00. It seemed I spent so much time looking at these figures that I couldn’t see them anymore.

Couldn’t see the forest, too many trees.

It’s all better now and a tremendous weight lifted off my shoulders. Had to stay late though for some phone technician was coming in to check the lines. Left the office at 6:00 and walked to the Path train rather than wait on the long lines for the bus back to Hoboken.

Enjoyed another Padron on the way and listened to the playlist of songs that Juan played while I was touring the Versailles in my mind.

Feeling good now, and glad to be able to say that I got through it all on my own. Bill tried helping but he was on a head set and his words of com fort cam ou t a bi t garb led.

Here’s some pics from a few minutes ago.

Ultraviolet (light my way)

♫ Harpy Birthday to Happy 56 years! ♪

Well the holiday weekend, it’s winding down. Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I posted this morning and post dated it for last night. Over 1200 words which is more than enough, what with the original plan to write at least 500 words a day, so that makes this gravy. Last night I was too much of a vegetable to actually sit down and write more than an excuse as to why I wasn’t writing.

Slept very well with Bill ably playing the role of snoring lump in the bed. Still it was an agreeable enough sound to fall asleep to, but anything would have put me to sleep anyhow. Woke up this morning to the sound of my cellphone alarm at 6:45, set so I wouldn’t forget my cellphone when I left for work. But I was off today and didn’t need to remember the cellphone.

After setting the phone off, I had to reset it a few minutes later because in my sleepy state of mind I didn’t actually do that the first time. Bill was out to rehearse for his play, I slept in, finally getting out of bed at 9:00 in time to see the B-52’s finish a song. Yes I totally spaced on the B-52’s. I think Chaz went with his friend Andy. I thought about it and still wasn’t sure whether or not I would go until I woke up this morning and realized I wasn’t going. Forgot to record it on the DVR as well.

Still the website for the Today show has some clips, one of which is included below. More crowd shots than band shots, and no Chaz and Andy as far as I could tell. I decided to watch the rest of the show and then go out and get some bagels and the papers. Luckily for me, Julio called from the bagel shop. He decided to go himself since I hadn’t gone yet. He also had to buy some flowers for Stine since this is her birthday. That was cool.

He delivered a little while later and we had a brief chat in my doorway, looking past my shoulder to see how single life looked. It was messy. The B-52’s finished with an abbreviated Love Shack and yes they looked and sounded great, though I wondered what happened to former Raybeat Pat Irwin. Why isn’t he playing with them anymore? He’s a great guy, I met him once at Summerstage years ago and I hope he’s alright.

As the afternoon started I ran an errand to CVS where I saw Martin Kelly once again. Always good to see Martin, same amiable guy and always a fleeting moment with him. Watched Monty Python’s Life of Brian which was brilliant, still one of the funniest films around and still a face paced 94 minutes. Blessed are the cheese makers? I think he means all dairy products. Python is always good for a laugh from left field even 30 years later, or 40 years actually since they started the TV show in the late sixties.

Got a call from Julio. He and the wife and kid were out for the afternoon on Pier A, and why don’t I join them? Sounded good to me. An afternoon outside with Alexander, Stine and Julio sounded like a grand idea indeed. I wandered over, camera in pocket and bought a dozen roses for Stine’s birthday. Julio called me after the initial phone call to remind me it was Stine’s birthday and to wish her a happy one. I took it a step further.

It was a nice hour or so sitting on the grass under the trees, Alexander was fast asleep. No waking that peanut up. Still, he’s an angel as you could tell by the pictures. We walked along the waterfront, Stine allowed me to push the carriage which was great. It’s going to be even more fun when he’s older and I’ll really get to push him in his cart around. I’m picturing a scene from Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin.

The star of the show

The mom and dad

What the ant saw

Meanwhile, off shore

The peanut once again

And Julio and Stine

Rock Lobster