Tag Archives: Vivek

Run 2

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Good to be home from work. Definitely a good thing. Things were ok today, until Vivek phoned at 3:30, telling me he wasn’t coming in and wanted me to book tickets for him and his partner to Pensacola, FL from New York.

I just couldn’t get it right it seemed. I wrote down the information and went online. Found a flight for 2 at a little over $100.00 per passenger. Went through with it only to find that the date wasn’t for tomorrow as I thought it would be the default but rather, February 25.

Very quick backpedaling involved. I corrected the dates and tried to book a flight from Pensacola to West Palm Beach. Sure there are flights, but one flight was from Pensacola to Atlanta then to West Palm Beach. There was another flight that substituted Dallas/Fort Worth for Atlanta.

I knew that was something they wouldn’t want, and told Vivek so. He told me to rent a car instead. Many phone calls back and forth between Vivek and myself before I finalized on the car rental. Still doing things like this get me stressed out.

I wouldn’t want Vivek to be stranded somewhere. Basically I don’t want to fuck up. I’ve booked flights before and it’s really no big deal but each time I get stressed about what if I had done something wrong. I’ll be this way probably for the next 18 hours.

Last night wasn’t stressed. I watched Olbermann again, then the Daily Show and Colbert Report. Walter Isaccson, Time magazine chief, was on the Daily Show talking about how basically the Internet shouldn’t be free, how newspapers are giving away their content and not making money.

I used to subscribe to the NY Times online but now it’s free. There are grumblings about how it might go back to a pay site. That would dissuade me from subscribing again. The Colbert Report was silly as usual, with TV on the Radio as the guests.

I sort of like them. Still not so sure. Their last record made a lot of best records of 2008 lists. I haven’t really heard it yet. Have you? Watched the new Scrubs last night too. It seems like they are setting up for the eventual departure of JD.

The first episode Zack Braff literally phoned it in. He was a disembodied voice on Elliot’s cellphone throughout. The second one was the better episode I thought. How JD and Turk were trying to maintain their friendship though they are both drifting apart and getting older. And the new interns have some funny characters, who will jump in once JD leaves the scene.

I really like Scrubs. I can’t explain why but I hardly miss an episode if it’s on. Tonight is Lost. You know Lost, the show about those people on a plane that some office manager booked tickets for that crashes on a mysterious island. That should distract me from the days stress.

Saw Bill tonight and that was very good. Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. I wonder how we will work that out?

The Wolves (Act I and II)

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Fucking hell. That’s the type of day it’s been. Didn’t start out that way surprisingly despite the fact that I wasn’t able to go to sleep when I wanted to. Wound up falling asleep around 1:30. It seems the 2 hour nap that I had taken earlier stole some much desired sleep. I lay in the dark and laughed about how fat I am.

Still with about 5 hours of sleep I felt pretty good as I woke up and got my act together and headed out to catch the bus. Almost finished with the Lennon bio and of course it’s due today. I figured I would be able to find some time and read it, maybe at lunch, maybe on the bus ride home. It was not to be.

On Friday I got an email from Tom Chin telling me to get a few expense reports together and he wrote especially that I shouldn’t wait until Monday to do it. I took care of most of that as well as some expenses Vivek had me do for his other company that he and his business partner are doing.

They claimed $8000 and change, I found they were owed $8200. I could only do so much on Friday since I was the only one in my company in. Greg Stevens seems to be fading from the company. I guess being the president of nothing in particular will diminish one’s enthusiasm, Vivek was travelling for his other company and Tom Chin doesn’t come in on Fridays.

So today there was a lot of things that hit me as I walked through the door. Some company needed our tax ID number which I tracked down and when I sent an email to Tom Chin and Vivek, Tom Chin said he was working at home, feeling ill. He told me I had the info available but I couldn’t find it.

That’s when I found it looking in other years files. He started yelling at me telling me what I had (which was what was asked for) was wrong. He’s a jerk in person and a fucking bitch when he’s sick on the phone.

Then it was the expenses which out of $1700 was listed, I found $1600. I told Vivek about it and he insisted I call the bookkeeper. I decided not to call her and figure it out myself. An hour after I usually leave, I was still there. I had everything spread out on a table and showed Vivek, ‘I have this, I have that. This is that, that is this.’

After a day of looking at these expenses I was toast. I even told him I was toast, two hours after I usually leave. He had me call the bookkeeper and started screaming at her. It was ugly. Apparently he was on a yelling kick today, going so far as to scream at his pregnant wife that she’s ruining his life over the phone.

I didn’t hear that but heard about it. I cleaned up whatever I had on the table which was no longer in neat stacks. I was really toast and all the stress started to mess up my back. Back in his office I can hear Vivek yelling at Tom Chin that he had to fire the bookkeeper after tax season. I know this will bite me on the ass tomorrow as well as Thursday when the bookkeeper comes in.

But I didn’t do anything but just tell him that he might be getting less than $1700. My name was mentioned but it was about ‘why should John have to file those papers? Why doesn’t the bookkeeper do it?’ I don’t mind doing the filing, I’ve been doing it since day one at the firm. But man, I don’t think in all the jobs that I’ve had, I’ve never bore witness to such an ugly scene.

I asked a question which opened a whole can of worms which I will hear more about this week. Usually I rearrange the deck chairs on this Titanic, but now the captain is losing his mind and the crew is turning on each other. Left the office feeling lousy and even though I smoked a Padron, it didn’t really give me the satisfaction it usually does.

Made it to the bus where I had to stand, lower right part of my back throbbing. No reading the Lennon bio. I should return it tomorrow, it ends badly I know.

Came home, my brother Brian called. He’s stressed and I talked with him for a while but I don’t think it helped either one of us.

I really hoped to talk to someone, but it turns out, I don’t have anyone I can talk to. Julio is busy with Stine and Alexander, no time for this big baby. Annemarie is too far away and plus she was unavailable since she was working or en route from work.

Forget about my brother Frank, he’s no help these days unfortunately, and Bill is directing his first play tonight and when he calls later he’ll be all about how the directing of the play went, and I wouldn’t want to rain on his parade.

Perhaps tomorrow will be a better day, but I obviously have my doubts. It’s all about the economy, my company trying to stay afloat and get whatever monies owed to us and it is stressing everyone the fuck out.

Oh yeah, the coffee maker crapped out and I spent a good part of the day filling it with white vinegar to clean it out.