Tag Archives: Vivek

Foreground

It’s back to work for me again! Of course I could have used an hour more of sleep but that’s just not how things work out.

Last night Bill and I watched Into the Storm, a bio-pic of Winston and Clementine Churchill. It was good but I started thinking that the Churchill bio-pic a year or so ago starring Albert Finney and Vanessa Redgrave was a little bit better.

What can I say? I just like Vanessa Redgrave that much.

Len Cariou as Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a nice touch. Bill enjoyed it. He told me so as he headed off to bed as I watched the news and of course spaced out on the weather report. Bill and I sat on the stoop before the bio-pic and smoked cigars, very Churchillian.

We seem to have landed in a spot where we both really enjoy each others company. I guess if you’re in a relationship you know how it goes. Sometimes your partner drives you up the wall. Not lately though.

We’ve been there for each other and simply enjoyed walking around Hoboken or Central Park.

He was out of the apartment as I was getting out of bed this morning. The forecast today was that it was going to be warm so I dressed casual. I headed into the city, reading the New Yorker.

The bus got crowded fast despite a few coach buses following each other quite closely. I made it into the office a little after 9:00 which is the way they want things to be.

Of course things were busy. I made myself a cup of coffee and found there was very little milk left.

That meant I had to head out and get milk which I did. Then when I came back and was about to make a second pot of coffee for the office I found there was no more coffee. So it was out for me again.

Lately Vivek and Sanjay are so secretive, or more likely, absentminded about telling me what is going on. It was a surprise to see that one of the big wigs from Kent, Washington was in as well as the French Spaniard.

Both were in to see me and engage me in a meeting. That was an unwelcome surprise for myself and for them as I told them I had way too much to do this morning to sit down and talk.

Eventually I made it back and I did have their meeting and it went well.

They all seemed to like what I had to say, despite the fact that I had no idea what it was I was saying. It was a very Chauncey Gardiner moment.

‘As long as the roots are intact, all will be well in the garden.’

The Washington state big wig went off with Vivek and Sanjay to Parsipanny and I was left with the French Spaniard. Pierre is what I’ll call him and he was a nice guy, very easy to get along with. We talked about the design of the still incomplete website and he’s they guy who’s going to get that together.

It’s odd that someone has to fly up from Florida to discuss these things with me as well as sit in on a phone call with a potential client yet Vivek and Sanjay and even the now invisible Abby could never find the time to do the same.

Obviously if I need to talk with someone about this, I need to call long distance rather than talk to those guys sitting about twenty feet away from me.

Yesterday as I walked home from sitting by the river and before smoking cigars with Bill on the front steps, I stopped by Tunes and picked up Grizzly Bear’s latest CD, Veckatimest. It’s pretty good, and enjoyable.

None of the songs are as good as Grizzly Bear’s Deep Blue Sea on the Dark Was The Night double CD Red Hot compilation, but a few of them come close.

Not really something that moves you along as you walk around midtown Manhattan. More like something you can listen to sitting still and get a lot out of it.

I recommend it.

Um “oh” e um “ah!”

What a day this has been. First off, I broke the rule of going to sleep the same time as Bill and wound up not being able to sleep well. A few interruptions and before I knew it, Bill was kissing me goodbye, telling me that I looked angelic laying there.

A few minutes later the alarm clock went off, no music- just the buzzer. I got it together and looked forward to an easy going day. Vivek in Las Vegas, and Sanjay flew in last night from Florida thanks to my ticket purchases.

Last night after finagling the tickets Abby was in the office. I need this I need that. Fine, whatever. I left around 5:00 and didn’t say goodbye. He was on the phone.

I left and halfway through my walk to the bus terminal, I get a phone call. It’s Abby. He couldn’t believe I left when he needed envelopes and stamps and copies to be made.

Not for work, but his own personal accounts. I told him to go to my cube and instructed him where to find the things he needed. Then he needed copies to be made and I instructed him on how to operate a copier. Hit the green button!

This morning after Bill left I did my thing and made it to the bus. As I sat down on the bus I realized that I left my cellphone at home. I almost got off the bus but decided to proceed with the day.

A nice walk across town and I soon found myself in the office by 9:15. At 9:16 I get a phone call from Sanjay. Tomorrow is a conference call at noon and I’m expected. I mentioned that I thought I was off on Fridays.

Sanjay says, no problem, we’ll just do the conference call on Monday. I explain to him that Monday is a federal holiday. No problem for him, they’ll just conference me in from home. Oh what a thrill.

Sanjay eventually made it in the office right around the same time as Abby. That made things busy and not as easygoing as I had hoped. A quick demonstration on how the Movie Box works in hotel rooms.

If you want to watch a crappy movie that went straight to DVD then this Movie Box is for you. And the adult fare is strictly hetero and boring.

The day went on and on. At one point I had to go to the post office for Abby and get some mail certified. I warned him that the lines in the post office can be long and I wasn’t sure when I would be back.

The line wasn’t that long and afterwards I used the opportunity to take a leisurely stroll around midtown and enjoyed a Padron.

I figured out that I knew what I had to do and as I finished my cigar I went back to the office with a new, fresh outlook. It was 3:00.

At 3:01 the phone rings, It’s Nash who works in Kent, Washington. He’s frantic, telling me the conference call is going on and I should be in on it.

Sanjay was in a meeting and Abby was somewhere. So I followed Nash’s instructions and jumped in on the conference call. I didn’t know what was going on and all these instructions were being thrown at me.

There was no one I could turn to or ask anything of so all I could do was take notes and I wound up transcribing most of the call.

I was in over my head. It seemed that anytime I get a grip on the situation the rug gets pulled out from under me. I am really at the end of my rope and I am considering telling Vivek when he returns that I don’t think it’s going to work out.

It’s not what I was hired for and I don’t like the hours. I’m sure they would be better off with someone else who could do the job. And the hours, the dirty looks that I get when I try to leave at 5:30 or 6:00. They seem to be nice people but I don’t think I can work with them.

And it’s soon enough that they wouldn’t have invested that much in me.

I’d be willing to continue supporting the office, booking conference rooms, ordering supplies, being the liaison between the office and the building personnel who like me a lot.

I’m well liked by the office personnel and even the conservatives seem to like me enough to make unofficial overtures that they’d take me on if it doesn’t work out.

But this dealing with hotel and motel owners and the insane hours and tardiness of these guys is really wearing me down. Perhaps that is what is causing me to lose sleep at night.

Right now I’m so tired that when Harpy called I could only respond in monosyllabic words.

I come home, not wanting to cook so I pick up two slices of pizza. Bill comes home and a few minutes later the buzzer rings. It’s a pizza that Bill’s ordered. He doesn’t care. He hasn’t had lunch and will eat the whole pie himself.

This day, will it ever end?

Bill before pizza
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