William | johnozed

Nothing much happened today. In fact I just left the apartment building for the first time at 5:15. Ran out of juices you see. Too hot to do much of anything except lay in front of a fan.

It’s a scorcher. The most that I did today was take a nap.

Over the weekend, I bought a selection of songs from the Fun Boy Three on iTunes, after which I was asked to do a back up.

It seemed like the thing to do. As I ran the back up onto 6 discs, I lost my playlists, some of which were a few years old. So I’ve been trying to find them to no avail, but I also found something that I wrote in 2002, about 1991.

Since I didn’t do anything today, I thought I would serialize it. Today is part 1. In case I don’t do anything else this week, I may add the following parts as installments.

Riding the bus with Miss Pasty. I was unusually charming despite the unwelcome hour of 8:20am. I would’ve preferred being alone, but hey, she is my landlord. Or Landlady. Or something resembling both.

“I heard on the radio there was a 40 minute delay in getting into NYC. I’m gonna take a van” Now this would ordinarily sound fine, but Miss Pasty has a relatively shrill voice and for a non-morning person like myself it was nearly unbearable, and that was after my initial three cups of coffee, rocket fuel.

Miss Pasty and her brother Mr. Derf are my landlord and lady. Quite royal I think they think. It feels like I’ve been living above them all of my life though physically it’s been 11 years.

It’s been an up and down ride with them and any problems I’ve had with them are generally because of my room mate, Little Willy Archas.

For example, in 1991 when Carl and Katie Archas told me about the apt, Carl had mentioned that his brother Little Willy was probably going to look for an apartment since when Little Willy got back from Mexico he wouldn’t be living with his parents in Jersey City.

I took it into consideration.

So one day when I was walking down Washington St in Hoboken from Take 99 video to Blockbuster to pick up an errant video tape, I spied a dilapidated van with 2 even more dilapidated passengers within.

It was Little Willy. He was with Monica. Some chick that was in love with him, enough to travel to Mexico and back with him. Of course I had the luck of bumping into him as soon as he pulled into town.

“Your brother told me you might be looking for a new place. I might be looking for a room mate. Into it?” “Yeah, sure, I guess. Where is it?” “Weehawken. You know Pasty K from McSwells?” “Uh, I don’t know.” “Well your brother knows her. I once gave her a ride home. Nice neighborhood. Anyway if you want I can set something up for tomorrow night.” “Uh, yeah sure. I guess so.”

Little did I know that his vocabulary skills wouldn’t really go farther than that. “Alright, call me at the video store and I’ll see if I can set something up.” “Uh yeah sure. I guess.”

I called Miss Pasty and set it up. Little Willy met me at Take 99 Video the next night and I was able to take some time off and see the apartment.

We met Miss Pasty and Mr. Derf’s parents, Adele and Derf Sr. A very old couple. A bit strange at first. But so was my room mate to be. I wasn’t used to being the most normal in a group but that is how it was turning out to be.

We left 129 Jane Street, climbing downstairs in order to get to 127 Jane to climb upstairs. Little Willy was able to turn on the hallway light which greatly impressed Miss Pasty and Mr. Derf.

We saw the apartment which was previously occupied by an old man who really didn’t or couldn’t walk around much. Miss Pasty and Mr. Derf were quite used to this fact that no one was walking around the apartment above them.

Little Willy and I both liked the apartment and since Little Willy painted houses and apartments, offered to paint the rooms from a purple yellow Easter combination to something more than that.

We went back to Miss Pasty and Mr. Derf’s parents and told then we were interested. Derf Sr. thought that was fine and since it was the beginning of October we would be able to move in anytime and not have to pay any rent until November 1.

Well Chaz once again threw a pretty good party. All very adult, chit chat and cocktails. The promised snow storm didn’t happen. I was starving beforehand so I ate a light supper about two hours early. Bill was in the city, fortifying himself with Claratin. Chaz has a cat, Lily (who once tried to take my eye out) and Bill is hyper-allergic to cats.

Rand and Lisa were going too so plans were made to meet at the Path train. I stopped off at Karma Cafe gingerly stepping over the kitchen help laying about the floor and got a gift certificate for Chaz. I started walking down Washington Street when I got a phone call from Bill who was in the city and about to head into the 14th Street Path station.

He mentioned meeting at Journal Square which made sense since the train he would be on would be going to Journal Square after Hoboken. But he wasn’t going to make a move until I gave the go ahead. The plan was to meet at the station so I told Bill that yes we would meet in Jersey City.

Rand and Lisa were a block or two behind me so when I got to the station I called them. They thought we would all be taking a cab from Hoboken to Jersey City Heights and I explained the situation. Rand and Lisa and I met on the platform, Bill on a train already, somewhere.

Nice ride and a few laughs along the way. We got off at Journal Square where we found Bill disembarking from the same train that we were on. He was in a different car, you see. I figured we would be taking a taxi from Journal Square so I bought a six pack of Stella Artois which cost more than usual since it was part of the train station.

When I left the store, it was suggested that we could walk. That was fine by me and I was surprised to find out that Lisa and Bill were into it. I know Bill isn’t a fan of the cold. I could have bought a six pack closer to Chaz’ house but it didn’t matter. Rand and I led the way with Bill and Lisa chatting it up a few feet behind us.

It wasn’t too bad of a walk, a frozen drizzle would rain on occasion but overall it was harmless. We were on Carlton Avenue before we knew it and soon we were in Chaz’ warm living room next to a kitchen table crowded with food and snacks.

Chaz made some excellent vegetarian chili as well, which I only had a tiny portion. Chaz’ lifelong friend Andy was there with his friend Howard. They made for a nice couple as well as Debra and Roy another couple that I only seem to see at Chaz holiday party.

No Dave McKenzie, no Connie and no Kathe. Dave was in Kentucky, Connie was fearful of the blizzard that wasn’t happening and Kathe had gotten out of work in Astoria and was just too tired to make the hike. And it would have been a hike for Kathe from Astoria and Connie could be excused since it would be unnerving to drive home in the middle of the night back to Highlands.

From what Chaz said, Connie was angry with the fact that she wasn’t going to be at the party.

Chaz had presents for most everyone, Bill and I getting a Simpsons calendar as well as a Simpsons bottle opener and two DVD’s, the Outkast movie Idlewild and the Paul Giamatti movie Sideways. You could tell it was a good party, lot’s of food, and drinks and before we knew it it was 1:00 in the morning and Bill was on the phone calling for a taxi to take us back to Hoboken.

Bill was heading back to Stuyvesant Town so Rand, Lisa and I rode to the Path train and saw Bill off. The three of us walked up Washington Street in a light drizzle past people lined up outside of bars trying to get in. I parted ways with Rand and Lisa on 7th Street with hugs and kisses.

I came home and watched Saturday Night Live for a bit while enjoying a night cap before going to bed myself. I waited to hear from Bill to make sure he got home alright. He did but was waylaid by his allergy since the Claratin wore off.

That’s it for now, back to rearranging the deck chairs tomorrow.

Here’s some pics.