Tag Archives: Work

In Bloom

Back to life, back to reality. Reality is not for me and it makes me laugh. One of those two lyrics sum up how my day was. Still too early to tell at 6:13PM. Last night I was still buzzing from the matinée of Sunday in the Park with George. I love having my brain stimulated. I was determined to see if I can catch the show again for free.

I explained to my sister in law Elaine that my desire to see the play again is sort of looking at the painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Just looking at it once, or watching it once you won’t get a lot from it. It requires different points of view, both physically and mentally. I was determined to see if I could pull it off.

Juan came by last night as I was watching the Tony Awards. Sunday in the Park with George didn’t win anything, South Pacific and Gypsy won most of the awards though In The Heights, a new musical about life in a Dominican neighborhood in Washington Heights won best musical, August: Osage County won best play and I want to see both.

Passing Strange, which Bill and I saw last year at the Public Theater won best book. It was fun to watch the Tony Awards, I haven’t watched them in years. Seeing the play yesterday afternoon and knowing that it was up for some awards was the reason I watched. I also want to see Xanadu which looks perfectly silly and high camp and I know a few of those songs by the Electric Light Orchestra and Olivia Newton John.

It was good to see Juan again, just hanging out talking shit and watching the awards. Bill came home midway through and he was in quite a sad state. It was his first Father’s Day without his father and I have to admit, I forgot it was Father’s Day since it’s something I hadn’t recognized in a long time. I think he was dismayed to see Juan here, so he felt he needed to keep up a front. I gave him a hug and I stroked Bill’s back, letting him cry on my shoulder.

Bill soon was able to relax and enjoy the show. Juan stayed later than Juan expected and left a little before 11:00. Bill and I watched the news and both went to bed at the same time which is something we hardly ever do. At around 6:00 this morning as Bill was getting ready to leave for the day I laid in bed telling him that there was no internet. He didn’t understand what I was saying, and neither did I.

I headed out for work, more people riding the bus since gas prices are so high. I figure these are the single passenger drivers who ride through the tunnel solo each day, and now they’re unable to afford that, gas over $4.00 and the toll is $8.00. It adds up. I’m sure NJ Transit will jack up their prices even though Hoboken gets the worst buses. No air conditioning, no overhead reading lights and undependable service.

I have to put in my vacation notice soon at work since it looks like I’ll be able to spend a few days down the shore on Long Beach Island. That’s something to look forward to, but it’s still going to be a bummer summer without the annual visit from Annemarie, Rex and Earl. Work was interesting. New people in the offices. I still have to get used to their faces. They know me and I usually just give them a blank stare for some very long seconds.

In fact this morning, one of the new guys, Patrick Quinn was out on the street having locked himself out of the office. He saw me first and waved. I probably gave him the ‘what do you want from me?’ look. Had a slight chip on my shoulder since they raised the price of a buttered bagel to over a dollar now. I figured out who Pat Quinn was and got him access to the office again.

No one seemed to care that I wasn’t in the office on Friday though I certainly sweated it. I was busy but still found time to talk to my brother Frank on the phone and exchange emails with Annemarie. I was also able to call the Roundabout Theater Company and get information on their volunteer usher program. They still have it and I just have to go to the box office and put my name in. I’m aiming for Friday night. And maybe another performance next week if I’m lucky.

Today was the first day that same sex couples are able to get married in San Francisco and maybe California as a whole. Gavin Newsom, the SF Mayor should have married Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin by now. Phyllis and Del have been together for about 700 years and they want to be legal. They were scheduled to be the first gay couple to be legally married today. You couldn’t tell it was such a big day at least if you watched NBC Nightly News tonight. Tim Russert was a super guy, they’ll tell you all about that though.

See you later agitators.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist one more.

Happy Bloom’s day

Love So Fine

It’s Tuesday again. Not a bad day, could have been better. The pendulum swings again. Last night played a lot of Scrabulous with Julio online. He won the game since I kept challenging his words and my challenges proved invalid. If it were a face to face game of Scrabble I would have won, no problem. But it wasn’t and I was lucky to break 200 points. I was happy with that, but unhappy with the cheesy cheap words that Julio threw down.

It was infuriating and Julio, two floors down knew it. I was surprised that he was online for so long. Stine was sitting right next to him ready to give birth any day now. She’s quite hormonal and I had to laugh seeing Julio skulking outside the building when I came home tonight, wary about going upstairs. I woke up this morning at 5:00 thanks to Bill leaving his alarm clock on. I somehow managed to turn it off and sleep for another hour.

Bus ride, uneventful as it should be. Spring is here so no overcoat today. It was a nice walk, even walking past the Bear Sterns building where there have been news trucks lined up outside. Got to the office, no one in. As quiet as usual, yet eerily quiet. Tom Chin was out of the office which was a good thing and I was able to find time to talk to Greg Stevens. I knocked on his door and we chatted. I started it off by saying ‘what the hell is going on here?’ Yes he is the President of the company and that is how I talk to him.

He explained that no money is coming in, there are deals in the works but no one gets paid until the deal is done. It’s like that all over the financial world right now, but I don’t have to start looking for a new job. I’m not six figured. Full figured, yes. Which for once is working in my favor. Greg explained that Moe was let go, since he wasn’t bringing in any money and his contacts weren’t contacting him. Quinn was explained about by saying that since he has another job with some Irish company he’ll be concentrating on that, while maintaining a consultant position at the firm, and renting his office space. Padma was the heartbreaker. They’re probably going to let her go, or keep her in a part time position. I hate knowing something about someone. She asked me if I knew anything and I had to skirt the issue. I complimented her on her skirt instead.

I emailed my brother Brian last night, telling him that Nick Lowe was playing McSwells on May 2. He asked me to get tickets and I went online and found it to be sold out. This afternoon I called Goons, the local record store and they said they had 4 tickets. I asked if they could hold 2 and I would pick them up after work, but no, they wouldn’t do that. I called El Jefe and asked him to go buy them and I would reimburse him after work. He had no problem with that and soon enough I owned 2 tickets.

I stopped by after work and hung out, Lady Gigglepuss was still at work, so Rand and I shot the shit about our past and various people we used to know. My ex-roommate Jimmy Lee is back in the states after living in Austria with his Austrian wife. El Jefe ran into him at McSwells a few weeks ago. So I guess I can expect to see him at Martha’s Badly Drawn Comics party on the 26th. That should be interesting. Hello to Jimmy Lee. If you know Jimmy Lee you know that he probably, more than likely Googles his name. But with a name like Jimmy Lee, there must be millions out there. Hell, it was even a song by Aretha in the 80’s.

Please send good thoughts, prayers and warm wishes to my brother in law Rex Dippre, and Annemarie and their son Earl. They need a whole bunch, so send them to Arcata CA.