The Story of Therapy Dog Tails 557
Where Everyone Gets a Dose of Puppy Love
BACKGROUND 242: JLHS Part Two 15
Mon., Oct. 1, 2007
Well, man, the weekend passed and I got nothing down. Now it’s going on eleven p.m. and I’m inputting the Doors “Live in Boston” (3 CDs) into the computer as I type this. I made an order a week or so ago - just after the Sept. 19th Bowery Ballroom gig. I wanted to pick up a gift for Kristy Garcia for taping us that night and I saw a nice four CD set called “Summer of Love” in the Collector’s Choice catalogue. So I ordered that for her along with the Doors live for myself and a “Complete” Mozart for Dale’s birthday - 150 CDs for $110. I’m not kidding, friend. This stuff just arrived today so I can give Kristy her present tomorrow. Turns out now, you know, that she and Geoff are, I guess, dating. They went to a movie together on Friday night while I was out with the teachers, which I’ll note here now in order to write up later.
Geoff went into New York today to meet with a photographer who is going to take some photos of him for a portfolio. Tom Donnelly. They met at a Starbucks somewhere and talked about how and where and how much ($300 or so). Luz knows this guy through Orenda. She says I met him that night a couple of years ago down by the Trade Center but I don’t remember him. From there Geoff went to hang out at Shameer’s place. Shameer moved into an apartment on 16th St. sometime ago. I drove him, Craig and Geoff to a big October Fest at some big yard in Westfield on Saturday night - Sept. 29. Everything was free and they all got pretty wasted. I picked them up and they went on to the Driftwood, Linwood (both on Wood Ave.) and somewhere else.
Luz was working and had a $600 day. She then went to do a consultation at the spa for more money. She told me that she had saved another $2000 from spa consultations, borrowed $3000 from someone and paid back the $5000 loan that the Duz boys made as an incentive to keep her with them in the new office when they moved up to Columbus from Riverside Dr. Slavko, she said, was overjoyed and it was his birthday. Best birthday gift, he said, he ever got. I’m glad she did this because I never liked owing those guys that money even though I didn’t really consider it money owed. She has made that money back for them many times over but this is how it is. It had to be done and I’m glad she did it. She feels good and has been doing a great deal of feng shui stuff around the house and office. We’ve got a lot of orchids around now, for example. Then there are the open palms and the pepper plants. But she says the energy at the office is good. I guess it is.
So we were all in Manhattan today and met at the Cottage at around seven o’clock for dinner. Had a good time there and made the 9:02 in a cab. Anyway, the Doors just finished loading in here, all three CDs. It sounds decent but not like the studio stuff. The voice is there but in another room rather than inside your head. There’s some good screaming there, however.
Here are some notes . . . .
Sat., Oct 6, 2007
Well, friend, I have not written much down here in the past few weeks. September will probably turn out to be the shortest month of the year so far and October isn’t faring much better to date. I wouldn’t care so much except that there was the big gig on Sept. 19 and I have not even gotten around to recounting that story yet. That’s a week and a half ago already. I put some notes down a few days ago and transferred them over to October but I think I’ll just leave them there at the end of September in case I never do get to some of it. But I’ve got a long weekend now so maybe I’ll get something down.
Last night I hung around with a few people but it was nothing like the week before. At least, Keely Ryan was one of us last night and she was able to fill me in a bit on what happened the weekend before. As a matter of fact, Lizzie was not in school Thursday or Friday (yesterday). I called her number at the end of the day yesterday but she didn’t pick up. I left a message. She had been fine and had not said anything to me about taking any days off so I’m assuming she caught something. I wouldn’t say that she and I are close but we’re friends and we are now two of the long term people in the school so we have something in common. I have great respect for her as a teacher and I know she has the same for me so that bonds us some, I guess. I heard Tyre, an 11th grader in room 149 where Lizzie teaches right after me - I heard Tyre, something of a problem child himself, say that along with Zondo I was their best teacher. Of course, old familiar faces always have the advantage, however.
Hoxha was pulling out of the parking lot as we were walking to Ben’s car at about four o’clock yesterday. Ben had already walked out there. He’d parked along the front of the building, which means he gets there early. “We”, then, consisted of me, Keely Ryan and Kate Lupson. Keely is a 24 year old English teacher and was with us at the Jazz club last weekend; Kate is a 28 year old math teacher and former music publicist, the one I tried to talk out of coming to the school when I spoke to her on the phone last spring. Keely is very pretty and sexy and has a great smile but she is a bit heavy although it really doesn’t show in her face; her demeanor is very mellow and casual; Kate is sexy in a cute way and has a very good figure; she bubbles over the top and is very funny.
Anyway, there was Hoxha coming out of the parking lot and I got a first look at his car. I’ve been handling the parking lot now for the past two years with people who drive and so they are far more familiar with the cars that people drive and the whole set up out there. I don’t go out there much. I went out for the first time last Monday in order to pay the guard as well as to check out the front spot where I’d moved Sklar. Corelli was with me because she is using Sklar’s spot this year while Sklar is on sabbatical. That was my idea, actually, just to keep Corelli, who likes to bitch and moan above all else, off my back. I hope she gets her own spot next year (and she is near the top of the list now) because if she doesn’t, I will probably never hear the end of it. I generally don’t like her even though she invited me on a teacher cruise last night. I told her that I’d call her later after discussing it with Luz but, of course, I never got around to that. I should have called to tell her that I wasn’t coming but then again, she has not been anything but a nuisance to me. She was elected as the union delegate in the building but backed out of that when she didn’t get her way in the parking lot last year. Still, I suppose I should have called her.
Anyway, last Friday we had our meeting upstairs. Deveau (Urban Assembly) had most of his parking money ($540); Ensenat (Business) had $2400, which leaves another 6 or 8 spots unpaid from him; Martinez (medical) had all but one of his spots paid ($1800) and I had already collected from Nikki Liebermann (BELHS, called “Bells”) the week before when she went on maternity leave. She had left money for eight spaces ($720) along with the $281 surplus from the previous year. The new girl from Dream Yard didn’t have anything from her eight spots but then I’d only collected about four out of 20 from Media myself. So I walked out of there with $3740 in cash in my pocket and another $1001 already stashed downstairs. I didn’t like the idea of having that much cash around a place like that so I opted to carry home part of it that day but that day, last Friday, Friday Sept. 28, as I’ll tell, was not the best day to be carrying around cash.
Anyway, it was suggested by Deveau at that meeting that since we were the ones putting in the time on the parking lot, that we ought to get our spaces for free. That, of course, was agreeable to everyone there. That was $90 that they didn’t have to shell out of their pockets and, in truth, we’ve already put in at least ten hours on this thing so that’s not much money for the time it has taken. But it immediately occurred to me that if they were going to get a free parking spot, then I ought to get a ninety dollar one time cash payment, since I don’t drive and don’t have a spot. That seemed a little stickier, of course, than just taking the spot with no money exchanging hands. Somehow when there is no money involved, it doesn’t sound the same. Nevertheless, it was agreed that if they were all getting what amounted to a ninety dollar payment for their time and since I’m putting in the same time or more since I’m handling the money, it was only fair that I get what they got so I did take out a payment last Friday. I mean, there was plenty of cash there to cover that ninety bucks. Of course, it disappeared very quickly last Friday night.
Anyway, there was Hoxha pulling out in his nice green car ….