Adventures in Unemployment

Day 37...

Delancey/Essex Subway Station Platform

...Nothing too exciting or adventurous happened today. Hell, I didn't even get an ice coffee until well after 5PM. I woke up around 10AM but couldn't manage to leave my house until close to one when my stomach started to feel like it was eating itself. I flopped down the four flights of steps and was out on the sidewalk looking for a meal. I turned the corner to 10th street and decided to swing by and visit Matt.
Matt is a baker and owns the Tompkins Square Bakery on 10th St. between A & B. Yes, of course I ask Matt if he knows the Muffin Man. He assures me he does but says he's a dickhead. Matt's bakery is a brightly painted boutique pastry shop. I strongly, strongly recommend the bread pudding and my roommate loves his croissants. They're just the perfect balance of buttery and flaky while the bread pudding is always moist and either has strawberries or cherries. Today I got two servings and savored every bite, sucking on the fork like I would my lip if I were 19 and rolling on ecstasy. On Saturday the bakery can be quite a scene as a quintessential cast of East Village characters come in and out chatting with Matt and other familiar faces. It's like a gay 227 but with more tattoos, tight jeans and the latest in hipster-boi hair. With
my belly now settled I walked down 1st Ave to the F train and accidentally took it downtown to Delancey/Essex when I should have taken it up town to West 4th to transfer to the C & E to Canal. I was on my way to Tribeca to talk to a work contact about a potential upcoming gig. I said hello to the remaining old co-workers who are still wrapping up and enjoyed meeting with my old boss about an upcoming project. The meeting went well and left me with a small glow of hope that I'll land something sooner than later.
I was hungry again and craved real food. Something heavy and satisfying. In Greenwich Village there's a Cheese Steak place that promises the "Best Damn Cheese-Steak. Period." So I put it to the test. Unfortunately the Cheese-Steak turned out to be maybe the 21st Best Damn Cheese-Steak. Period. But for $4.95 I wasn't all that upset.
Every time I'm in Greenwich Village I make it a point to stop by my friend Scott's. Scott and I met just this past December but he's come to be one of my greatest friends since moving back to NYC. Scott is unique, cultured, intelligent, unfathomably witty and comes complete with a very diverse group of friends surrounding him. We met on the dance floor of Super Snaxxx and I immediately picked up on his sense of charming-obnoxiousness. Needless to say we became fast friends. Scott coined the nickname, Baby Jew Bear, for me and I've come to be known around his friends as, "BJB." (If Baby Jew Bear were an actual super hero I'd throw rainbow colored ninja Star of David's.) Scott was in the middle of work so I crashed on his couch and fell asleep for a few moments. He could tell how tired I was and urged me to lay down for longer but figured getting up and walking around would suit me better.
I was close to where Eric, my roommate, worked so I headed in that direction and found him drinking an Iced Tea at Think Coffee. We caught up and both decided to skip out on the gym. The crash nap I had at Scott's was too much and I knew if I hit the gym I wouldn't be into my workout and want to leave as quickly as I came. Eric and I played a quick game of: He spits ice cubes at me and I try to kick them and he went off to meet his Sister for her birthday dinner.
I started home and cut through Saint Mark's Place to survey the crowd and people watch. I found the same kids occupying the same corners dressed in the, "Dude, Punk's not dead. I'm serious, man! Ya know, what? Fuck you, asshole! Got any chaaaange?" fashion. I smiled at them and although I kind of feel they're a bunch of annoying douche-clowns I did have an urge to put on my sleeveless Dead Kennedys t-shirt and studded bracelet. Oh, ok...A safety pin, too.
As I approached 1st Ave my cell phone buzzed (playing my current ringtone of Avril Levigne's and Lil Mama's "Girlfriend" WeMix-ReMix) and I yelped in glee like a 5 year old peeing in his bathing suit when my phone displayed the name "Randee."
"She's home!" I chirped and began jumping in place.
Who is this Randee? Where has she been? And why, when Eric saw her name pop up on his cell phone, did he regress to the behavior of a 13 year old girl at her own Bat Mitzvah upon hearing that the DJ was about to play "Locomotion."
Randee deserves the all suspenseful...to be continued.