I
was getting settled in at Gateway, meeting people, investigating the
neighbor- hood, swimming in the pool and even started job hunting! Went
into the office to meet with Babs, the social worker, and she gave me
all sorts of helpful information, such as being eligible for the
Lifeline from AT&T , and of the many things Gateway provided if I was eligible and
it seemed I was, at least for most. My health insurance was going up
and because of overpayment Social Security was taking $17 a month out of
my check. (Ironically 14 years later I got a $17 Social Security raise!)

There
is a note in my diary about getting stuck in the rain with the top of
my convertible down and getting soaked but that was par for the course. I
use to joke that the only time I put the top up was when it snowed.
Needless to say with the rainy season I had a lot of those incidents. It
wasn't bad when I was driving as the rain went to the backseats but if I
had to stop for a light I would get wet. Being an old car the top
didn't go up fast enough and sometimes I would have to 'help' it by
guiding the bars so, generally, I would just get wet until I got home!

I
hadn't been in Gateway for 2 months when I got a notice my rent would
be $7 a month less! I could and did live with that but I still needed a
job. I went to a place called Hops on 17th Street, was interviewed and
told to come back the next day. It seems I was too experienced for the
place, that they wanted high school or college kids and though that was
age discrimination I didn't say anything because I saw that it really
wasn't for me anyway.

It seems I went to dinner with the Crabhouse crowd to Wolfgang Puck's (closed), the following evening Gino and I
went to Tommy Dee's (closed) and the next night Bob, Jim, Ken and I went
to Bobby Rubino's (closed) to celebrate Bob's birthday where he got a free meal. I had my yearly physical and passed with flying colors and had to go to the dentist to get a cap re-cemented. I had a note that if I got a job making $600 a month I would do okay, not knowing how that would affect my rent, social
security , Lifeline and other things that made my life a little easier
such as going for lunch with Gino to The Pier (closed).

Way
before blogging I would send out a monthly newsletter to all my friends
and now that I had the computer that was made easier. I became very
familiar with printing DVDs, images and clip art and basically it was
where I was going, what I was doing, reports on books I read, movies and
theatre I saw along with restaurant reviews and people I was meeting,
new friends I was meeting. One of the new friends was Jerry who had
lived at Gateway for awhile and seemed to know everything about
everybody. He was the one who told me that there were 40 gay people
living here plus 3 different couples and before long I had met most of
them!

One
evening Gino and I went for dinner at Big Louie's (open), which was 5
blocks from where I lived, and in the back of my mind I thought this
looks like a good place to work. It was compact, with the kitchen very
accessible and the place very busy. I asked our server who I should see
about getting a job and they told me to come in on Tuesday and see
either Sheila or Sergio. I didn't go back the following week but instead
went to the 15th Street Fisheries (open) and put in an application
there. It sounded good as they only needed weekend help, they closed
reasonably early but they did work the partner system which didn't
thrill me.
It
would be a month before I went into Big Louie's, after eating there a
couple of times, and spoke to Sheila. It was a smart move on my part!