Monday, April 13, 2009

15-15 on the Juke Box


Early April of 2008 was a quite a time for ME. ME is uppercase because of its being my initials, Michael Ellis. I flew into Virginia at the end of March 2008 and found myself restless. I gathered some loose change and sold all my best jeans and acquired just enough money for a ticket to California.

I arrived at LAX on April 1.I did not know anyone there at the time, so i set out to make new friends. I was not sure how to go about finding friends, so I went to the Bird Cage Club & Restaurant. While there, I saw four(4) of the best guyz enjoying a drink. I noticed them because I was under the impression that one of them was the love child of Art Garfunkel and Bradley Whitford and needed to get his story.

I am a rather shy boy, so I decided I could not just start talking with them. I circled around the table where they sat and began to sing "Bridge Over Troubled Water". I do a terrific falsetto. I really do. This instantly got their attention and they turned and watched me. I finished the song and they began to clap. That was where it all started. We became the best of friends. We did a lot of surfing and wore a lot of matching plaid that spring.

I left California at the end of April and haven't seen those guys since, but here is what I understand.

Gary(upper left) was contemplating entering the peace corps and wanted very badly to open his own sporting goods store. His tenacity makes me believe you will see that sporting goods store soon.

Bart(upper right) was not related to Art Garfunkel or Bradley Whitford but his name makes me wonder. Bart broke his wrist pretty severely on our last day of surfing together which pretty much dashed his dream to pieces of ever becoming a Viticulturist. I'm not sure why this crushed that dream, but he seemed pretty convinced that it did.

Travis(lower right) teaches calligraphy to underprivileged children in Yemen. Bless that boy. Travis was the most genuine of people and still sends the occasional postcard.
Janardan(Middle) was a devout member of the Hindu religion. He left about a week before I did on a search for Vishnu. He said his first stop was WaKeeny, Kansas and I just feel like Vishnu is not there.

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