I don’t know what it is but something about Palm Trees has always fascinated me. Maybe it was because when I was a kid all the TV shows or movies that were shot in LA or Miami were always so cool and it was always summer. Who doesn’t love summer when you are living in Michigan.
Before heading down to Florida I was trying to line up a place to stay. I had a friend from Flint that had moved down there a few years earlier. She and her boyfriend lived in Lantana which was just outside of West Palm and they had an extra room in their apartment that she offered up to me while I was there. I really didn’t have much of a plan other than just getting down there. Looking back on that I probably should have sorted a few more things out before heading down but sometimes you just gotta go. So I get down there and move my stuff in. I didn’t have much just whatever fit in my car at the time along with my cat. We shipped my drums to John’s house so they were down there waiting for me. I remember being there for a few days. I met up with some of the dudes in the band then went hunting for a job. The first place I went looking was Whole Foods in Boca Raton. It was about 20 minutes from where I was staying so not a horrible commute. Side note traffic in South Florida is horrible so that 20 minutes could sometimes be 30-45 minutes depending on the time of day. So I walked into the produce department and asked one of the guys if they were hiring. I had a resume in my hand. This resume had a little produce experience from working at a small shop for about 8 months before I left Tacoma.
He looked at my resume and walked me to the back and upstairs right to the manager and said “hey I think this kid will be great, let’s get him going”. That was the best interview I have ever had. I started in the produce department like 2 days later after my background check came back. I deci ded that after about 9 days of making that commute to work I needed to move farther south. I had a friend Alex that lived in a 3 bedroom apartment in Boca with 2 other guys. I told him I was looking for a place and asked him if he knew anyone that was looking for a roommate and he didn’t but he offered up his floor. So I paid like $250 a month to sleep on a mattress on the floor of this guy’s bedroom. It was about 7 minutes from work and no highway so it was a pretty quick drive and that was all I was after. Alex was a good dude. He ran a record label called Undecided Records and they put all kinds of cool bands. I think I met him on tour with one of my bands and we quickly became friends. That was one really cool thing about touring a lot is that I would always meet so many amazing people and everyone had a story. You come to town and hang out and meet them and the next time you come to town they come and hang out and it just happens over and over again. I have met so many amazing people on the road.
Staying with Alex was fun. We always had bands coming through and staying with us some of them I was friends and some not but it was always fun.
