Where I was...

Thursday was kind of one of those days that will go down in the "Where were you when..." books much like the day Princess Diana died (I had just gotten home from a dinner celebration for my birthday) and, of course, 9/11 (I was on the West Coast then so I was sleeping. My dad woke me up and told me and we went downstairs to watch it on TV.) I'm not a rabid fan. In fact, as much as I love dancing to his music I found Michael Jackson to be a tragic character whose inappropriate behavior with children got him in trouble. Note to self: Never repeat this on a date with a rabid fan. I think my exact words were: "Yeah, I like his music but he's kind of a pedophile." I was half kidding. He did not think it was funny... There was no second date.

Anyway, here's my story:

I was at work when my boss came out and said, "Michael Jackson suffered cardiac arrest and is in the hospital." Hubub ensued and for the next hour various "news" sources were checked repeatedly, some saying he was dead, some saying in a coma, some saying nothing more than originally reported. By the time I left work, it was still a big question. I had my Happy Hour event to go to so I walked toward the West Side Highway. While I walked, I was on the phone with a good friend whose sister is huge MJ fan and was slated to go to London for his new concert in three weeks. I walked by a car wash (as there is not much else by the West Side Highway) where a worker there was playing "Billie Jean" loudly from the radio of a van. I asked my friend "Can you hear that?" He must have heard me as he said to me as I walked by, "They don't know yet, baby, they don't know yet." (He was referring to whether the King of Pop was in fact dead or not.) I responded, "That's true!" or something like that and continued walking. A few hours later, while at the event, a girl I was talking to excused herself and answered a phone call from a friend confirming he'd died.

Someone mentioned that this is the death of our generation's Elvis. I've documented my "Where were you..." story simply because I had one to tell.