I've Seen A Lot Of Places -- ( part 1)

The sounds of New York City were becoming familiar to me although I constantly thought about home.  I missed London more than I had thought I would when I first hopped on a plane to begin recording an album with my three best friends.  Our band, The Petal Pushers, had a miniature whirl wind romance with this city a few months prior to this.  We came in, played a couple shows that had a couple of record label executives in attendance and quickly became Pacific Records newest band.  Now we were here, sharing a flat that was entirely too large for just four boys from Bradford.   During the day we sat around strumming strings on our guitars, scribbling down words in hopes of creating the one song that would solidify our presence as a band in the United States.  More importantly during the evenings we got a taste of what this city really had to offer; sights and sounds that were both breath taking and intimidating at the same time.  Buildings that reached well into the clouds, people that looked so diverse but all blended into a blur.  This city was working its magic on convincing my bandmates and I that perhaps this set up wasn't so bad…   Even if it would be quite some time until we saw our friends and families.

 

This day was no different than my last few.  Woke up early unable to genuinely kick this jet lag.  Shower and pretend to stumble around in search of something to wear while the truth was I only alternated between three pairs of jeans that were so perfectly worn they were more like a second skin.  Go down the block for coffee with Sean - the drummer from my band.  Once we returned we would sit around the dining room table with notebooks and spare sheets of paper tossed everyone, all in a strategic pattern for success.  Rotate through out the apartment while hoping that even just a few of the lyrics I had written for the day would make the album.  The four of us would eat lunch together, take an additional coffee trip together if it wasn't too cold out - it was the middle of winter after all.  Call it a day around dinner time.   Except.  It was Saturday night and we sometimes assumed we were allowed to take some time to be young, nineteen and twenty year old guys who did want to explore this new place we were calling home.  We decided we would head down town to a hole in the wall bar we had went to once before, one that didn't seem to card us.   It was there that things in my New York City life began to shake up.

 

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"Jackson, what do you want?"  At the mention of my name, I looked up.  My bandmate and best friend Cameron was standing while the rest of us were seated at a small table in the back of the bar.  Around us were twenty-something kids looking far too cool for the atmosphere we had found ourselves in.  

 

"The usual."   Which meant a glass of whiskey, no ice.   Cameron disappeared towards the front of the bar only to return with not only drinks but two girls that quite possibly looked as out of place here as we did.  "These girls have seen us play.  Maggie and.."  Sober Cameron was terrible at names but nearly drunk Cameron was ten times worse.  I imagine the girl was absolutely mortified that he couldn't recall her name from forty seconds ago and extended a hand to shake hers.  

 

"Elizabeth." She told me and I nodded.  "Jackson."

 

"I told these ladies they were of course welcomed company at our table.  Make room lads, make room." Cameron was waving his arms wildly, demonstrating the amount of space that we didn't actually need to make for two girls of their stature.  We did slide down, letting the girls take a seat with us although they genuinely seemed much more interested in Cameron than anything else.  As girls always were.  He was brilliant.  His heart was huge, he invited everyone everywhere, spoke to anyone and everyone he could.  Always wanted to make everyone happy.  And his smile was contagious which was why girls loved him.  Until he couldn't remember their name.  And even that was sometimes forgiven.