From the Lounge to the Sushi Bar

Back in 2001 I came across this store called Limbo Lounge. It had all sorts of flashy cloths. This place was comply diffrent from any other store in Sunvalley Mall. It was more Retro. Wet Seal in circa 1965.
Limbo lounge was under the Wet seal umbrella. We had one Wet seal and one Contempo Causals right across the way from each other. I really don't know why they even had a Contempo Causals because they sold the same shit that they had in Wet Seal.





What I loved about this Limbo Lounge was that they sold mens cloths.
Many of you remember Limbo Lounge a place where you could find classic Elvis lunch box's Betty Page action figue mixed in with bowling shirts that had the name Chuck with a leopard collar.


When I started working there, I was in my sophomore year of high school. I was so excited to start working at Sunvally mall. I first met Gayel. She was the acting manager at the time. I come to find out that this store had no actual manager. So we had the store all to your selfs at times. This was by far the best job I ever had. We would play those music videos hella loud and of course I would dance along to some of the videos.

My co workers where Brandi (cashier/greeter), Gayleen (key holder), Gayel(acting manager) and Felix (cashier/Greeter). Since I was new I didn't get to use a register I was doing go backs and helping customers in the fitting rooms.

This story is not about how much I miss the store but about Felix my co worker; a Japanese/American boy that spent 30 min each morning spiking up his 8 inch blond hair.

One day he went to his 30 min lunch. He came back 10 min later with this look on his face like some one just slapped him with a rotten fish.
So i asked him...

"What happened to you? You look pissed?"

"I almost got in a fight at Mcdonalds.!"

"Why?"

" There was this fucking dumb ass mother fucker that was standing behind me and said my hair looked like fucking French fries..."

"...HAHAHAHA... Guess he was really hungry or high. It doesn't look like fries... hehe"

everybody but him found that funny.

Time went by and We all got other job after the fun died out. We finally got a manaer but by that time Wet Seal made it go bankrupted and that small store turned into another wet seal.

So now we have One big Wet Seal up stairs a Contempo across the way and now down stairs another FUCKING Wet seal discount store. It didn't last long. Wet Seal could not keep that store open after the "Bunny" fiasco.




Years went by and Brandi and I still talked and hung out once and a while. I lost contact with every body else.


The other night while on my friends birthday dinner at Sushi Grove. I got there really early because I knew that Walnut Creek during the Christmas holidays was going to be hard to find parking. Once I finally found parking (4 blocks away) I went to the bar to wait for my party.




I sat down and took off my hoodie and scarf. I looked to my left where the bartender was. I was trying really hard to get his attention. My boobs where not big enough on that night. I gave up after a while and I just sat there looking at all the pretty lights and wondering why the DJ was playing the music so loud.

I heard a faint voice call my name. I looked behind me then to my left then to my right towards the door. I ignored it; maybe it was some other guy name Dan they where calling. Then I heard it again. This time a bit louder. I found my self looking right into Felix's face. He was rolling the sushi.

We talked for a while about our good time at Limbo Lounge. He told me that he was married and had a 3 month year old baby girl. He was wearing a hat so I could not tell if his hair was still the same. I doubt it, I mean my hair back then was green and blue at one point purple. But I still wanted to ask "when did you decide that your hair really did look like fries?"

It seems like all of my friends are having babies and getting married. As a gay man I don't feel left out but I never dreamed about one day all of us growing up so fast.