so mcuh has hapened to us since youu leaft i mis you please i csant do this please come bacck

When I turned 19, I signed a lease on an apartment that was well out of my means to pay for. and the very next thing I did was walk from my new place to the Gypsy Cafe.  Mel and Jim didn't even ask a question for an interview, they just hired me on the spot.  I started the next night (they started me on a Thursday... but that's a different story) and remained a Gypsy for the next several years.

I was standing next to Jim the first time I saw my wife.  We were standing in the kitchen window, people watching, treating it like a two way mirror, which it was not.  It was one of the legendary Gypsy Halloween parties. I asked who that woman was,  Jim proclaimed that she was perfect for me and wasted no time in rushing out to Mel to craft the introduction that changed my life. 

On the day I found out Jim had passed, Trista was was first call to break the news. But my second contact was to fellow Gypsy Robbie, who expressed his own shock.  It was 5 minutes later that he wrote back a single word:

TUUUUULLLLL!!!!

I cried an a few minutes later wrote back:

Surprise bitch it Lettuce!

These gibberish things were just two of the infinite amount of inside jokes that we shared with Jim. Its the thing I about him I am going to choose to remember the fondest.  As I walked around the service yesterday catching up with my fellow Gypsies, I heard so many of these, prompted and not. From BD looking at me and proclaiming "HOT SKILLETT!" in the most 80s hair band way that he could or Nicole telling me the story of them quoting the same Mystery Science Theatre line until people blew up on them. In and out of the restaurant inside jokes were currency, and Jim was the bank. 

 A man that would never shame you for your interests (unless it was the Eagles or Bob Segar) and would go out of his way to connect with his friends and family, even if it meant watching a terrible movie that you liked, only to find suggestions for a movie you could like together. 

I will always love the two of you.