when they met it was MURDER!

this is my boss, david johnson, a self-made millionaire, he's quite a guy. this is chad fogland, she's gorgeous. my name is max. i take care of the both of them, which isn't easy. because when they met it was MURDER!

actually dave and i met back in high school. we're from the same home town back in nebraska. it was weird, dave was a goody two shoes with good grades and a solid christian upbringing which seem to stifle him socially at times. i was a quiet, artistic no good-nik who would tell his teachers he had to go to the restroom and then go hang out in either the art rooms, the drama room, or the school newspaper room for the next 30 to 40 minutes. i wasn't the true rebel i think i would like to think i was, but i wasn't popular with the in crowd. i was the kid who kind of bridged the gap between the skaters, the drama freaks, the RPG geeks, and art fags. why? i ran with each group all throughout high school, and to be honest, they were all pretty much the same. dave ran with the drama crowd a little bit. but he was in choir and on the honor roll. he was a good student and the administration liked him.

dave was two years behind me; thus, when i was a senior, he was a sophomore. we met that year due to a lot of different things going on. mainly this is what happened. the drama department was going on this week long tour of these little towns here and there in nebraska. it was silly, just a few nursing homes and junior high schools, etc. there were two plays, "quilters" and "this castle needs a good scouring". i designed, painted, and constructed the stage for "quilters" and then at the last minute became apart of the show, developing this character that became known as "the beatnik elf" for "this castle...". dave was the king in the "this castle...".

one night we had to stay over in firth, nebraska. their motto: "it's better to be in firth than second." no lie. we were being put up in a few houses about the small town. the drama department was separated into groups as to not put wild people with other wild people and so on. for some reason dave and i were put in the same house. and that first night somehow we got to talking about comedy and what have you. at one point another student that neither one of us really knew slept walked over to the open barndoor in this laundry room where we were sleeping. dave and i laughed and joked how he was going to kill us and this and that, when all the sudden he jumped and sprung downward, scaring the ba'jesus out of dave and i. later we finally decided to go to sleep. dave was on a cot and i was in a sleeping bag on the floor next to the cot. at one point in the night, i rolled one way and dave rolled the other causing us almost kiss, which threw us back in fright and laughter. looking back on it now i realize how incredibly little girl like we were that night, but it was the start of a grand friendship that has spanned a decade.

since then we have worked on many projects together and have always inspired one another. david johnson is a funny man and my friend.