The Geppetto Snowglobe

It’s now ten days until Christmas Day and it got me thinking of a very magical December back in 2008 when Michael first moved into his new home. I was at my local mall doing some light Christmas shopping for family at The Disney Store when I spotted an adorable snowglobe with all of Michael’s favorite characters. It was light brown, in a style of a jukebox with a snowglobe of Jiminy Cricket (from Pinocchio) in the center of it with other classic Disney characters all around it. I knew Michael would love it, it was so him….but it was over $100. I called some of my follower friends and asked if they wanted to chip in for a Christmas gift to Michael from all of us. I purchased it, wrapped it up beautifully and wrote a card from all of us. It was later delivered to him Christmas Eve.

A photo of the actual gift.

Fast forward to New Year’s Eve…we get a call saying, “Michael is on his way to Hennessey + Ingalls Bookstore in Santa Monica”. Talin and I made it there just in time before it got crowded with people. There were not many people inside the store when we got there; only the few customers already inside the store before Michael and his security. We stayed far away and acted natural as he shopped…burying our faces in books and such. I think we are the only people in the world who would ignore Michael Jackson at a bookstore.

Well eventually he noticed us and started looking at books in front of us. I think it was getting awkward that we were ignoring him (he knew it was us) so he acknowledged us finally. He reached his hand over the books and said “Hey”. :)

We said our hellos and I wanted to engage in some brief conversation so I asked him about our Christmas gift and if he opened it yet as I’ve heard he kept a box of unopened gifts and letters at times.

“What was it?” he asked.

I was calm as usual but the mixture of people’s stares and other fans overflowing in got me tongued-tied and I gave a horrible description of the gift.

“It was a Gheppetto thing. A snowglobe”, I mumbled.

First of all, Gheppetto from Pinnocchio is nowhere to be found on it. But of course he knew what I was talking about.

“Oohhhhh. The one that lights up and plays music?! I love it. It’s in my bedroom now…thank you, I love it.”

I didn’t even know it played music! Later we checked the website and saw that it played "When You Wish Upon A Star". How wonderful and appropriate we thought. Michael had our Christmas gift sitting in his bedroom. It was a very beautiful feeling and it definitely made my holiday special that year. New Year’s Eve festivities felt especially magical that night.

I wonder where the snowglobe is now…I guess we will never know, at least for now.

XoXo
- Arus

Welcome

The relationship Michael Jackson had with his fans is something not many understand...

Loving Michael was not about the typical fan admiration one has for mainstream celebrities. This was about a man who would open his home to us, who would send us food when we waited long hours, who would give us handwritten notes and flowers and would invite us places he went to. He truly loved us, and in return we had an enduring loyalty to him.

This blog has been created for both the writers and the readers. It's been a year and a half since we lost Michael and we have discussed ways of documenting our experiences and we decided that this is the best way. While this will be a theraputic process for us, it will also be an opportunity to share our beautiful memories with others who loved Michael just the same.

We named this blog, "Coffee With Michael" because it was a playful term we would use when we would spend a more-than-usual amount of time with him. One minute with Michael was like one hour...and one hour was like a day...

None of us really ever had coffee with him, but we did have some amazing moments throughout the years and we've come here to share them with you.

XoXo,
- Arus & Talin