20 years ago i was looking for pictures for my website
back then i didnt have a blog, i had tonypierce.com and i liked to get big pictures that weren’t too busy and then write around the images.
it was sorta art sorta writing. if you hated what i had to say maybe youd like the picture.
one day i was looking through this very well maintained Drew Barrymore fan site. they had folders from each of the films, ads she had done, tv appearances, and so on
and in one of the folders was pics of all the fans.
the person who seemed to be the leader, or the biggest contributor named DaisyPrincess.
let the record state i was not looking for a girlfriend. i wasnt even looking for a friend. i had plenty.
the sad fact was i was breaking up with my gf at the time which was so sad because we loved each other. but we had to do it.
we were in the process of moving. and my little website was a creative distraction.
meantime my friends in Tsar were trying to make it big. they had signed a record deal or were close to getting one. but the way DaisyPrincess hyped Drew made me think, “if Tsar had someone like her on their side, it’d give them a great push.”
so i started emailing her just to find out what her story was, why was she in love with Drew. one thing led to another and we chatted on AOL instant messenger for hours every day. hours and hours. and it was all PG if not G rated.
for some reason we just clicked.
because life is bizarre, it turned out that she loved No Doubt, and that band’s stylist had just been hired by Tsar’s management. and that intrigued Ashley and she listened to Tsar but she was not really into it.
but for some reason she kept chatting with me.
after a while i thought i was being catfished. what’s this college girl in vegas want with me? i was not making any real money at that time. i was way older. i did not look like any of the guys she had either dated or swooned over on her blog. was i being set up for a tragic end? would i be found in a shallow grave in the desert if i dared drive out to meet her?
probably.
so once my breakup with my ex was completed and i moved into the apartment im in now, i suggested that we meet for a day.
i said i would rent a car (i didnt even have a car!), drive to vegas
and i told her that if indeed she was a 400 lb man who hated Cub fans and was going to kill me, all i ask is don’t touch my face,
that way my friends or my mother could identify me and give me a proper burial in isla vista or wrigley field
or somewhere strangers could gather and say omg what an idiot.
turned out she was not a man, not a murderer, and even prettier in real life than in her pictures.
we spent the night eating taco bell and watching charlie’s angels.
when i dropped her off i thought i’d never see her again because, come on. who gets a girlfriend from a message board?
either you get chopped up or you get ghosted.
but that didnt happen either.
it’s funny that i chalk up a lot of the nice things that have happened to me in the last 21 years to the busblog and blogging, but this happened before the blog.
it was like the silent film era. you did everything yourself. design, graphics, HTML… everything. even when i started the blog i would fall back to old school features like photo essays and special web pages where i would write around pictures.
why did ashley like me? who knows.
perhaps she did want to kill me in the desert but got cold feet when it turned out i really did love drew
and really did want to watch charlies angels on pay per view
and was not there to get her involved in a life of crime
like the others had.
i just wanted some killer wallpapers.
20 years ago seems like yesterday.
maybe because i live in the same place and when i look at parts of my apartment it’s easy to remember this or that.
or maybe because time really does fly
which is why you should go and meet that stranger whose probably gonna butcher you
maybe you should drive all night while playing springsteens drive all night
we are alive for a bat of a lash
so live.
