No, not Marnye. This Fox was a Volkswagen car, mine from 1990 until today. It was my first and only car (so far), and was with me through a large chunk of my life. An entire Chinese zodiac cycle, in fact.
I first drove to Smoky Mountain High School in this car. I drove to my first date in this car (and most subsequent ones, actually). I never got laid in the backseat, though. The original NC license plate, "LT RULES," hangs on my wall (there was no "Y" in my name yet).
I drove from North Carolina to Los Angeles in the Fox, via New Orleans, a city I remember fondly even though I'm no longer in touch with the person I stayed with at that time. I was introduced to Blackened Voodoo beer there. I remember the first bumper sticker I put on the car, a souvenir from Disney/MGM's Star Tours ride.
I treated the car quite badly. No-one ever told me you're supposed to change the oil every 3000 miles. It held up a long time given that I did almost no maintenance on it unless it broke. When I cleaned it out not long ago, I found stuff that had probably been there since high school.
In December, the transmission got thrown out of whack, and I paid around $500 to get it fixed. A week later, it broke in a different way. The engine had been on death watch with "bad rings" for over a year by that point, so I decided enough was enough. I hope Goodwill can make some money selling the parts.
Hard not to feel it was the end of an era looking at the Fox leaving on the back of a tow truck, with bumper stickers telling the story of its life: Nader 2000, Support Senator Kelly, WWF, Batman, Brevard College, Smoky Mountain High School, Genitorturers, Melvins, American Whore, NRDC. Proud Parent of a Demon, and the Star Tours banner still hanging in there.
Ah, memories. Time to go get another vehicle now.
Who do I have to blow to get a mention from Luke Ford?
For those who don't know, Luke Ford is a freelance journalist who attends damn near every gathering of journalists that ever takes place in LA ever, then writes about it on his site. Never ever ONCE has he mentioned my attendance at any event.
Maybe he's worried people will confuse us. After all, he's a conservative Australian Jew, and I'm tall with weird hair.
Anyway, he and I were among the first to arrive at the mediabistro.com event earlier. We discussed porn and New Age stuff, then he started trying to hit on one of the hosts, I think. Can't say I blame him. Luke called me a camera whore, for posing in front of the camera of others. He's absolutely right on that score. But then he left to go to another event, and that one is all you'll see written about on his site.
These events are apparently places where unemployed journalists show up to network (and eat stale chips and pretzels, plus nuculer -- not nuclear, mind you -- orange popcorn). If they're all unemployed, though, what's the benefit of networking? People seemed mad that I was there despite being gainfully employed [NOTE TO EVERYONE: I CANNOT HIRE YOU. The one time I was actually in a position to get someone hired, no-one applied. So there]. This one was supposed to celebrate the site's new affiliation with nerve.com's personals, of which I've been a member for a while. I came to meet people. Ideally single people.
One woman that approached me to engage me in conversation immediately started being rude, and giving out her phone number to everyone except me. Whatever.
When I heard that one of the door prize winners was Christian Cooper, though, that rung a bell. Christian gave me my first ever journalism work, at the Daily Trojan. I reintroduced myself. He now works for the Grammys, and pointed out another ex-Trojan in attendance -- K.T. Wiegman (now married, possibly with a different last name), who dated my roommate and still has one of his CDs which she doesn't want. K.T. was overweight and punk looking last time I saw her -- now she's neither. Works for AOL. On the other hand, last time I saw her I was skinny and non-punk looking -- now I'm neither. The powers remain in balance. Good to see her; soon I will introduce her to the chaos that is the Colonial House Alumni Association.
I did get to talking to someone I found quite attractive, with a great sense of personal style, looks, and brains. Then I checked out her online personal when I got home, and it says she's in a relationship, looking for friends. Damn. Unless she's just saying that to throw people off. I usually find that if women have an inkling you're hitting on them and they aren't available, the word "boyfriend" gets dropped into conversation constantly. Then again, I was cruelly led on once by a coworker, possibly unwitting but I think she had to know at some point.
I hope this new lady is in fact available, but who knows.
