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| NAME: Dana NICKNAME: N/A HOOKED-UP: 1994 NOTEWORTHY: There were enough red flags surrounding this girl to make 'em sound like a loose wooden shudder flapping around in a wind storm. The first time I saw Dana was at the show in Montclair; she'd accompanied her sibling and their friends to the show. But it was her younger sister who showed an all too obvious interest in me. Problem was, her sister... 1) was only 16 years of age (I was 24 at that time), 2) was already pregnant with another man's baby, and 3) tried to deceive me by immediately lying about her age and attempting to cover up the fact that she was indeed pregnant. Add all that to the fact I didn't find her attractive to begin with, and it's easy to see how, in my mind, there was no chance we would ever date. It was Dana, however, that caught my interest. She was older, seemed a little smarter, had long hair with a nicer physique, and was certainly a more attractive option when compared to her younger sibling. It was also Dana who called me on behalf of her sister that weekend, and wound up coming out to meet me, herself, when it became known I was more interested in getting to know her. As was the case with many new girlfriends, we hooked up on the first date to start a relationship. Even though it was a nice enough beginning, things went downhill from there. While getting to know her better, it became clear that I'd repeated my traditional mistake of not looking before leaping. For starters, even though she was 22 at the time (making her my oldest girlfriend up to that point), she was not the most mature. Hanging around with that 16-year-old sister (her best friend) apparently influenced her enough to retard her mental & emotional growth. Then there was her status as a mother; she had a child on the verge of hitting those "terrible twos"--and from what I saw, the little fucker was getting an early start. And topping all this was the fact that she still lived with her husband...even though they were "technically separated." Oh, yeah; and they were living inside a trailer park. In San Bernardino. The dripping sarcasm that goes with anyone telling me how I'd really "picked a winner" in this case is noted before anything can be said out loud. And while I quickly came to regret my decision to hook up with this particular girl, the option of running away and screaming about just wanting to live seemed too tasteless. Even for this scenario. Although we dated for a month, during which time we only got together on the weekends, it seemed much longer to me. I wasn't comfortable dating this girl, and would even become irritable in her presence. On her side of things, she was starting to second-guess our so-called relationship...and started to voice these concerns--which made me secretly rejoice at the thought of being set free. Sure enough, after some hesitation, she finally cut me loose; and even though I didn't flee as if running away from a fire, there were never any thoughts about looking back, either. However, she regretted the break-up; and when informing me of this, I reiterated my stance on not reconciling with ex-girlfriends--something she'd been made aware of before. Never in my life time did I get back together with a former girlfriend, due to how it seems more like repeating a mistake than anything else (even more true in this case). I believe that if two people are meant to be together, they cherrish each other enough so there are never any fights--and certainly no break-ups. If fights and/or break-ups occur, why repeat the cycle? Doing the whole "Make-Up/Break-Up" song & dance seems like just a waste of life to me. People are much better off just moving on...which is what I've always tried to do. Especially with relationships. And particularly in this case. Dana wasn't happy about this, and had trouble accepting it. She continued coming to shows in Montclair--even dragging along a "new boyfriend" one time with the hope of making me jealous. Since Andi was still in cast at that time, and all too willing to play some head games, I fought fire with some heat of my own. Frustrated, Dana tried turning her attentions towards TOBY, hoping I might get jealous of my best friend. But when Slats asked me about dating her, I gave him the green light to have at it. Failing to make me jealous at all, Dana finally realized I just didn't care; so she gave up on me without ever giving TOBY a shot at her...thus earning the "bitch" nickname. Any fool who tries to use my best friend against me has a lot to learn. I honestly don't know what happened with Dana after that. She stopped attending Rocky, ceased trying to contact me and had no friends who frequented the show; so there was no way to keep up with her life. I do not know if she finally got that divorce from her husband, or if she's even still living somewhere in San Bernardino. And to be brutally honest, I'm much better off not knowing. __________________________ |