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| NAME: Lisa NICKNAME: N/A HOOKED-UP: 1990 NOTEWORTHY: Yet another example of not looking long enough before taking a leap... She had started high school the year after I graduated, which could easily be described as Red Flag #1. Regardless of her adolescence, she was already sexually active...which might be labelled as Red Flag #2 (depending on how loose your morals are). But the scariest(?) thing about this girl may have been her own dark version of dependency--what I call Red Flag #3. I first met her at TOBY's big backyard birthday party in August 1989 (when the above picture was taken) by "saving her" from being thrown into the pool; nothing about her attracted me at the time. Several months later, we ran into her at Topanga Plaza: the mall directly across Vanowen St. from Canoga Park High School. This time, with her hair longer, she caught my eye. Of course, the denim cut-off shorts she was wearin' at the time certainly helped. But it wasn't until a couple weeks later, when she was walking by a local car wash while The Camaro was being cleaned, that a real potential for hooking-up presented itself. That is when, upon seeing her, I called out to her; she immediately came over and wrapped her arms around me without saying a word. Grateful for this unexpected affection, I accepted it as a sign of interest; and we wound up spending the rest o'the day together. Naturally, we hooked-up; and at first, things were pretty good. In fact, she was with us when I saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show at nearby Woodland Hills GCC for the very first time. She seemed like a sweet girl, wasn't as prude as Cindy had been, and always got along with TOBY really well. So we appeared to be a good fit. At first. Once again, I jumped into a relationship too quickly. Lisa turned out to be a girl who was not only starved for attention, but had major insecurity issues (for example, I'd been apart from Cindy for a year, but Lisa still felt threatened by her merely because we once had a relationship); and she was prone to dark bouts with depression. It is hard to say where this all came from, though it did lead her to call me several times a day and hang out around my car when I was home in wait for me to step outside. Her neediness was unnerving, to say the least. When finally realizing that she was one of those "black hole" personalities--who claims to have so much love to give while they essentially sap ya of all your will to live--I could not get away from her fast enough. Our breakup only complicated things. She would still try to call me or appear at my front door, and even showed up at TOBY's house one time after learning I was over there on a visit. As I had already learned from the comedic stylings of the late, great Sam Kinison, there are little balls of psychosis in the world that are just waiting for a guy to come along who they can blame their whole, miserable, traumatic life on. My problem is that it took me a while before realizing Lisa was such a girl. Thankfully, she finally moved on; and so did I, although with a greater amount of haste. Odd as it may seem, when I hooked-up with my first love lost the following year, she happened to be in the same continuation school class as Lisa...mentioning as much to me more than once. They seemed to get along all right, which I accepted as reassurance that Lisa had indeed moved on. In fact, around that time she hooked-up with a guy familiar to me (Eric), who was in my graduating Class of 1988. I later learned they had a kid together, but don't know if they ever married...or if they're even together still. But I wish them well. __________________________ |