In 1995, my friend Eric had randomly met this shady sketchball who I trusted about as far as I could throw him and thought that he was good people enough to let him sleep at his house. This guy, "The Rev Wilson," proceeded to steal the credit card numbers of everyone in the house! I was lucky enough not to live with Erik at the time, but he stole thousands of dollars from my friends and a month later, just before the credit card statements came... he was gone!
We tracked him as far as we could via the statements on the credit cards. We lost track of him somewhere around Montana where he'd bought a $500 lemon from a dealership. Nothing he told anyone was the truth... except he told me his parents had disowned him and that he likes Phish... that I believed.
Eventually the summer came and with that Phish tour. We'd made it all the way to Great Woods when I had the thought that we hadn't run into him yet. We'd run into all of our friends, but not him.
As we were waiting for the lot to open, I saw this awesome VW Dune Bug with a patchwork quilt painted over it cruise into the lot early. It had my attention, being the only car open in the lot. I saw her first from a very great distance after they'd parked the car... The moment I saw her, I knew that... well I don't know exactly what I knew, but I knew I wanted to meet her... though distance was an issue. The lot hadn't exactly opened yet and she was far away. Before I could make my way onto the road that would take me close to her my friend Pete shouted that he wanted to take a walk in the other direction. A second after I shouted for him to hang on, I turned around and she was gone.
A few of us had crossed the street to hang out in the shade by this little lake. I went swimming there... kind of a hippie bath... after I came out I met a very wet and happy dog. It had ticks all over it. The dog walked along side me while I asked for tweezers... it didn't need a leash or anything... and after several people showed me copies of tapes from various Phish shows with Tweezer's on them I got a pair and took the ticks off of the dog. My canine companion sped off.
The lot opened up and they were letting all of the cars through.
We piled onto this fat schoolbus. We'd been drinking for a little while now. Guess who turned up in the car right behind the schoolbus. My substantially bigger friend Pete would have torn his head clear off if we were anywhere outside of the Phish lot. We took his pants and searched the pockets. He'd been riding in a car with a bunch of kids... I had no idea who they were, but they were freaked out that we were doing this to their supposed friend. I calmly told them that I didn't know who they were, but that I was about to tell them. I reached into his wallet and found a 8 1/2" X 11" page filled with credit card numbers. He'd hit and hurt alot of people with his little scam. On the bottom were the fresh ones. I set it down on the car and read them off to the kids... who slowly stepped away as they recognized their numbers and realized what was up. Pete was done doing what he was doing with "The Rev" and let him go with a few idle threats, but missing a pair of pants and shoes. I'm not sure if I would have done it the same way today, but I wasn't sure if credit card fraud is a state crime or a federal one, and I'm also not sure if we could have had him arrested in the state of MA.
Anyway, I made friends with all of the people he was riding with. I told them what to do from here on in and what happened to our friends. Then we were on our way. I decided to walk through the lot a bit before heading into the show and this dog jumped up on me... nearly knocked me over... it wasn't any dog, it was the dog I helped out earlier that day and I heard this voice behind me while I was playing with em. "Sorry, he's a good dog" I started to answer that we'd met earlier and then I turned around... and as I knelt down by the dog with the sun in my eyes behind her head... there she was... Christina!
I walked around with her... I tried to remember everything she said to me and for a long time I did. She was just beautiful and relaxed and it made everything around me feel the same way. It'd been an odd day, but I'd forgotten about the Rev completely... I'd forgotten most things of importance except what we were talking about. Eventually it was about time to head into the venue. And then she was gone.
After that, it was a blur. I was travelling in a great crew #phish. We made it to Sugarbush and I kept running into Christina, but we were off just as fast. The last night of tour, I didn't see her at all. The next day, we drove into Burlington to see the city. We stopped at Nectar's for a plate of fries. I went to use the bathroom, but the guy in the stall was taking forever. I was going to leave... Pete came in to tell me that he was going to find an empty stall somewhere else so he took off and I jumped up on the sink and waited.
Maybe it was because my legs didn't quite touch the ground from the sink, but just then the door opened. And it was that little rat The Rev in the john... AND HE HAD PANTS! He tried to shut the door fast. He handed me his wallet right away so I wouldn't beat him up (I would not have really beat him up, but I may have subdued him until the cops came). He had no money, just a sheet of bunk acid he was trying to scam on some kids, so I flushed it. He told me he had the money... he said that he was at Java Love and he'd be there with the money he owed. I let him go, and umm... did my business in the bathroom.
I felt great afterwards and strolled down to Java Love (I knew he wouldn't be there). I stepped inside and scanned the room... I was right no Rev, but there was Christina... now, there was someone I wanted to find... and she had the most beautiful smile. She'd told me about a party in St. Hero for the 4th of July... and I had to go. I couldn't resist, even if the party was lame, I wanted to hang with Christina.
My friends had other plans, so I basically had to convince everyone to go. It was an awesome party. There were: Multiple barrels of Magic Hat #9 on tap and a bit of gas... There were a couple of campfires on the property... A house full of drums... Instruments everywhere... A band in the garage (Fishman on drums)... And Christina!
It was a beautiful night... a perfect 4th of July. We talked around a campfire. There were fireworks... stars... a beautiful girl to share a bottle of tequila... and a very cool crowd. As it goes... I didn't want the night to end.
As dawn broke, my crew was grabbing me to leave... but I couldn't. I didn't want to... because I knew if I left I'd eventually have to head to the midwest and she'd be off to Colorado. It would be the end of it. We'd call and talk and it was hard... because I didn't want to just talk with her and not be able to see her. We met up one other time in Chicago on Halloween. As time stretched on the calls became more and more infrequent... and years have passed... I've gone through a fair share of girlfriends. I guess, I get bored easily or at least that's what I thought. Now I realize that this isn't the case at all... I'm not bored by them, but maybe I'm stuck on someone else.
She's been gone and out of my life for a long time, but she's still the yardstick to whom I compare all others... or at least the idea of her. Its possible that its because I haven't seen her that I've romanticized her in my mind... that she was out there just like me in the dating jungle, meeting people, but ultimately not finding who they were looking for in them. I have no idea.
Last week I saw JMP, I thought about Christina when hanging out with Fishman again and I asked Fishman if he could help me track her down. She worked for their catering company Eat Your Hearts Out. He told me where to find them and wished me luck. As luck would have it, I came across her number while clearing things out of the basement at my parent's house... actually the number was for her Mom's house, where she used to live. I don't know what I would say to her Mom to convince her to give me Christina's number... but it didn't matter because after I'd dialed, Christina picked up the phone. I gave myself a reality check, because she probably doesn't remember me from years ago and she probably doesn't remember a thing about me and I don't want to come off as some guy with a nine year crush. Sometimes butterflies fly away on their own accord and you never see them again... and sometimes you see something that gives off the most beautiful light and you spend your days trying to find it again. As it happens, she answered the phone. She happened to be in town from Hawaii for a family reunion... so I'm heading off to Colorado to see her as part of a long overdue visit!
The night went on and on... then it was morning and I made it home to sleep for a couple of hours before work and then took off early to drive up to Madison to get ready for the free JMP show on the Terrace.
