I am sitting here listening to "Unknown Pleasures" by Joy Division - just got it last night and this is like the third time I have listened to it - and thinking of how much it reminds me of Ty, with her love for alernative music and all. But I am getting ahead of myself here. One could easily ask, "Ty? What makes you bring up Ty?" And that is a very interesting story indeed.
First, the history. When I was 21, I was living with a guy named Brian Harris in a little apartment off of 67th and Northern, dubbed "the Vortex" by my friend Doug. At the time, I was selling pot, partying, and living the free, party lifestyle. I met this girl named Ty through someone (?) as she happened to be a major potsmoker. She was very petite, very cute, very intelligent, and basically wanted by all of us. After some hanging out and various happenings, we ended up dating. We dated for about 5 or 6 months - and then she got pregnant. I of course got scared shitless, (and though I told myself at the time that I wasn't doing it because of the pregnancy thing, I probably was)and moved with my mom to South Dakota. Ty was obviously devastated, and I felt incredibly bad about it. And did so for the next 18 years.
Flash forward to 6 (almost 7 now) years ago : I get sober, and as part of that, do a 4th step and a sexual inventory, and make an 8th step list. And of course, Ty was on there. I felt horrible about what I had done, and definitely owed her an amends. I looked for her as best I knew how, and she was nowhere to be found. I tried driving by her old house, only to find that she didn't live there (like she would have still been, right? but I had to try). I asked the people living there if they knew the previous owners, they had no idea. I tried People Finders.com, and came up with an address. So I sent a letter, hoping she would get it. But it got returned - "not at this address", and I wasn't sure if maybe she was and still hated me, or she really didn't live there. After that, I basically gave up on trying to find her.
So then this last weekend, I took Luke out to visit Doug with me - the first time we had all 3 been together, and the first time Luke had seen Doug, in like 10 years. Of course we talked about all the old times - the people we hung out, the crazy stuff we did, the places we lived - and Ty's name came up. Luke mentions something about her, and say that I never knew what happened to her. He says something like, "oh, I think she is a realtor in Peoria - I saw her on the Internet the other day." I was flabbergasted, and was like "WHAT?!?! How in the heck did you find her?" He goes on to tell me that he was Googling some of the people he used to hang out with, and she popped up. Well, I was floored, and determined that when I got home, I too would Google her. (talk about ironic - I, mr "computer", had looked and looked for her, and here Luke just Googles her - D'OH!)
And so I did just that - typed in Tylee Leighton, pressed search, and there she was. WHOA! I was amazed - stunned. Here before me sits a photo and contact information for an ex g/f that I have been trying to find for years so I could make amends to her. It was indeed a realty site that she came up on. So I did what seemed like the next logical thing to do in this day and age - I found her on Facebook and sent her a message. All these thoughts ran through me head, like maybe she was single, and we could have one of those Lifetime Movie romances, where we fall back in love again 20 years later. It was so surprising too, because over the years, I had always pictured her sinking deeper into her addiction, as I did, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it appeared to be quite the opposite.
Wow - there is more to this than I thought. But I really need to do at least a LITTLE actual work, so I will continue this later!
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