I'm actually working on a book which will go into much greater detail about our history, but for now I'll give a brief-ish explanation of who the hell we are:
Our story begins shortly after I graduated high school in 1992. That summer, my parents, three younger siblings, and I moved to yet another apartment complex in my hometown of Glen Burnie, Maryland.
Dave just happened to live across the way. I'm admittedly glossing over a lot with this, but long story short, we were strictly friends for the first year we knew each other. Then one thing led to another and eventually we got our own place together in the city of Baltimore.
Shortly after that, Dave suggested we get a computer. So, we took a bus ride up to the Sears at the Hunt Valley Mall. Yes, we did actually bring a mid-nineties era computer home on the bus. Two buses, as a matter of fact, since we had to transfer in Towson.
While I had to take a nap after that, Dave immediately went about setting it up. Before long he was "surfing" this new-fangled thing called "the internet."
That's when he discovered places where people were posting photos of *real* naked women. Not that playboy models or professional porn stars aren't "real" but, these were photos that were obviously just somebody's wife or girlfriend... true girls next door. Yes, that's a pretty commonplace thing these days, but it was an exciting new concept at the time.
He then asked if he could post some photos of me, and I said, "sure."
We started out by just posting a few pics to the newsgroups (usenet), but things quickly snowballed in a way we never could have imagined. As time went on, things got wilder and wilder and terms like "porn" and "swingers" were thrown around a lot. We've never particularly liked labels, though, and I've since decided a more accurate term would be simply "blogging."
The term "blogging" had yet to be coined when we started out, but that was essentially what we were doing. While certainly "adult" in nature, we never really thought of what we were doing as "dirty." We were just sharing our life together! In fact, we were downright cutesy about it all. (Our slogan was "Always a boobie guarantee!")
However you describe it, though, what started as a hobby quickly became a full-time endeavor for many years. We still considered ourselves "amateurs" as we had no idea what we were doing; There was definitely no master plan. In fact, at times, we even felt guilty about the money we were making. Crazy, I know; What can I say, we were very young.
We truly were just looking to have a good time and perhaps spread the ideals of body-positivity and sex-positivity... even if we didn't yet have the words for those things, either.
Looking back, we perhaps should have taken better advantage of a unique opportunity. We had never planned to make *any* money with it, but we sort of accidentally made some, anyway... and yes, we probably could have spun it all into some big empire.. but, whenever someone asked what our goal was with all this, we would simply respond, "To have fun!"
And, we did; And then some. The whole experience changed us in ways we can scarcely begin to describe. We both learned so much and not only made some amazing memories but true friends.
Of course, as they have a tendency to do, things gradually changed over the years, both for us and the internet. Dave went back to the rat race some time ago to pay the bills, and I gave birth to our twins in 2005.
Now, I had the idea that I would just need to take a few weeks off after giving birth and I could jump right back into things (I was so cute). For obvious reasons, that did not happen and I was admittedly pretty lost in the fog of motherhood for several years. I even had a mommy blog at one point!
I did try to keep this site going, too, though. I also tried out designing websites for other people, and just generally did what I could while raising two babies at once. Finally, though, I conceded that it was time to move on.
Circa 2015, I shut down this website (leaving just our story as a "goodbye") and after great difficulty, found some "real jobs." First, I worked in the cafeteria of my children's elementary school which lasted about a year and a half. Then I spent almost six years working in the rental office of the apartment complex we have lived in since 1996.
While doing that, though, I never gave up on the idea of being able to work for myself, again. Since Dave had moved so far away from everything, I tried on many different "solo" identities for size. Two remain: JenPM.com and JennyDreadful.com.
I'd still like to do more with those in the future. However, the twins are 18 and in college, now, and I left my last job in March of 2024. Soon after, I decided that perhaps it was time to return to my roots, so to speak, and re-build here.
Dave still has a day job, but this is now mine, again! I could not be happier about it. I tried to be a normal working person, but this is clearly what I was meant to do.
Our story is not over... in fact, a new chapter is just beginning! Join us, won't we?*
*Obscure MST3K reference.
