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 happened to live across the way and, admittedly I'm glossing over a lot with this but long story short, we were strictly friends for the first year that we knew each other. Then, one thing led to another, and eventually we got our own place together in the city (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 of 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 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 simply 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 did anyway. Indeed, 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 extraordinary 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 then I could jump right back into things. I know, I was so cute. On top of it all, Dave has two children from a previous marriage who primarily lived with their mother in New Jersey. However, when the twins were about 18 months old, they came to live with us full-time and it suffices to say that I was 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, but I admittedly neglected it quite a bit and the income from it steadily declined over the years.
I did try other things, too, such as designing websites, mostly for friends and family. However, both the twins and Dave have had certain unique needs and as a result, taking care of my family has consumed most of my time and energy over the past couple of decades or so.
Circa 2015, I decided it might be best to shut down this website, leaving just this story as a "goodbye." It simply wasn't making enough money to justify keeping it open, especially since it was making my search for a "real" job difficult to say the least. Discrimination against sex workers of any kind is quite real.
Eventually, I was able to get a job working 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. I truly love it and feel most comfortable being in control of my own time and goals. While Dave was the catalyst for all this, starting in late '97, I actually took over the running of the jen-dave website and did, well, just about everything from that time on. I have been a successful business owner and I would quite like to be that once again.
Since Dave moved so far away from everything, so long ago, I have tried on many different "solo" online identities for size. For lack of a better way of putting it, it's been a way of trying to find myself. Two remain: JenPM.com and JennyDreadful.com.
I'd still like to do more with those in the future. However, the twins are in college now and I left my job at the rental office in March of 2024.
Why? Well, it's a question I've been trying to answer ever since I left. The best answer I can give is that I was already drowning in unhappiness. I had managed to keep the kids (and Dave) alive and relatively healthy, but I had let my own health (physical and mental) slide in the process. It was also a very small office and in the beginning of 2024, there were some major staffing changes. Shortly thereafter, I had a last straw sort of moment and experienced what I can only describe as a complete nervous breakdown.
I have recovered fairly quickly, though, and I soon decided that perhaps it was time to return to my roots, so to speak, and at least start out by rebuilding here: At my very first website which has been such a big part of my life. I couldn't do it back in 2015, but I'm in a much different phase of my life, now. Heck, one of my stepkids has two little ones of her own now, making me a Granny. :-p
Dave still has a day job, but this is now mine once again and I could not be happier about it. I'm not sure where this will lead, but I'm just happy to be back on my own path.
Our story is not over... in fact, a new chapter is just beginning! Join us, won't we?*
*Obscure MST3K** reference.
**Did you know? I used to trade my personal porno VHS tapes for episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000? That offer has long since expired, but still love MST3K!
