My best relationship to come out of high school was with a girl named Alyson Hannigan. I met Alyson a year before I ever dated her. Alyson was also the girlfriend I spent the most time with (5 months) and was the one I was closest to, in the grand scheme of things.

I remarked once last year that every guy has had an ex-girlfriend who loved Tori Amos. When Tori played NU last year, the subject came up. My friend John had a tape of women-angst songs that he was putting into tape players one long night. We discussed the issue. For me, that ex-girlfriend was Alyson. I'm listening to Tori right now, so that just proves that I was changed by the whole relationship. So that means it had more of an impact on me than the Gwyneth relationship which just made me bitter or the Calista relationship which dulled my whole romantic side like a leg fallen asleep. Anyways, Tori kinda summed up my attraction to Alyson. She was a girl who was part of a much more liberal world than the suburbs I knew. She went to school with really alternative types. Alyson was a creative free spirit who could still speak my language. Preppy. (There's a Barenaked Ladies song which fits here: "Alternative Girlfriend")

I have to admit that this story is scaring the piss out of me, even now as I'm writing it. With all the other things, there were big momentous huge things that I could talk about in painful and excruciating details. The thing with Alyson is that there were so many of them. My fingers are going to fall off.

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