ADMORT, Where Are You?
One way or another, I can find just about anyone on the Internet. It’s one of the things I love most about it — every relative, friend, neighbor, coworker, girlfriend, whoever, from any phase of my life, probably has some sort of Internet footprint that can be found. (Long-dead ancestors too, for that matter!) Usually, it’s as simple as a Google search. Sometimes it takes more work. But as long as the person is still alive, they can probably be located and contacted on the Internet.
Probably. But not always. There are a handful of people, a couple of them very important to me, that I’ve never been able to track down. Since I’ve tried almost everything else, I’m going to try posting here about my two main missing friends that I’ve a) lost contact with and b) cannot for the life of me find current info for online.
First — in no particular order — April-Dawn Maria Ortiz Romero Tortorello (ADMORT):
April
I met April in 1983 or so, in APA Centauri. Her zine was called ” …but it was only fantasy… ” and she wrote a lot about Pink Floyd, one of my obsessions at the time. We became friends through the APA and direct correspondence. Then I visited her twice at her home in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, in May of 1985.
That May ‘85 trip up north was extremely significant for me. I won’t go into it all now (or probably ever, publicly), but let’s just say it was a case of the right people in the right place at the right time. The course of my life was changed permanently for the better, and April was the critical element. She’ll have a special place in my heart and mind for the rest of my life. When I left New Jersey, April gave me the photo above, which she said was the only photo she had of herself. I’ve kept it nearby in a safe place ever since.
We continued to correspond, and April was planning to come down to Florida before she started at Dartmouth that fall. I don’t recall exactly how we lost contact, as my life went kind of haywire about then. In fact, I ended up joining the Navy before year end. But I know April did start at Dartmouth in the fall of ‘85, and I’m pretty sure she graduated three years later. I did once (mid ’90’s) send a letter to the Dartmouth Alumni Association to forward on to her last known address, which they did, but I received no reply from her.
On one hand, it surprises me that April isn’t all over the Internet. She is intelligent and creative in the extreme, and it seems to me that she would be utilizing the Web to communicate and create just as she once used APA Centauri. On the other hand, I can also see how she might have grown up to be a very private person, protecting her identity carefully. So… I figure the almost complete absence of any references to her on any publicly searchable Web site is either intentional or… because she died before she got herself out there in Etheria’s realm (Etheria = The Goddess of the Internet).
I hope that death is not the explanation! I hope that April is out there, either using the ‘Net anonymously or pseudonymously. Or that somehow technology just isn’t part of her life, and she’s out there somewhere living a more natural life. Whatever the reason or circumstance, I hope that April-Dawn Tortorello is alive, safe and loved. And that we will meet again some day.
…
In case April is trying to protect her identity, I don’t want to reveal too much more here about her. I’ll just add that she grew up in New York City, is about 41 yrs. old now, and also attended Princeton for a year before she went to Dartmouth.
If anyone reading this knows April and can contact her, please pass on my contact info and ask her to ping me! Scott Jones, PO Box 62, Zephyrhills, FL 33539, 813-782-5062, hsjones@sisna.com. Thank you.
Excelsior!
May 30th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
I remember that visit….
I think she lives in LA now.
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Hi, Neal… what’s your last name? I know I met some of April’s friends in NYC/NJ, but that was a long time ago…
Thanks. I did have a snail mail address out in that neck of the woods, but it was returned.
June 5th, 2009 at 9:56 am
That you don’t remember me probably says as much about me as it does about you, but if you still have your APA-C’s from that time I should stand out.
June 5th, 2009 at 10:01 am
I guess, though, I should be grateful you don’t remember me. I did escort you and your friend to the David Letterman taping…
June 5th, 2009 at 10:36 am
My apas are in storage. I remember meeting Chris Mortika and a more polite dark-haired guy (guessing that was you). Sorry about not remembering, Neal! I don’t remember trying to get in to David Letterman, either! Hmmm… You sure that was me and Chuck (my cousin, who was with me) that you took over there? I went to a show much later, in 2000, while in NYC as a consultant for Novell.
Anyway, glad you found my blog post and hope you are well. Please send me a valid e-mail address at hsjones@sisna.com so we can chat off-blog. Thanks!
June 5th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
For many, many reasons (nothing personal, believe me,) I don’t really want to reconnect with my old life. Anyway, I was April’s boyfriend, I was the one who got AC dumped in his lap when she left (third CM in less than a year to voluntarily exit…)
And yes, I took and another guy (who I vaguely remember as your relative) to a Letterman taping, but it was crowded in the waiting area and you decided not to stay. We didn’t really hang out.
June 30th, 2009 at 7:45 am
I just reread that entry, BOY did I not read it thoroughly the first time. I realize that you and I didn’t hang out all that much, and that was largely due to the fact that I had a job (unlike April at that time.) There was also the fact that you seemed about as interested in knowing me as I was in knowing you (April sure had that effect on guys!) And also the fact that April DID NOT talk about what the two of you did (again, a very April thing. When she had one boy she tended not to notice others, even ones she was intimately involved with!) To be fair, with 20+ years of hindsight, you are probably a much nicer guy than I remember, and that fact that a suicide blond who claims that he was ADMORT’s boyfriend and fits the description of neither of the people you actually remember meeting was probably a shock. I hope your life is going well now.
July 17th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Scott,
I met April in May 1982, on the last day of my sophomore high school year (April was a year above me). She came up to me at the library front desk as I was returning books, introduced herself, told me her acronym and its meaning (”To the death!”), told me her phone number, told me a mnemonic for it, asked for (and got!) my number, bashed out a semi-decent mnemonic for it which she promised to work on, and said she’d see me in the fall. That was my first five minutes of April. A glorious woman and probably the most deeply romantic person I’ve ever met.
Of course, I’ve looked for her online from time to time over the years, as well. I’m very touched by the photo you posted–thank you.
Best regards,
Dan