This is part 8 in a series about my time working for the Combined Insurance Company. If you want to catch up, please check out Part 1: PMA Day, Part 2: Johnny B, Part 3: Ross, Part 4: The Preacher, Part 5: Misfits Guy, Part 6: ICP Guy and Part 7: Diabetes Guy.

I remember seeing the debut of No Doubt’s music video for “Just a Girl” for the first time in 1995. I saw this spunky bombshell jumping around in her baggy blue pants and white crop-top, banging her bindi-clad head to the chaotic-yet-fun music. Three important things happened that day: I’m pretty sure this was the day I became a feminist (without knowing what that was just yet), I became a fan of No Doubt, and I fell all the way in love with one Gwen Renée Stefani.

I immediately bought “Tragic Kingdom” and hunted down their earlier albums. By the time “Return of Saturn” came out, I had stickers on my skateboard, posters on my wall, and Gwen Stefani taped inside my locker.

My “favorite band” would change multiple times over the next 20 years, but Gwen remained my number-one celebrity dream woman until only about a decade ago when I was introduced to Lana. I had the t-shirts, the memorabilia and caught them in concert, making sure to join the ND fan club so I could get pre-pre-pre-sale tickets. I showed up hours early so I could make sure I was front row, and I was.

Still, no matter how infatuated I was with Gwen, I’ll never touch the level of celebrity crush obsession as my old friend Pizza Delivery Guy.

Pizza Delivery Guy (we’ll just say PDG for short now) was in his late 40s. He was tall, lanky and bald with an incredibly dry personality. Still, he was friendly and polite, one of the few people who, like me, were taking sales school seriously. He shared a room with another young guy around my age, and the two of them were study partners for the entirety of our training. 

Before I was introduced, I saw PDG’s exterior, age, presentation, etc. and decided he had been laid off from his job and was needing something to pay the bills while he looked for more work. Or maybe he had been an insurance guy with another company but needed to get the Combined-specific training before working for the company – dude did seem to have a pretty firm grasp on the concepts of insurance.

The moment I finally met him, though, was very interesting. We introduced ourselves, said where we were from, then out of nowhere he asked me if I was a fan of the band Evanescence.

I don’t care for them, but I lied and said, “Yeah, sure.” 

This launched him into a short, passionate rant about how perfect Amy Lee is, what a wonderful voice she has, what a great talent she brings to the band and what a generally huge mega-fan of theirs – and hers – that he was.

Strange, but okay. I would have ran away to marry Gwen that second if she was willing, so I get it, but that’s not normally something I’d lead with.

During sales school, I’d swing by PDG’s room to see what he and his roomie were up to. Usually it was studying or practicing the sales script. Every time, though, was accompanied by the sounds of Amy Lee’s admittedly angelic, forlorn, sometimes operatic vocals blasting over generic hard rock on a CD player PDG had brought (this being in the days before streaming services).

I caught a ride back to the hotel with RDG one evening after school and we spent the majority of the ride unable to speak because he was also blasting Evanescence in his car. I’m unsure if it was the same CD that he had in the room or if he had a car-only copy, which wouldn’t surprise me. He’d turn the music down just long enough to prepare me for certain moments in certain songs or to re-inform me of just how beautiful Amy Lee was to him.

When we caught a break between songs, I tried to start a conversation about why he was there at Combined Insurance school. He told me he had just gone through a divorce and was using this opportunity to redefine himself a bit with a new career. I thought that was admirable.

I explained to him what all had happened to me and why I was going to insurance school despite having a BS in Digital Media and experience in the entertainment industry. I told him that I just didn’t want to wait tables anymore because I was too embarrassed to be seen doing it after doing so much bragging about what my future held.

He said that prior to joining insurance school, he was a full-time Domino’s pizza delivery driver. Maybe not what he thought his career would be, but it’s where he was. He said that he understood my fear of being looked down on by my peers because he frequently had to deliver pizzas to guys he went to school with who are living in beautiful homes with beautiful families.

“One thing I’ve learned, though … is don’t ever be embarrassed about what you do,” he told me.

“Maybe it isn’t flashy or lucrative, but you’re out there putting in work, supporting yourself, supporting a family. You’re showing up. The only thing that’s embarrassing is not being willing to do even that, and there are a lot of people out there like that.”

He turned up the radio again and we rode the rest of the way in silence.

He was right. And that bit of advice he gave me has stuck with me now for the last (almost) 20 years. I knew I’d get back on track in the industry – and I did – but for now, I needed to support myself.

After we broke from insurance school, we all went back to our home counties, so I never knew what happened to PDG. I don’t follow – and don’t care about – Amy Lee’s love life, but I hope if she’s married or dating someone, it isn’t him.

Sorry, PDG. It was all just too weird.

Still, he was a genuinely kind guy who helped me more than he knew — even if his devotion to Amy Lee probably deserved its own support group.

Of all the things I learned at insurance school, PDG was the one who said something that’s actually stuck. He reminded me that there’s nothing embarrassing about honest work — a lesson that has even outlasted my crush on Gwen.

More tomorrow,

-jtf

This is post 13 of 30 in my most recent attempt at tackling NaBloPoMo. Funsies and such.