Athena Lundberg: Two Autographed Cards

In 2010 and 2011, I got over a bad breakup and losing my day job by writing and touring. My travels took me to North American places I hadn't been to in over a decade, including where the sun shines all year.

I met Silicon Valley native (though not silicone-enhanced) Athena Lundberg either in Nevada or California, and she proved to be charming, witty, kind-hearted and a lover of animals.

We also share a love of big-time celebrations: while I usually host UnPop Montréal - a 10-to-30-day festival of free music shows with 3 or 4 acts per night in my hometown for everyone to come and enjoy in various bars and lofts, around my birthday - she holds parties in Hollywood where she basically is the queen and surrounds herself with her friends and loyal subjects, as can be seen in these ads:

Then again, you can do whatever the hell you want when you've been a Playboy Playmate (January 2006). She'll turn 30 in a year and a half, I can only imagine the scope it'll have then.

She turned brunette recently, and while I'm not the biggest fan of blondes, I must say that these Benchwarmer cards she signed in blue sharpie for me do not do her justice, as she looked a lot better and ''realer'' in person than here. First, her ''Rookie Card'', from the 2009 Limited set (card #10):

And a card celebrating her ''Norwegian roots'' (though there is nothing about her that doesn't scream ''California''!), from the 2009 International set (and #I81 of the High Numbers sub-set):

For those who are curious, she does, indeed, have a back tattoo:

She's been a Benchwarmer staple since 2009 and has many limited-edition cards in most sets nowadays. Now that her dream of appearing in Playboy has been fulfilled, she will no longer pose nude.