When you meet Jimmy von Thron at his uptown Dallas apartment complex, you quickly realize he's a man with heroes and dreams. His tank top bearing the face of President George W. Bush on the front and back quickly tells you that.
"I love his overall attitude and love of country. I don't know, he's just a fun guy," he said of the President and of the "Dubya" tank top he wears "whenever I want it to be an interesting day."
But there was one particularly interesting day he wanted: to take the T-shirt he bought online, along with a hastily scribbled homemade sign, and fulfill a life goal. The sign says "LIFE GOAL. GET PIC WITH DUBYA WHILE WEARING DUBYA TANK."
"I made sure that the sharpie was thick enough that he could see from across the court," he said.
The court was the SMU basketball court where he'd heard the president sometimes attends home games. And at the second game, he went to Mr. Bush was there. So in his Dubya tank top, he started waving his Dubya sign.
"Secret Service was definitely not fond of me," he laughed. "They were definitely watching me closely when I showed up."
But with no response, he moved to the opposite side of the court where Mr. Bush might be able to see him better. It worked.
"He finally saw it and started laughing and he did the whole motion to come onto the court. And George sees me in the entrance and goes 'yea, yea, let him in let him out.' So I went down and that was that. It was awesome."
And that's when the man in the Dubya tank top with the Dubya sign got the photo he wanted with Dubya himself. As of this writing, the photo on von Thron's Instagram page was quickly going viral.
"I went and shook his hand and said it's an honor to meet you Mr. President. And he goes 'when I saw that tank, that's the best tank top I've ever seen. I knew I needed to get a picture with you.' So we took the picture and he said 'where did you get that tank. And he said that's the greatest thing ever."
But if this software consultant can achieve one more great thing, it will be for the producers of the Bachelor TV show to see him too. His application video is attached to the same Instagram page. But he hasn’t had the same luck. They haven't responded to his application video just yet.
But even if they don't, at least he will always have his coveted smiling shirt.
"I'm probably gonna hold onto this forever," he said.
And forever hold onto the bragging rights of the day his Dubya dreams came true.