Blast from the past

I've been wishing a lot lately that I could go back in time. Not to a different century or anything, just a few years - like maybe twenty or so. I don't regret the decisions that have made me the person I am today, but I'd love to go back and relive some of my youth.

Like when Rikki Rockett was my idol. My best friend Jennifer and I entered a radio contest to win tickets to a Poison concert once. She dressed up like lead singer Brett Michaels, and I acted as Rikki Rockett - I even painted a cardboard drum set to look like the ones he took on tour. We won - front row tickets. But in the end, Rikki pointed his drum stick at the woman next to me who was wearing a lot less clothes and thus deemed the "bigger" fan. She got to go backstage.

Rikki used to adorn my bedroom walls. Jennifer had Def Leppard posters. I had Poison. (My younger sister, as an aside, had Bryan Adams...which tells you a lot about how different we were back then. Love ya, Jess.)

It was back in the days of Rikki Rockett that I began writing. I wrote Carnival Dreams while listening to Poison and dreaming of him. When it was finished, I substituted my hero's name (Rikki, of course) for Joe Elliot, so Jen could have a book about her dream guy as well. I'm confident neither book - starring Rikki or Joe - will ever be published.

Still, those were good times - and I've been thinking about the past a lot lately.

Don't get me wrong, I do see a bright future. I'm married to my high school sweetheart (which is a story for another day) and have a beautiful step daughter. I have awesome friends who support and love me - and who these days appear to be fueling my creativity with Starbucks and Tim Hortons. I love my family, my life, my future.

But this week I'm taking a walk down memory lane, and it seems fitting my original muse should guide me through this week's writing goals. Oh I know I'll likely be alone in my "adoration" - but that's ok. I prefer not to compete anyway.