Back in the Days

I am sitting here in Soho Cafe checking my email and enjoying my first Sunday back in DC after a nice visit back to Cali. I'm sipping and typing, people watching and clicking on with my bad self when suddenly I hear "step by step! oooooh baby! really wantcha in my wo-o-o-orrld!" I can't believe this grungy cafe, with it's funky art and mismatched cups (my coffee was served to me in a beer mug) is playing New Kids on the Block! I haven't heard them in ages, and why isn't the entire cafe is not cracking up right now?

So now I'm reminiscing over my teeny bopperdom. I'm remembering my NKOTB tablecloth and paper plates I used for what must have been my 9th birthday party. The colorful glossy NKOTB book I begged my mom to buy me from KB Toy Store, which included pictures and bios of all my boys: Danny, Doni, Joe, John, Jordan. I remember jamming to their jams and thinking about how cool they all were, and how amazing it would be if they just showed up at my house one day and professed their love for me. And I remember the noogies and other forms of harassment I was subjected to by my Fugazi/Skinny Puppy/Faster Pussycat- listening cousin who was far too cool her little pre-pubescent Danz. Hey cuz, give a girl a break! Not everyone can be as hip as you were at age 9!

I never got the chance to make fun of some little teeny bopper sister or cousin when I finally became cool. My sister was too busy listening to Barbara Streisand and musical soundtracks in elementary school to pay much mind to the New Kids, and my only younger female cousin was too busy being Orthodox to have bad taste in music. So now I'm feeling a little deprived. Now I have many younger female cousins, but they are all under the age of 5, and by the time they have bad taste I will (supposedly) be too mature to give them noogies and make fun of them. Besides, I caught myself belting out Brittney Spears this morning (Oops I did it Again, if you must know), so I guess I deserve a noogie myself. Dammit, I just can't win.