First Loves Blogfest

This is a one day blogging event created by Captain Ninja Alex, and I'm thrilled to be participating. This blogfest is focused around four first loves: first song/band, first movie, first book, and first person. I will keep this short and sweet so you can hopefully hit a bunch of blogs in the event today. And so shall I after the little is put to bed this evening. Enjoy!

Music: The self titled Skid Row album took me from listening to Michael Jackson into hard rock. I was in elementary school when the album came out and it was the catalyst that changed my taste in music and made me want to learn to play guitar. The song "18 and Life" instantly became my favorite song and still remains one of my favorites to this day.

Movie: I saw National Lampoon's Animal House earlier than I probably should have and obviously didn't get a lot of the adult humor, but I still found it funny. It was a movie my father loved, which for some reason stuck with me. It's got some all-time classic movie lines and speeches: "Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!" I got to appreciate it even more with my few years of fraternity living. But mainly this movie is nostalgic for me, taking me back to those times as a kid watching it with my father.

Book: In the summer between 5th and 6th grade I read my first Stephen King book, Pet Sematary. It scared the crap out of me, but influenced me into wanting to become a horror writer. For the next few years I didn't want to read anything but Stephen King. Lucky, I've grown up and broadened my reading list, but this book will always take me back to that summer when I thought I was too old to read kid books anymore. It's funny how things change.


 

Person: My wife, Marion, really is my first true love. I met her when I was a young 27 and we just seemed to click from the beginning. Before her I hadn't been in a relationship that lasted for more than three months. I made a lot of mistakes with girls through my teens and early twenties, but all those mistakes just led me to her. She is such a beautiful, smart, loving, friendly, passionate woman, who in many ways saved my life. I feel so lucky and blessed to have her as my wife and look forward to each new day with her and our beautiful new addition, Gwendolyn. I'm looking forward to many wonderful years together.