Post #241139 by Rev. Griz on Wed, Jul 5, 2006 12:18 PM

Short answer: What Sabu said.

Long answer: All the best times of my childhood revolve around my Gramma's house in Bellflower. She took us to Disneyland, the beach, and many other magical places. In the 60's the bright lights, googie, and tiki of Anaheim were wild and exotic to a young boy living in Riverside and later even more behind the times in the mountains.

The best of the best times were at Disneyland where Adventureland especially made me daydream of far off mysterious places.

Fast forward a couple of decades heavily blurred by substance abuse...I settle down, get a regular job, have a family, and then I realize that, OMFG, I'm going to die someday, I don't have forever to visit those wild places I always dreamed of. This is something we like to call mid-life crisis.

The mid-life crisis manifests in many ways, but for me it's a matter of trying to do things I always wanted to do and thought I had unlimited time to get done. Sail to the South Pacific, wrestle alligators in Florida, wake up dry beneath the African sky, just me and my Swiss Army knife (as Buffett puts it). I'm now making a concerted effort to do those things, and they are mostly to do with going to exotic locations with palms trees and beaches and scantily clad natives.

Meanwhile, when I can't go those places, I try to recreate those wonderful feelings of my childhood, the anticipation of going those places and doing those things. There are several things that give me those feelings, and tiki is one of them. I can sit out on my (sparsely decorated so far) patio and look at my (cheap Target and dollar store) tikis and feel like I did while I was a kid while planning my next foray into danger and mystery.