When I was little

I was an only child until I was 8.5 years old. My parents, who were both 23 (barely) when I was born, and my uncle Bobby, who lived with us, were the closest thing I had to siblings. They were alright and all, but it's tough having siblings who are 23+ years older than you. They spend all day working instead of playing. They go to parties you cannot go to. They own the cars and therefore get to make the decision to go to the grocery store instead of Chuck E Cheese. Ugh. Add to it the fact that they were parents/uncle instead of siblings and so tasked with discipline, homework and piano practice enforcement and the aforementioned working, and you can begin to understand why I spent a lot of my childhood yearning for real siblings.

I also loved music as a kid. My family was one of the first in our neighborhood to have cable. My dad got it for the ESPN. I loved it for the MTV. MTV was the best back then - all music, the moonman, the best.

Is it so far-fetched, then, that I would spend time daydreaming about being on MTV, with my siblings (who were always two little brothers), entertaining the masses? I would pretend my jumprope was a microphone, imagine our family band and put concerts on in our house. I imagined multi-colored lights, awesome 80s hair, synthesizers. It was way cool.

It's like watching Phil Collins

While it isn't exactly what I imagined, it did cause me to remember those days when I found my real (not imaginary) brothers playing imaginary (not real) music on Rockband last night. There they are, my rock-and-roll, family band.

The it's-all-about-the-music shot.

They may not be a real live band, and they would probably never play backup to my singing outside of the context of Rockband, but they're pretty cool. And I'd have to say that I pretty much got what I wanted when I got them...


...rockstars. Total rockstars.