internet, i love you

Because of my gracious husband who got me The Beatles anthology series, I got to rekindle my fanatical Beatlemaniac days in grade school/ high school. Hey, I grew up in the 80's-90's but this TV channel in the late 80's had a 2-hour special called "Remembering the Beatles" and it was summer then so everyday I was introduced and became almost obsessed about the Beatles.

To the point that I asked my mom the names of the band members and because she was my mother, she knew I was staring nonstop at Paul McCartney...and she goes, "Anna, one of them is already dead." And my heart broke and that icy cold feeling went through me. Of course, after learning that it wasn't Paul McCartney, I kind of felt relieved.

Unfortunately, it dawned on me that time that all those music videos I saw were from decades past and that these guys were older than my parents. I was seriously convinced that I was born on the wrong decade, in the wrong country. Of course, that meant I wouldn't have existed at all because the only way I could be me was if the same haploid sperm & haploid egg existed in what I considered was the correct time. What did I know, I was just about to go on 5th grade.

So for my birthday that year, I requested a whole set of the Beatles' albums on cassette tape (CDs weren't around yet) and I got a free poster and T-shirt. That white shirt w/ the silk-screened faces of the Beatles in black became some sort of uniform. On hindsight, I think it bothered my mother because it was an unusual fixation for a kid my age then. Nevertheless, despite her efforts to beautify me & help my social skills, I still remained a dedicated Beatles fan. Fanatic actually, with the whole forging the Beatles signatures, memorizing the order of their albums based on release and the songs per album and per side (A side or B side). Of course, I can't enumerate them anymore now.

Then came the first time I got to visit the States with my older cousin. First time to travel without the parents. Apart from my childhood crush then (who is now my husband), I was still motivated by the Beatles, most especially Paul McCartney. He was just knighted by the Queen then so I thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to send him a card. I was in the US and I thought that it'd get to the UK faster. Of course, I never got a reply.

So what about Paul McCartney triggered this whole 1st love thing (5th grade, no less)? He had a fantastic voice, great showmanship, wicked sense of humor, regal accent, plus he played bass left-handed...oh, and he plays the piano, the French horn & amazing lead guitar. So that made him stand out a lot for me. Of course, I always knew that I had weird taste in men----OR to put it more anti-dorky-ly---I'm attracted to the unique or odd. Odd is always interesting.

Anyway, here I am, so happy to reminisce about that whole phase that I was always teased about in school. And social networking couldn't have made it easier for me to connect to @PaulMcCartney on Twitter.

Love, love, love. There's nothing you can do that can't be done.