What time of your life would you love to go back to right now?

[HEyHEY]

For me, it was a short time ago. My internship on Gabriola Island. A nice little island of about 5,000. Amazing musicians were there. Lots of the local talent consisted of artists or musicians...and I don't mean hacks. Many had a record out or you'd have to pay good money for their art.

I leased a 2002 Volkswagen Bug for the intership. I'd zoom around the island's tree-covered, oceanside, winding roads listening to the engine as I changed gears.

The stories I wrote were all flimsy fluff, but I learned alot about island life. At night, almost everynight, I'd head down to the "Surf Lodge" a one-time hangout of the Beachboys. I'd sit on the third stool from the end, and drink guiness, tea, glenmorangie, or jameson while I watched the Canucks or gabbed with the bartender and James, the owner's son.

Early in the evenings, I'd sometimes go to Berry Point and marvel at the smooth rocks that looked liked minature canyons, or play my pennywhistle while looking for Sealions. But I usaully ended up staring at the lights of Vancouver 18km away across the straight of Georgia.

Man what a good time.

Where would you rather be?

[ogminlo]

1. I'm still looking forward to the best times.

[twistedliberal]

2. I'd go back about 2 years.

I was still in college, was in touch with all of my friends (and they still lived around here), and I had a great girlfriend. She had a little boy age 3. I was with her for almost 2 years, and it was the only real relationship I have ever had. Unfortunately, I wasn't ready to take the role that I would have needed to take for the relationship to go any further, and we broke up. I have changed a lot since then, and wish that I could go back to that time but be the person I am now--I miss them both very much.

[booksenkatz]

3. September 8, 2001

I was watching some video of our little boy from that date, we were all so happy! Our finances were great, I still had a job, we had everything to look forward to. Bush had only done a relatively small amount of damage that seemed reversible. In the video is a happy child who had just turned 2 the previous week, sun streaming in through the windows..... <sigh>

[info being]

44. Same for me...summer of 2001

It was magnificent. Not a care in the world. Of course now I know it was all an illusion...and I'm not sure I would want to go back to an illusion.

[Maccagirl]

4. High school days

But only AFTER I got my driver's license (not having Mom chauffeur me around and complaining about it the whole time). I was thin, had nice skin and had the best circle of friends I could ever hope for. Seems like a lifetime ago-I guess it was.

[Kat45]

5. Back around 1987 when I wrote for a local rock magazine,

hung out in the local music scene and loved the music, knew lots of musicians, hung out at a bar/club that was my second home, partyied most nights, knew a lot of drop-dead-gorgeous men....just had a blast!

[rumguy]

6. last night

when I was with a beautiful young lady....

[LynneSin]

7. About 3 hours ago before I spent $4 dollars to rent "Whale Rider"

I'm sorry, the more I think about that movie the more I really didn't like it at all

[HEyHEY]

8. Well, it's important to know when you hate something

That's why I don't cheer for the Phlyers ;-)

[LastKnight]

9. about a year ago...

me and a group of friends from my highschool orchestra went to new orleans... longass drive 26 hours or so with all your friends on a bus, was pretty damn fun... spent a week runnin around in the area, soaking up the culture, music, lifestyle, ect... loved it there.

best time of my life as of yet.

-LK

[NightTrain]

10. For just one night...

...I'd like to return to the summer of 1983 to attend a midnight screening of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" at the U.A. Theaters East in Manchester, Connecticut.

I was 17 years old, thin, and still had a full head of hair. And thanks to the friends I made at "RHPS," for the first time in my life I actually felt like I belogned somewhere!

When that theater closed its doors three years ago, I felt as if a part of me had died.

[camero]

11. When I was trucking

I saw just about everything there was to see in North America. Loved it.

Also my wrestling days in high school. Nothing like the buzz you get from a few thousand people cheering you on.

[everythingsxen]

12. Right here, right now

there is no other place I'd rather be.

:D

*shrug* I got my life kinda on track and I am in love.

What more can I want? I even have the possibility of * and his forces of darkness declaring martial law or something equally silly like rigging/stealing/suspending/postponing the election and then its a glorious fight to retake our country.. well its still a glorious fight one way or the other.

:evilgrin:

[Amager]

13. I don't care to re-live anything. I want to look forward

and make new memories instead.

[HEyHEY]

14. you don't ever get sentimental?

[Amager]

19. To go back and live over? Or just reminisce?

Sure I like a trip down memory lane once in a while for the good memories. I just meant I wouldn't want to go back and live anything over again.

[HEyHEY]

20. Just right now

If you could spend an hour somewhere from your past, were would it be

[Amager]

28. An hour?

Well then. A particular hour of intimacy comes to mind. :-)

[Nikia]

15. College

It was so great. I graduated in spring of 2000.
There were so many cool intelligent people, decent food that I didn't have to make, fun classes, and lots of stuff to do. This was the high point of my life. I may finally be over leaving it. I had a hard time dealing with that for a while.

[HEyHEY]

17. I did too

I really missed those days for a while, still do.

[JanMichael]

16. I'm totally content with the here and now.

Newly married, finalist for a new job in NC, great relationships with friends/family.

Nope. I'm staying put...Into the future of course.

[Beaker]

18. If I could know what I know now...

I'd like to go back to age 4 and give the whole thing another try.

[loftycity]

21. Living in England and Scotland for 2 years

It was the best...I would go back now and stay forever..it was so "Local Hero" and "Avalon."

[camero]

22. My grandfather spent time in england

and he said if he hadn't had kids he would have stayed. I hear it is realy pretty country there.

[Skittles]

23. early 80's, when I was in my twenties, living in Austin Texas

before it became a f***ing mini-Dallas. It was just a carefree time. It's strange how you don't know the good old days when you are actually living them.

[fudge stripe cookays]

36. I was there!

I remember those times too.

I worked at the Sound Warehouse @ Burnet and 49th, and meeting rock stars was the main focus of my existence. Things were so much simpler then.

[Skittles]

38. remember back before the Armadillo became a freaking parking lot?

and the seedy Alamo hotel still existed? I worked third shift and remember seeing a couple f***ing in the window on the fifth floor when I was leaving work (basement of the MBANK building downtown). I used to swim nekked at Barton Springs at 7:00 in the morning. YES INDEED. :D

[fudge stripe cookays]

50. Those were the days...

Some of my other young memories of Austin and environs:

Cruising around Northcross Mall in high school,
Driving around before the upper level on I-35 was built,
Hanging out at Highland Mall Friday nights while my mom got her hair done at the Penney's beauty shop,
Going to see my cousins in Vikette spring shows at Lanier High School,
Eating at Lock, Stock and Barrel,
Seeing plays at Zachary Scott,
Going with my mom to the old Davis Hardware Store (where Whitman bought his ammunition) that eventually became Sound Warehouse, and then Wherehouse,
Eating at Mike and Charlie's,
Going to Aquarena Springs and seeing Ralph the Swimming Pig,
Kickball leagues at Reznicek Field in 5th grade,
Hanging at the Cannibal Club (early 1990s),
Hanging at Emo's ("),
Hanging at Liberty Lunch ("),
Seeing movies at the Fox Theater on Airport,
Robert Mueller airport through about 3 or 4 expansions,
What Austin looked like before Mo-Pac was built...

Austinites? Share your thoughts?

[UnAmericanJoe]

24. The womb

nt

[camero]

25. Once you get out

You spend the rest of your life trying to get back in. :)

[foreigncorrespondent]

26. There are so many to choose from.

There is the time last year when Sappho was here for the month of September. Just seeing the sights of Victoria and southern New South Wales was fantastic.


Or the time before that when she was here for parts of October and November in '02. The trip we took to the zoo, or to my favorite little camping spot. Or the snake we came across.

Or pre 9/11 '01 when Sappho and I did our cross country trip across the United States. That was the best trip I had ever taken in my life.

But in all honesty, I would choose to go back to a certain Sunday evening we spent on Stinson Beach in California. It was the night Sappho asked me to marry her.

[Sapphocrat]

30. The snake?! The bloody SNAKE?!

You want to go back to the moment when you let me practically trip over one of those deadly, 75-foot, Red-Bellied Australian Monster-Bastard things nobody actually sees anywhere except on "Wild Kingdom"?!

:D

(Never mind me, folks! LOL)

[foreigncorrespondent]

32. ROFLMAO!

Well I don't want to remember how I ran away because the bastard shot up and hissed, and left you standing there. LOL I just want to go back to times when we were actually together.

[Sapphocrat]

27. September 17, 2000

The day before my 39th birthday. foreigncorrespondent was about three days fresh into what would be her last (for now) trip to the U.S., which (we didn't even know yet) would extend into a full 15 months.

I was still three months away from being laid off. I had a dream job, and worked most days at home. It was still summer, so the days were long and warm, and, when I did have to go to the office, there was nothing like coming home to fc, waiting for me.

I was also making a ridiculous amount of money, so fc and I could go anywhere and do anything we wanted. We talked about driving cross-country, San Francisco to New York City (which we did, the following summer).

All my bills were paid. My car still looked like new, because I could afford to keep it up. The biggest thing I worried about was... Well, I didn't have much of anything to worry about. My mom was still healthy, too.

But mainly, that's when fc and I really started living together. We still thought we had all the options in the world open to us -- fc would be able to get a job in order to stay here, or, barring that, get a student visa. Little did we know.

Clinton was still the President, and while minor misgivings were already starting to rumble around in the back of my brain about Gore's chances in November, I brushed them off. I was optimistic; I had every reason to be.

We had no idea what was ahead of us -- or the world. I'm very grateful for that temporary gift of ignorant bliss.

It's what I hang onto to now, to get me through the day. The memory of what was suggests there might be a time that good again someday.

[foreigncorrespondent]

29. You have me in tears. (n/t)

[Endangered Specie]

31. About 2 November 2000:

Volunteer at Miama-Dade and make sure the Jewish population didn't vote for Adolf Jr.

[jimbo fett]

39. back to grad school

I was recently single which hurt at first but then felt liberating. I hadn't be without a steady girlfriend for around 7 years.

I made a bunch of new friends in grad school. We spent nearly all of our waking (sometimes sleeping too) hours together in our art studios.

We discussed life, art, pop culture. We went out club hopping and took road trips to museums, concerts (the first Lollapalooza).

The thing was I knew at that time that I was possibly experiencing the best times I've ever see. So, I made mental note to try to remember everything.

But then I graduated and moved far away (we all did). I miss those friends. I don't really have any close friends anymore.

[CanuckAmok]

33. May 2001.

My wife and I had just gone through a terrible year; both her parents succumed to cancer withing nine months of eachother. Her dad was last to go, in Aprl 2001.

Shortly after we took care of his funeral needs, I surprised my wife with a road trip in my new Jaguar. She thought we were going to a local bed and breakfast for the night to celebrate the acceptance of the offer we had just made on a home, but we kept going, and going, and going...I had hidden a few changes of her favourite clothes in the trunk. We drove to Seattle and saw some long lost friends. We took a ferry to drive through the Olympic Peninsula, which seems to go on forever. We flew a kite on Long Beach, a town built completely on a sand dune. We listened to "Gun Club" and ate in diners which served insane portions of mashed potatoes in bowls with a spoon. We took photos, sampled wineries, bought coffee for striking timber workers, and were more in love than ever. We had been married since July 2000, and hadn't had time to travel together, so this was a makeshift honeymoon, of sorts. We bought chocolate wine(!) in Salem Oregon, and drove to beautiful Portland. Then along the Columbia Gorge Highway not knowing where we were going or when we would find what we were looking for. We stayed in the Columbia Gorge Hotel, which is the most beautiful place on Earth. I can still smell the spring flowers in the gardens, and hear the faint rumble of the Gorge as it rushed below us. I can still see the beams of sunlight, broken by blossoms, on my wife's face as she smiled at me.

I have never been so happy.

It really felt as if our hardships were behind us, and that we had nowhere to go but up.

What I wouldn't give to go back there, or even a month ago...

[LWolf]

34. 1970. Age 10.

And I'd like to be able to remember the first trip through time.

[fortyfeetunder]

35. Thirty years ago

Having the time of my life as a teenager, Mardi Gras parade...trip to England..., hell I did more adult things in high school (everything except for "sex") than I did as an adult today.

[fudge stripe cookays]

37. From December of 1998 to December 2000

I had just finished my degree, finally gotten a career (instead of just a McJob), and had a cute little duplex in the most liberal part of Dallas. I had the money to do whatever I wanted, and was planning on taking a trip to Greece and Turkey.

Then I started corresponding with this wacky Canadian by e-mail, and in another year and a half, reprehensor and I were married.

It was rough being apart from each other for 3-6 months at a time, but I loved my job, and knew that things had finally changed for the better in my life.

They have, it's just unfortunate that things in the USA changed for the worse right about the same time.

[elfwitch]

40. Would just like to have...

This time in my life is really good. But if I could, I'd like to have my 19 year old body back. Fourteen years of mileage has done a number on me. If I could have that body back with all of it's energy and recuperative skills, that would be great!!

[Fleshdancer]

41. January of 1999

My husband and I moved to Japan. What an exciting time in my life. We were newlyweds embarking on the most adventerous, scary, exciting adventure of our lives. Everything was a challenge...from learning the subway systems (they don't have subways in TX), to figuring out what some of the produce was at the grocery store.

This is what I love about living overseas...accomplishing the most mundane things, like going grocery shopping, can feel like an adventure.

And talk about building a good foundation for marriage too. When Paul and I had arguments, we couldn't go visit a friend or family member to bitch about it, we were forced to work things out. We had only each other.

[TXlib]

42. September 1984 - Freshman year of HS

But with everything I know know transported back to my brain then.

Win a lottery, put all the winnings in call options on Microsoft stock, pull the money out at the right time...

[populistmom]

43. Too many things

This is a difficult question for me. I have many, many things I wish I could change, but I wouldn't want to erase the existance of any of my children which many of those changes would, so right now I guess I'd leave everything how it was for the most part. I would probably, though, have gone to nursing school 10 years ago like I wanted to instead of finishing my old major. Now I have to do it all over again and my first degree was pretty much a waste.

Sometimes I wish I could go back and change something in my recent past that I wonder if it has perhaps caused nothing more at this point than futile hope and sadness.

[Beaker]

45. two questions - 1. Can I take a hand grenade with me?

and 2. what date was this picture taken?

[arwalden]

46. For a "visit" Or to "start over" from that point?

If it's just to visit and then to return back to the present, I can think of many times I'd like to re-live (and change nothing). But if it's to start over from a previous point... I'll stay here.

-- Allen

[jmowreader]

47. Summer 1987

I was in Berlin then. It was warm. Lots of business, and no shortage of things to do on my break days.

I think I went through half a mile of film that summer.

[Zinfandel]

48. Back to when I was in in love with Rosalie Ruiz.

[ThoughtCriminal]

49. 1999-2000

When the USA was still a democracy, business was good, the future looked better.

[MrSlayer]

51. 1986-1993

Played in bands, did a lot of drugs, banged a ton of chicks, just generally had a fuck of a time. Man do I miss that.