Dear Jordan,
I know, I know it’s been years.
I should have told you much sooner. I mean the way you looked at me? It was obvious you were waiting until the moment I was of age to sweep me off my feet.
There might have been two million other girls screaming themselves hoarse in that stadium but you and I both know that those ginormous glasses covering over half of my face locked your eyes to mine. Your high-pitched voice squealed out every word of those lyrics for the delight of my double-pierced ears only.
Oh the way you sang right to me, telling me I had the Right Stuff. Remember when my banana clipped hair turned to go get something from the concessions? Well you just belted out Please Don’t Go Girl and I thought would burst.
I wore your picture in a button the size of my whole head pinned to my coat (over my heart of course), plastered my walls with photos of you smiling right at my IOU sweatshirt, my dangling friendship bracelets, my stonewashed, french-rolled jeans, my two different colored socks, stacked neatly atop each other at my feet. How could I not have caught your eye with such an ensemble?
I just knew we were made for each other.
So now I feel bad. I’m sorry I left you Hanging Tough for so long but you became, um, not so famous and somewhere along the way I just drifted away.
I am married now, have children and I’m just not sure I’m your type anymore anyway, you know? I’ve moved on and you, well judging by your attempt to see me again with this NKOTBSBR2D2C3Po business, well you just haven’t.
I’m sorry Jordan, I hope you can move forward Step By Step. If not, well, I just can’t say I’ll Be Loving You Forever.
The one and only love of your pop-star life,
Me
Since I just gave you a scary visual of my fashion sense in the 80’s, what was your worst fashion phase? What awful fad do you cringe at in your old pictures?
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MamaTrack says
Colored socks, two pairs, with alternating colors on top. It was bad. But I thought it looked great with my rolled up jeans shorts. And I rocked the mall bangs. Ok, I’ve scared myself.
Great post, by the way!
Crystal says
bwhahahaha!!! My girlfriends and I used to designate which one was each of our boyfriends and then…the dancing,..oh the dancing!!! You nailed the ensemble perfectly…I’m glad that fashion rocked universally…because I owned it!! LOL!! Too funny!
Frelle says
that was FANTASTIC! Taking me back to about 1991 with the descriptions of high school fashion, talking about teen devotion AND weaving in song titles. Love ๐
Amy says
This took me right back to The New Kids concert that I went to and felt the same connection to Donny. I have always liked the bad boy.
Great post!
Mandyland says
LMAO. Oh girl, I LOVED this. I had such a crush on Jordon. When NKOTB performed on the New Mickey Mouse Club, I was in LOVE.
You brought back the memories.
Heidi M says
Blast from the past!! Visiting from TRDC… fun post! Makes me think of big hair and shoulder pads. ๐ Don’t think I can bring myself to spend money on a ticket to that show!
Jessica says
Oh the shoulder pads, I had forgotten about those!
Kristi says
What a fun post!! ๐ It took me a couple paragraphs to figure out who you were talking to…thought it was a sweet letter to your husband who must be a singer! ๐ Once I caught on, memories started coming back of the singers I loved! I now watch me daughter going through the same thing with Justin Beiber. And the circle contiues…..
Glad I stopped by from TRDC!
Jennie B says
I was a little more Duran Duran than NKOTB, but I still had the buttons and the jean jacket. Love it!
By Word of Mouth Musings says
Looking thro old photos with your kids can provide hours of extreme entertainmment ๐
Tonya says
Love love LOVE this. I love the 80’s too, even though I believe NKOTB was somewhat of a 90’s phenomenon. How fun would the NKOTBBSB concert be?
P.S. Jordan was my favorite too!
Amy a/k/a HonestConvoGal says
One of the first concerts I ever attended was Millie Vanilli (sp?) the two guys who lip synced their songs… lovely. I wasn’t so much the NKOTB fan but I loved me some Debbie Gibson. Fun post.
Jessica says
Oh my gosh I went to a Debbie Gibson concert and it was right when she came out with that perfume, what was it called? Electric Youth or something like that? The whole place reeked!
Jayme says
OH man- and what about those Hypercolor tees that changed color with heat? So only your boobs were another color?
Jessica says
Oh my gosh I’m dying over here, I forgot all about those shirts, how could they ever have gone out of style?
Jayme says
All my friends went to a NKOTB concert one summer, and I went to a Bon Jovi one instead. I never really got into them.
I remember tucking my jeans into two or three pairs of socks, all scrunched up and different colors to match my shirt.
Jennheffer says
Soooo funny!!! I will NEVER forget seeing NKOTB in concert! My friend and I cut-off our best jeans into AMAZING jean shorts and PAINTED NKOTB with glitter paint all over them. We were AWESOME! I also did a post a long time ago with PICTURES of myself in hideous ‘totally in’ clothing, INCLUDING pegged pants and z-cavaricci’s!
Oh ya!
Jessica says
I remember wearing peg pants that were so tight around my ankles my sister had to drag me across the room to get them off of me. Great writing.
Natalie says
Would you believe it if I told you I have a banana clip in my hair now? Cuz I do!
Love this!
Jessica says
You must tell me where you bought it from, I am in need of a horse mane-looking ‘do. Or did you save it all of these years???
Sherri says
Oh, painful 80’s memories! Acid wash jeans, banana clips, horribly spiral-permed hair, high-top Reeboks, and tucked-in shirts.
There’s more, but I think I’m going to be ill now.
Memoirs of a Single Dad says
Hilarious! Great post! I think ‘NKOTBSBR2D2C3Po’ is a new element or something. They were just in my area not all that long ago. Sold out crowds, too, can you believe it?
julie gardner says
When you got to the R2D2C3PO part? I lost it…so funny! I was actually trying to figure out the entire acronym because I knew the NKOTB and BSB parts – when I realized what you’d done?
Belly laughter.
Brilliant.
gigi says
Oh man, I want to see some photos from back in the day!
Kim says
Oh man, I had it BAD for Joey! He was my secret love, since none of my friends thought NKOTB were cool. I look back at pictures now, and the thing that makes me cringe the most is my over-sized glasses and my braces with purple and green bands on them! Ha! Thanks for the blast from the past!
Allie says
Funny how I saw “Dear Jordan” and knew who you were talking about. Like he’s the only Jordan in the world. He is, right? I am forever in love with Joey.
Jessica says
I thought about putting his last name and then thought that anyone who could relate to this post would know without me needing to clarify. Was their anyone else named Jordan in the 80’s anyway? I could mention to Jordan that he should probably let Joey know that you are taken as well, they can cry together ;).
Sonora says
This was great. Totally took me back. I did the two different colored socks and pegged pants too. Wow, we were really hot in the 80’s. ๐
I was so surprised when NKOTB came back. I was in the hospital after having one of my babies (can’t remember which one) and it came on T.V. I wasn’t sure if I was really seeing it, or if I had taken a few too many painkillers!
Jessica says
Lol, the painkillers probably helped you tolerate their “new sound.” So glad you could relate, between the two of us we probably really turned some heads ;).
Andrea says
This post brought me back in the day…the day where my bangs did that weird ocean wave thing…you know the up and over thing and were so hard I could bounce a penny off of them…thanks for the memory ๐
Angie says
NKOTB was the 1st concert I ever went to so this post made me laugh big time! Thanks for reading my guest post at Taming Insanity’s. I’m so excited to find new bloggers. You’re stuff is great!
Sarah says
Ha ha! I love it!
Michelle says
You are truly an amazing lady. Thank you for leaving me such encouraging words on my post. I am really looking forward to following your writing. It’s deep, emotional, and absolutely beautiful. You are so, Blessed, Sweetie. I can’t wait to catch up with you at future conferences and chat over java.
Elena @NaynaDub says
I’ve heard a little about Studio 30+ – I’ll have to check it out. This post definitely had me laughing. You described my middle school look perfectly! I completely forgot about IOU sweatshirts. Oh the memories. I could never decide who my favorite was – always a toss up. Great job incorporating all the songs. Fun trip down memory lane. ๐
Amanda G. says
For the record I was for Jordan, but then I switched to Jonathan. Yeah. I like breaking from the pack like that. And I like turning brother against brother too. Oh yeah! Hot stuff!
In the 90s I went through a skater/alternative stage which required me to buy huge men’s jeans and cut them off at the bottom and cut slits on the side of the legs, wear two plaid flannel shirts with a Nirvana shirt underneath, skater shoes, maroon lip stick, and tons of black eye liner. Oh yeah. I was HOT!
Leighann says
This was so fitting because my parents dropped of my barbies the other day and in them was my Jordan barbie. I had flashbacks of my huge button and dancing in my room!!
Love it
Jessica says
Did you do the “Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh” dance? With your feet flopping back and forth from side to side?
Sugar Mama says
Seriously SO funny! While all of my friends loved the New Kids on the Block I was listening to Guns N Roses, Motley Crue, and the like because my older brother listened to them. I can remember my friends making up dance routines to The Right Stuff!
Alexandra says
OH, you’ll love being in studio 30+. I’m way too old, but I follow a good bunch of writers in there…Reading their stuff, you will only become even more awesome.
I’m happy for the peeps you’re about to meet.
Vic says
ohhhhhh! those were the days! i loved joey…sorry! haha:)
Stacey says
OMG…this is awesome…its like you were living my life back in the day! Love it!
Nicole@MTDLBlog says
I had that huge button too! My NKOTB crush was Joey. I reasoned with my self that were the closest in age to one another – so it was “possible” we could be together….hahaha. Aaah….to be a young girl again! You brought back some great memories!
Jessica says
How funny, because I had always thought of switching to Joey since the age difference would make our chances of marriage much more realistic but I just couldn’t turn away from Jordan ๐
Lynn MacDonald (All Fooked Up) says
Hahaha…I’m older than you so I wasn’t into them but I remember the screaming hoards of girls. What a great letter!
Galit Breen says
Oh for the fun of…jelly bracelets. And stone washed jeans. And NKOTB! Seriously girl- this post was just plain old FUN!