Daily Prompt~ An Audience Of One

Picture the one person in the world you really wish were reading your blog. Write her or him a letter.

Dear Mr. Lileks,

I’m writing you this letter, because I owe this whole blog to you.  Mostly.  I mean, I’m the one who writes, it, yeah, but…I wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t for you.

Why?  Who the hell am I?

Well, I found your Institute Of Official Cheer many years ago when I stumbled on a Top Ten List of Best Websites For Wasting Time.  How many hours I wasted there can’t even begin to be counted.  It was love at first read.

Lileks.com quickly became my favorite website, and those many hours I read your work weren’t a waste at all.  You charmed me with your wit.  You made me sigh with your endearing odes to days gone by. I loved reading your stories about your Dad and his gas station.  I laughed so hard I all but puked when reading your Gallery Of Regrettable Food.

I bought your books as a gift for my best friend.  Giving them to her was like having teeth pulled.  I eventually borrowed them back and never returned them.  You sneaky devil.  You had me at hello.

I tried for years to get your attention.  I emailed, I sent my own picture of a Ghost Sign that had been refurbished in my town, I told you of  my own memories of a place you mentioned in your blog that is dear to my heart.

But you spurned me, my first blog crush. How you broke my heart.   I continued to love you from afar, like a creepy internet stalker.  Reading and laughing and being inspired by your amazing wit and wealth of old pictures and other bits of Americana.  How wonderful you are here to preserve the memories of days gone by.

I waited each week for more cheesy comic book covers and layouts from  an old Sears Catalog.

I’ve moved on, and I stand alone and write my own blog now, but I often think of you fondly, and even found you on Twitter yesterday, and now follow you.  Could I dare to dream you would follow me back?

The man who inspired me to write myself?  The man who gave me hours of laughter and many trips down memory lane?  I could only wish.

If you would be so kind as to do that, I would be proud, honored and thrilled.  To hopefully give you back some of the laughs you gave me.  To let you see that you opened up a vein of creativity in me that I thought was long forgotten.  To just know that my whole blog is little more than a big “Thank You!” to the man who helped The Cheeky Diva be born.

In visiting your site today to find links to all of your wonderful posts and features I remember so well, to share with my new blog friends, I see that you have written much since my last visit, so I must once again succumb to my addiction.

It looks like I am still and forever, one of your biggest fans.

Much love and appreciation,

The Cheeky Diva