(Originally posted on my Facebook page July 12, 2012.)

August 14, 1997 is a milestone in my world and the world I work in. In just about a month that was 15 years ago. It was my first trip to the left coast and one of the biggest stops of a journey that led me to right where I am today.

To get the story started, in 1997 I worked at DMI Sports doing data entry, maintaining the computers and the like. A fun place to work. DMI Sports is a sporting goods company – darts, billiards and table games to be specific.

I was a music fan, used to go on the message boards every night to discuss the bands and music I liked. Specifically this band named Poison. In those days there was no Facebook. We had the AOL message boards and ICQ. (uh-oh – you heard it in your head didn’t you, that little error sound from ICQ)

Rikki Rockett was on the message boards and occasionally in the chats. We talked about lots of things and became friends with people from around the world.