Neptune

When I was really young, I used to love studying the planets.  My favorite was Neptune.  I remember looking at pictures of neptune in the planet book I would check out from the library and I fell in love with the gorgeous blueness of the planet.  Blue has been my favorite color for a long time, but this also looked like a crazy world potentially full of undersea adventure (since, naturally a blue planet must be full of water).  There could be Neptunian pirates, Neptunian whalers, Neptunian sharks with psionic abilities, Neptunian mermaids, even Neptunian narwhals (since they are magestic creatures).  The sky was the limit on what could be happening on Neptune to a young child with a wild imagination.

There was a quarter machine at Wal-Mart that once sold you chunks of different colored plastic.  Literally.  It was molded plastic of one solid color.  I remember for some reason wanting this strange plastic thing because it was strange, plastic, and cost a quarter.  Marketers for quarter machines are geniuses.  When I managed to convince my parents that I MUST have a quarter to buy another useless piece of plastic which the marketers didn't even have the decency to turn into an actual toy, I bought my piece of plastic and behold:  it was blue!  I immediately decided it was a sign that I must be some kind of Neptunian princess and this was proof of my rule.

I still have that chunk of plastic somewhere and it still reminds me of my strangeness, but it also reminds me of Neptune and how awesome it must be to live there.  Maybe I will live there someday and be a pirate princess whaler of narwhal in the briny Neptunian deep.