So for anyone who isn't signed up on the NKOTB.com email list (or didn't found out some less embarrassing way), New Kids on the Block are back in action.  They're new single "Summertime" was just released this week, and I could not be happier.

You see, I tried to play it cool when I first heard about the New Kids reunion.  I tried to act like it wouldn't effect me -- I'm too old for New Kids now, right?  Apparently not.  As soon as I saw the new photos for their upcoming album, it was like I was 10 all over again...


This photo was taken right before I saw New Kids on the Block in concert -- or what my dad always referred to as the night he lost his hearing.  Literally.  He swore that he never heard the same after a night of tween-age girls squealing for an hour or two.  It was a sacrifice I always got the feeling he was happy to have made. 

Enduring hearing loss wasn't the only thing my dad did for me that night...  Our seats were way in the back -- I could barely see.  I remember begging him to ask the people sitting beside us to borrow their binoculars.  Instead, being the wise and resourceful man that my dad always was, he surveyed the arena for a better spot.  We ended up sneaking into one of the side sections where we were right over the stage.  He found us the best seats in the house.

It's because of memories like this one -- or like my New Kids birthday party complete with NKOTB wrapping paper on my gifts or a countless number of slumber parties in my New Kids sleeping bag -- that I'm finding myself listening to their new single on repeat.  And while their music may not have been a model for my own, it's still music that has inspired me.

There's something powerful about music that way.  How it can transport us like a time machine to our childhood.  At least that's what this whole New Kids on the Block reunion has been doing for me the past couple of days.  And be warned, I still have the shirt I'm wearing in the photo.  Don't think for second I wouldn't put that bad boy on again...