Time Machines.

When I was younger I used to like to tell myself to "fast forward" to a certain point of time in the future.  Then I'd visualize some event I was really looking forward to.  So, for example, I'd tell myself to "fast forward" to Christmas, when I would break from school and go to sunny LA to visit relatives and collect my Christmas gifts.  "Fast forward" to me meant thinking about the moment in the near (and sometimes distant) future when I knew for sure I'd be experiencing good stuff.

This may all sound ridiculous, and it is.  But it was my naive means of hope.   For some reason, telling myself to "fast forward" to an appointed time reminded me that there were always good things to come.  I never did like it when I had nothing to fast forward to, though.

Now that I'm older I've stopped the whole fast forward thing.  Most times I'm preoccupied with deflecting all the crap that comes with my present reality.  I hate that cynicism creeps in with age.  Fast forward to when the cynic in me is finally defeated...