Thoughts from the top of a mountain...

Everybody tells me that I should take off to an island...clear my head out. My friends that know me well ask what I'm doing to get Gus out of my head, out of my body. I thought about it and actually would love nothing more than to escape off to Australia or Turks and Caicos, or to be walking on the topless beaches of St. Barts. But instead I decided to go to Arizona. That is where I am writing from right now.

This afternoon I went hiking to the top of a mountain, to sit up there and do some thinking. The name of the mountain was Squaw Peak. When I got up to the top, all I could think of was, How the f**k am I going to get down from here? Let's put it this way, I should have used sunscreen, I got burnt like a lobster. In all seriousness though, it is beautiful...I'm staying at the base of Camelback mountain.

Tomorrow, I'm jumping in the car and driving towards San Diego, and Capistrano, going to head up the coast finally towards Los Angeles, and end up in Hollyweird. I'm going to LA to see some old friends, and say goodbye to a few CBS executives and hello to a few ABC executives. I do have plans to have dinner with my agent and management team, to thank them for all their hard work these last few months. And I also have plans to sit down with a few ABC execs while in town to talk about other ways that I can bring value to their network. We'll discuss a few new show ideas, and although I'd love to tell all of you (my extended friends and family) what those ideas are, we have a few spies reading this blog.

Recently, I was told off by the publicity department from whence I came that I said too much in my blog last time. All that has done is make me want to tell you more. No disrespect to a certain magazine that I promised an exclusive to, because what I promised was not to talk about how I left Guiding Light, or what exactly happens to my character (although it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out), but as usual they always underestimate you, our audience. For example, continuity, character history, storytelling, ALL very important, good story and good writing being the most important of all. But getting back to what I was saying about the exclusive interview, I never not once ever spoke about or hinted about how I depart Guiding Light. I only talked about the future, the new show, the new network, the new gig, the new character. I only talked about the endless possibilities and my excitement, highlighting my new cast mates. So as far as I'm concerned, I really don't know what they're upset about. I honored my gentlemen's agreement because all you have at the end of the day is your word.

On that note, I will reach out to you next weekend, on Easter Sunday and check in with all of you. For those of you that watch The Young and The Restless, I am planning to have dinner with Christian LeBlanc tomorrow night in LA. And by the way, before I left New York, Beth Ehlers and I popped into Martha Byrne's (As The World Turns) going away party. Apparently she's going on to new adventures herself. By the way, I saw Michael Park there, and he was hounding me about our next gig, definitely something to think about.

So I'll talk to you all next weekend. I'm going to sign up for a gym in LA, so I don't show up looking like a porker in Pine Valley!

All my love,
Ricky

PS: Check out my new official fan site at http://rickypaullgoldinfans.yuku.com!