a new project

I have decided to start a 101 in 1001 project. I've had a running bucket list saved on my computer for a while with only about 30 tasks on it. Most of those activities made it onto this new list, which I am supposed to accomplish in 1001 days.  I'm officially starting July 11, 2010, so my end date is April 8, 2013. I guess we have to survive that whole Mayan apocalypse thing first though . . .

I got this idea from fellow blogger and Navy wife Marj over at Raising Roscoe.  She just started her list and has already crossed one off!  It's actually called the Day Zero Project, and you can check that out here.  For my list, check out my tab at the top or click this link.  I'm sure I'll be blogging about some of these as I complete them.



p.s.  If anyone can help me/show me how to make my tabs look purty, I would be forever grateful. I might end up changing my whole template (this one is kinda cluttered in my opinion), so good [free] template sources are appreciated as well.

friday happy hour q&a

I know there's a MilSpouse Friday Fill-in floating around, and I know that I had started doing a Follow Friday, and I know that I still need to share my review of the Michael Bublé concert(s), but I mostly know that I get bored of consistency, and it's my blog, and I will write whatever the heck I want when I want.

So today, I am using the Friday Happy Hour questions from Jason English over at mental_floss.  Because I like the questions.  Well, some of them.  I think I might throw in one of the MilSpouse questions just for kicks.  My blog, my way, right?

1. What’s the longest you’ve slept at a time? And the much more interesting follow-up: what were you doing beforehand to make you so tired?
When I was studying abroad in Italy, I did a bit of weekend travel by myself (which I will never do again in a country where I don't know the language).  I can't remember exactly which (mis)adventure I had come back from, but I got back Sunday morning, went to church, and then immediately went to bed.  All I remember was a huge thunderstorm, my roommate walking back in, and then sleeping all the way up until class on Monday morning.  So I guess that's about 18 hours or so?

2. If we sponsored a Housework Olympics, at what event would you excel?
Just put me in the decathlon, I do it all! 

3. I was talking with someone yesterday about how “Where do you think LeBron’s going?” had seeped into our conversational lives, temporarily replacing “How about this weather?” (A common follow-up: “That Nets owner sure is tall, huh?”) With James headed to Miami, I guess it’s back to chatting about humidity. Is there a specific topic you use as conversational filler? What do you talk about when there’s nothing to talk about?
Well, no one asked me about LeBron, but I love to tell people that he's my cousin!  (My maiden name is James.)   But as for this question, I may talk a lot (so usually there isn't a lull), but I'm not a fan of small talk.  I usually just look away or start asking specific questions about that person's baby/job/house/etc.  However, I think my stock conversational filler should be "Did you know the gestation period of an elephant is 22 months?"

4. Tell us one interesting fact you learned from whatever book you’re reading.  
My current read is Chuck Klosterman's Killing Yourself to Live: 85% Of a True Story and I've learned two things: 1) Minneapolis is home to a lot of rock critics and 2) the "American Pie" airplane went down somewhere in Iowa.  Oh, make that three things - I also learned that this book isn't nearly as good as the author's previous one, Sex Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs.

5. What canceled TV show do you miss the most?
"Gilmore Girls," hands down.  I'm still mad at the creators/head writers for leaving before the 7th season.  It's awful how all that workplace drama can affect the outcome of your entertainment.  That season wasn't very good, and it's one of the worst series finales ever.

what i want to be when i grow up

This morning, I attended a Career Planning workshop at Fleet and Family Support.  I love the fact that I can pretend that I'm still in college and go to stuff like this - I always loved the Career Center at UGA.  And when I get preggers, I can take a gabillion more classes offered there.  But for now, I'll stick to the career and financial management stuff.

At the beginning of the class, we were asked to draw a picture of us in our dream job.  Ummm...I still don't know what my "dream job" is--isn't that why I'm at this workshop?--but I do know some components of it, so here is my drawing:

There's the sun, and that's me (with smudged eyes because my pen got a little excited), and those squiggly things are grass blades representing The Great Outdoors, and there's some people over there of all different ages (the one on the right even looks vaguely like my father).  And I'm telling them all something fantastic, I'm sure, or perhaps I'm singing this song.  You can see my energy in my big open-mouth smile.

This picture is the reason that I will 1) never work in a cubicle environment again and 2) never be a classroom teacher, no matter how much my aunts (and bank examiner mother, strangely) try to push me into it.  I recently had given thought to maybe teaching Elementary Phys. Ed., but after all the assessments and whatnot in this class today, I just don't think I'm meant to educate.  At all.

My highest scores did come in for the Hospitality, Tourism, Recreation field.  Which was no surprise to me.  I think being a tour guide or docent is probably my dream "career."  Fun environment, interacting with people, no overly-air-conditioned cubicle trap, possible good hours even.  But how is that really different from teaching?  I had to ask myself today.  I think the difference here is that a) people you're instructing are there willingly (usually) and b) you're not responsible for whether they learn anything or just walk away and don't give you a tip.  I have no tolerance for brats.

I've had a lot of wonky jobs (and duties within jobs) in the past 10 years, from reading books onto tape to writing rejection letters to reviewing infomercials.  But the best job I ever had was a part-time summer gig supervising teens on a High Ropes Course at an adorable Catholic Life Teen camp in north Georgia called Covecrest.  I loved being outside, I loved watching the teens learn to trust and discern their own physical and mental capabilities, and I loved teaching and encouraging them.  I would love to work on a ropes course again (even though I'm scared of heights!--I spent almost all of my time on the ground at the camp), and it might be a more available job in Pensacola than a tour guide, but we'll see.  And, no, I'm not set on working with teens, so please don't ask me to lead your youth ministry.  (I'll save the rest of that rant for another post!)  Corporate team-building might be a viable option as well, but only time and the economy will tell.

Let me know if you have a job or know of one that you think would suit me!  I'm always open to suggestions since I can't really foresee myself doing this full-time housewifery business forever.