Tuesday Things

Things I'm Thinking about Today

I want to learn another language. I'm not sure what language; I just know I want to learn one and use it. After a week of flexing my Spanish muscles, I'm frenzied to do it all over again. My friends refuse to humor me, in Spanish or Swedish or any other language I happen to know one or two words of, so I'm forced to dream of slipping fluidly between my native tongue and something far more exotic. I have to resist the urge to randomly say snippets of other languages and then, feigning embarrassment, apologize to my friends for unwittingly speaking a language that's just second nature to me.

I want to travel. Everywhere. I recently started collecting frequent flyer miles-- something that is long, long overdue-- and now I feel like a kid at an arcade desperate to earn tickets and eventually win the biggest stuffed panda behind the counter. I feverishly go through my mental rolodex of what friends are living abroad where, always planning my next adventure somewhere far from home. I want to fill up every single page in my passport-- although I wish there was a way to do that without ever showing anyone my actual passport picture. And where better to practice my newly acquired foreign language then in its native land? Alas, soon enough I'll be a certified school counselor, and that kind of traveling just isn't in the education budget. And so, the quest for a Sugar Daddy continues.

I want a house: a tiny little cottage that's old enough to be surrounded by moss-covered trees, the kind that has ancient hardwood floors and oddly shaped rooms. I want to paint every room a different color and hang abstract art and all of my favorite pictures and knick-knacks and furniture that my dad made by hand. I want a tiny little porch with a multi-colored rocking chair or a swing or both. I want a house full of vintage, unique items plucked from my grandparents' barns and attics and refurbished. And I want it all to have a story... "Oh, that? My great-aunt made that for my mom when she was in high school."

I want to write a book, or maybe memoir is the better word. I'm not much for creative writing, but I would love to publish something non-fiction... I don't know if that's because I truly think I've got the talent to do it or because while some girls want to be the next Lea Michele or Christina Aguilera, I'd rather be the next Lauren Weisberger or Beth Moore.

I wish I got paid for reading. Maybe instead of trying to get published, I should focus my ambition on doing the publishing. I could edit grammar and style all day long and check book after book off my always-growing To Read list. I should add 'library' to my afore-mentioned house dreams, come to think of it... a room where every wall is a bookshelf... ooooh la la.

Currently there is not a single job opening for a school counselor in the State of Alabama. Now, admittedly, I have until this time next year... except that by then, the newly certified counselors of 2011 will double the competition for those of us graduating in 2012. Not to mention the State trying to push through a new law that makes it legal for schools not have a guidance program... This foreign country thing is looking better and better.