Events

Today, I want to make everyone's events beautiful. I want to spend my days on the phone with caterers and florists and figuring out favors and rewards and what shameless ploy will work the best to promote my lovely gathering. I want to work with people who love what they do as much as I do, see how much people enjoy the events I produce as they drink and twirl and taste and smile. And I'd like to do it all in some really kickin' shoes.

Chef

Today, I want to be a chef, like Julia Child. I want to understand how dry beef browns differently than wet beef. I want to know how to perfectly poach an egg. I want to write cookbooks, teach others, wow at dinner parties. Yum-o.

Corner Office

Today, I want to have the corner office. Covered in posters of magazine cover art or photos of me with all of the incredible people I've worked with, my office will have windows and glass and probably a fully-stocked mini bar. And Evian. Lots of Evian.

Haunted House Designer

Today, I want to design haunted houses. I want to spend my time thinking of what will disgust people, freak them out, terrify them. I want to be the man behind all of the logistical aspects of planning the event and oversee my staff to make sure they all get carried out exactly the way I want them to! Perhaps this will also take care of my extreme and irrational fear of said types of events.

Big Girl Job

Today, I just want a big girl job. The kind with a salary and dental and normal, regulated hours. I want to work at the kind of place where business casual is everyday, unless there are meetings and those are suit days. I want to do something that is a career, not just a job. I want it to be something I'm good at, something I do well, something for which people can depend on me.

Wedding Dress Designer

Today, I'd like to design wedding dresses. Lace and pearls and yards and yards of white satin ti transform into mermaid skirts and ruffles and bows. My dresses will be stunning and highly sought after :) I'll have a team to create them but I will always have the final say and brides will come from great distances to try on my one of a kind creations for their special days.

Princess

Today, I just want to be a Princess. Pretty dresses, fancy living, the whole bit. And Prince Charming will sweep me off my feet and we will reside blissfully somewhere in the midst of happily ever afters and love you forevers. There will be tea times and tiaras and , of course, grand balls in epic measure.

Photographer

Today, I want to be a photographer. I will capture memories and moments in time, snapping wildly as life and people swirl around me ready to be caught candidly as they smile, kiss, love. I will learn to develop, learn to edit, learn how to use a real camera (Someday when I replace mine that was stolen.), learn what shots matter and which ones are lucky or planned. I will always have a camera. And I will always be documenting.

Football Wife

Today, I'd like to marry a football player. I will wear his jersey proudly at all of his games, support his career unendingly with protein shakes and steaks served medium rare at dinner on a bed of leafy greens. We will go to parties with our other football families and my mania as a fan will be justified as I watch my honey bear touchdown after touchdown. Hello football fairy tale life. (Hello football season.)

Cake Designer

Today, I'd like to own a bakery that makes cakes for weddings and birthdays and friendaverseries. They will be sugary perfection, with fondant perfectly rolled and shapes perfectly cut and placed. There will be polka dots and princesses and people will look forward to what magnificent fillings are between the layers everytime they are served a piece of my cake.

Magician

Today, I want to be a magician. I will entrance and entertain and whisk away all troubles in a simple puff of smoke with a wave of my silk scarf. People will never know my secrets and my mystery will not be solved. I will, however, not be using animals in the show today. Sorry, kids (And Laces).

Royal Designer

Today, I want to design the emperor's new clothes. No, no, not the invisible ones. But the grand, gaudy, spectacular and sparkly frocks fit for a king donned by all magical fairy tale royalty. I'm sure there is not a huge market for this, but I think that my knack for knowing where to place the perfect bow will make me absolutely perfect for the position.

Fun

Today, I want to be fun when I grow up. I guess I should say, I want to continue to be fun when I grow up. Lighthearted and lovely and always ready to laugh; spontaneous and adventurous. I want to never stop learning, never stop enjoying.

Committments

When I grow up, I'd like to cover committments, like engagements and weddings, a la James Marsden in 27 Dresses. I love love. I love to see love, to capture love, to do tiny things to help love grow and unfold. And nothing is better than a love story that's true. I'd like to place those stories on the timeless pages of a newspaper or magazine, preferably in 4 color with photographs. (I'd also like to be more committed when I grow up, to myself, to what I do, to the things I love.)

Movie Critic

When I grow up, I want to be a movie critic. Excuse me, a film critic. I want to write about lighting and camera angles and the way Julia Roberts' face lights up like fireworks whenever she laughs her Pretty Woman laugh. Mostly, I'd like people to value these opinions and thoughts and take them into consideration when deciding what film to pay an arm and a leg to go see on date nights in between dinner and manhattans.

Nail Polish Namer

When I grow up, I want to be the person that names nail polishes. Apri-caught you cheating, Pink-a-Boo, Exotic Expedition. I will rattle off catchy phrases and stare at 8 shades of red trying to differentiate which one feels more like wine and which one feels more like fire. It will be a glamourous life, full of beauty samples and co-workers impressed by my sparkling way with words. Because, let's face it, my words do indeed sparkle (just like my nails...).

Boa

Today, I want to be a part of any kind of profession where it is acceptable to be wearing a feather boa at all times. I'm not entirely sure what field this would fall in or what career path I need to take to make this happen, but, currently, that's all I want out of my life.

Float

Today, I want to design parade floats. Sparkly, larger than life, and never short of anything but epic, I think my two cents and uncanny knack for puns and colors could definitely bring some magic to the world of parades. I will be highly sought after for all the main events, but I'll never get tired of seeing a parade. And no, no one will ever rain on mine either. FYI.

Wanderlust

Today, my wanderlust has reached its height as I read Eat, Pray, Love and I just want to give in to it. I want to go everywhere. I want to see the world. I want to travel, try new things, make new friends all across the globe. I will wear a Carmen Sandiego hat and vintage Chanel sunglasses and I will be magnificent in my quest to leave no path untraveled.

Marine Biologist

Today, I want to be a marine biologist. I want to understand why fish and dolphins swim and eat and flit about the way they do. I want to get paid to swim with said fish and get to know them on a first name basis at my underwater office every day. Besides, there are literally fish everywhere on the planet. So I could go anywhere, everywhere and study them all.

Writing

Today, I want to write about things that don't really matter. Frivolous things like what kind of mascara is the best to make your eyelashes pop and what pick up lines really do work best. I don't want to write about politics and problems and tragedy. I want to talk about theatre and pretty dresses and flowers and stunning hairstyles. I want to write about how to perfect the ponytail and reinvent your messy bun. These things distract, keep us going when life is 12 paces ahead of us and the world is crumbling around our shoulders. There is happiness in their simplicity. And I would like to be a part of that.

Mommy

Today, I want to be a mommy. I want to chase my children and kiss them and let them help me scramble eggs in the morning. I will take them to Colts games and help them figure out the mysteries of piggy banks and every single day will be some kind of grand adventure. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next year. But someday. I think sometimes, there is just nothing more than you can want than this.

PS~ My mom is the most amazing mom in the world. And my friend Kelli, who has a two year old that she loves endlessly and perfectly. They inspire me. Every single day.

Flight Attendant

Today, I want to be a flight attendant. Meeting all kinds of new people, seeing all kinds of new places. Getting to wear a cute little uniform and flirt with cute businessmen flying to meetings on the opposite end of the country from the rest of their lives. Ah, yes. Chilling with the pilot, looking at the grand canyon on the regular then graduation to transatlantic flights. Never in the same place for too long but always the opportunity to come home and light for a few days. Perfection. In the form of a life lived among the clouds, closer to the sun, closer to the stars.

Sushi Chef

Today, I want to be a sushi chef. Sushi is the chic-est of all food choices that an educated urbanite can make and the person that makes the sushi is at the top of that food chain. Combining ingredients for rolls and choosing the best looking fish at the market; all to make your customers' mouths water and leave them begging for more. I could totally handle that respect.

Weddings

Today, I want to work with weddings. I want to make them beautiful. Or write about them. Or just be in a whole bunch of them. Or take photos of them as a second shooter if I ever replace my decent camera. Someone kind told me I light up when I talk about weddings today at lunch. I feel like I light up inwardly when I talk about them or think about them or read about them or ponder what color flowers would match shoes like the ones that girl over there is wearing; is it true from the outside in too? I hope so.

Flowers

Today, I want to have a flower shop. I want to sell daisies to people visiting their sick best friends and roses to nervous, fidgety men prior to greatly anticipated first dates. And I want to see the smiles when people know they have picked out exactly the perfect arrangement to make whoever they are taking their flowers to smile. :)

Lights

Today, I want to be the person that creates the patterns of who has to leave what lights on to spell words on the sides of skyscrapers. I feel like the challenge would be great, but seeing your work all lit up all over the place would be epic. Besides, you definitely have to be able to spell to do that and that is something I can definitely do!

One Job

Today, I want to have one job. I want to love what I do and get to do it full time and not need 73 jobs to support myself and pay my rent. I feel like this would contribute greatly to adult me's overall well being and emotional satisfaction with life.

Money

Today, I want to not have to worry about money when I grow up. I don't needs billions of dollars, but I aspire to live comfortably, be able to pay my rent and have cute shoes without serious buyer's remorse. It would be much more enjoyable to not think about how I blew through all of my savings in two years or concern myself with how to fund the things I want to do with my life, since they all seem to involve the dreaded unpaid intern path as a stepping stone to something more real, more solid. Money can't buy you happiness but it damn sure helps out along the way.

Seamstress

Today, I want to be a seamstress. I want to thread machines and do half loop stitches on China silk (bonus points if you know why you can't do that) and design beautiful dresses that beautiful women will fall all over themselves to buy in my super trendy and way too adorable for words boutique. I will design and add bows and ribbons and tiny fluourishes and buttons and ruffles on everything. My clothes will look like me and I will have a hand in the construction of all of them.

Uptown Girl

Today, I want to be an Uptown Girl. I think I would fit in well in a white bread world and I could sooooo get used to presents from my Uptown Boys. Billy Joel only sings about the best kind of women, and I think I am best kind of women material. So, Mr. Joel, start writing a song for this downtown for now but soon to moving uptown to fortune and fame and a smaller room girl.

Singer

Today, I just want to make music when I grow up. I want to sing like a bird, be light on my feet, enchant people with my haunting melodies. I love music. It moves me, pushes me forward when my feet don't quite know where they are supposed to be going. That's a love you can't just ignore.

Smart

Today, I just want to be smart. I want people to think intelligent when they think of me, have my name be synonymous with knowing something, being the go to girl about...something. Mostly, I guess I'd just like my peers to take me a little more seriously.

Cupcakes

Today, I want to have a bakery. I will create adorably divine baked goods (things like sangria cupcakes and quadruple chocolate chip pound cake) and my shop will be cozy with tiny tables and flowers and mismatched coffee mugs. You know the kind. And perhaps, I will have regular customers who will love me and crave what I'm making the way I'm craving a Ron Bennington cupcake from Molly's today...

Ballet

Today, I want to be a ballet dancer. I want to dance through life and be constantly just a pirouette away from a dance break (I think this is how Jason and Vanessa live their lives and a huge contributing factor to their wonderfulness) It is never too late to learn, right?

Dreams

When I grow up, I want to know that I followed my dreams as far as I possibly could. I want to know I did what was brave, found courage when I was lost. My friends are all pursueing their dreams and they constantly inspire me to reach further and dig deeper, and, when I look back on my life, I'd like to know I did just that.

NYC

Today, I want to move to NYC cand start over. I want to work for a publishing company or a wedding planner or a theatre or a magazine. Anywhere where I can wear a dress and fabulous shoes and take the occaisional lunch break in Central Park. Think Carrie Bradshaw: fabulous shoes, fabulous friends, fabulous men. And no trace of my past, no trace of them, and most importantly, nothing holding me back.

Popular

Today, I want to be wildly popular, with a million friends, people to go out to dinner with, people to love :) I want to be the life of the party and the most sought after lunch date on the block.

Magazine

Today, I want to write for a fashion magazine. Or a food magazine. Or a wedding magazine. Or the magazine they distribute to members of the American Dental Association. It would also be cool to complement this with mad photo skills.

Millionaire

Today, I'd like to marry a millionaire. It would be splendid to not have to worry about how I'm going to pay my rent or deny myself pretty things and if I married a millionaire, I would not need a million jobs anymore. Sounds peaceful.

Student

Today, I want to be an epically great grad student. I was AMAZING in undergrad. I loved school and studying. Or did I? Perhaps it was just easier then with 1 job, not 5 and a place without distractions that the city has. Either way, I'd like to be motivated, organized, impressive again.

Downtown

Today, I want to be one of the people that work in the highrises downtown. Fancy shoes, crossword puzzles on my morning commute, and a reason to wear a dress everyday (as if I need one) AND when people ask where you work, downtown sounds dreadfully glamourous, non?

Wedding Planner

Today, I want to be a wedding planner. I love love. All kinds of love. Family love, friendly love, pet love, but most of all, romantic love. And celebrations of love (from girl's nights to silver anniversaries) are always so beautiful, so important. Being an integral part of making a couple's dreams of their big day come true is a thrill, a rush, a dream come true for me.

Oxford

Today, I want to read English at Oxford. I mean, who doesn't? But the buildings, the air, it's all so much smarter, brighter, promising in Oxford. I'm certain people would take me much more seriously.

Starlet (3/15)

Today, I want to be a star on Broadway. I'll lose 85 pounds or so and belt my face off night after night to more than just slightly drunk gay men at Sidetrack and Jason Blitman :) I really really really miss singing.

Assassin (3/14)

Today, I want to be an assassin. A pretty, Irish assassin. It looks like a pretty good gig in Boondock Saints, right?

Gentility (3/13)

Today, I want to be a Southern gentlewoman, speaking with a soft, slow drawl and rocking a frosted, stacked bob. I'll make PB & J's alongside mint juleps for my lovely little brood and adoring, adorable husband. Life would be calmer, softer, slower. And today, all of those little things sound too lovely for words.

A Great Writer

Today, I want to be a great writer, the kind who fearlessly vwrites and furiously feels stories that people fall in love with. I want to enchant people with my words.

PS~ Also, I'd like to be like Andie Anderson in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Because I love magazines, I'm great at advice columning, and damn it, I can write too.

When I Grow Up...

Since I'm 23 now, it's probably time to decide what I want to do with my life, what i want to be when I grow up. I'm a little too interested in everything and like to dabble in anything, but I am on the PATH to finding my personal legend, as Paulo Coehlo so nicely described in his novel, The Alchemist. So this blog is dedicated to the daily logging of what I want to be when I grow up on any given day :) And why...It started out as a journal activity between my roommate and I, but she figured it all out. I'll catch up with the journaled ones and then start adding on. Enjoy the journey with me as I try to figure out how to be a grown up, what exactly it is you are supposed to do when you are a grown up, and what I want to be when I grow up.