I am super excited to introduce this guest post by the ever awesome MLE. While MLE (I like to pronounce this as if it rhymes with plea, but she says you can also say it MLeh) and I have never actually met, I think our mutual interest in books, cooking, cooking, travel and being outside would give us lots to talk about. MLE blogs over at Pantalones del Fuego and she is also doing NaBloPoMo, so head over there and check out her writing (feel free to check out her post on Salted Caramel Apple Butter!!!!)
MLE’s 5 Things I Would Do If Money Weren’t An Issue
Hi everybody! This is my first time guest posting in all my years of blogging, so I hope you find my little addition to Abby’s blog at least mildly entertaining. Here are five things I would do, in no particular order, if I didn’t have to think about money.
My husband and I have mostly been living on savings for over a year now, so we’ve had to be extremely frugal. This was a fun thought exercise for me, because it’s fun to fantasize about things even if I know it will years, if not decades, before I can afford any of these things.
#1 Go Skydiving
I’ve always been an “experience” person over a “stuff” person. On a gift-giving occasion, I will almost always prefer the gift of time or an experience over the gift of an object. I feel like I have too much stuff as it is, and this has only become more clear as we packed and moved all our stuff from Colorado to California, keeping a fair amount in boxes over the past year in anticipation of moving again. This means, for example, our twenty-something boxes of books have stayed unopened, and we’ve used the local library for 99% of our reading needs.
I’ve always wanted to experience things. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a small town, or maybe it’s just part of my nature to desire novelty, but skydiving in particular is something I’ve been thinking about for many years. To my dismay, I inherited my mom’s adult-onset vertigo and get panic attacks just from climbing a few feet off the ground or driving near a cliffside, but I don’t seem to have any issue if I’m harnessed into something. I did a big bungie jump once in Paris, which was fun, but not at all the same thing. Someday, I’d like to be able to spend the couple of hundred bucks (or less, with a groupon!) to spend a few minutes falling out of an airplane and not even think about what else I might be able to do with that money. Plus, it would be a giant middle finger to that pesky vertigo issue.
#2 Get Rid Of This Stupid Body Hair
I’ve got really sensitive skin. No, more sensitive than that. I’m allergic to a fair number of typical cosmetic ingredients, and have to test every new product before I consider buying it. This sensitivity extends to shaving, which was the bane of my existence for many years. It got to the point where I was using this special fancy shaving lotion, a brand new razor cartridge every time, could not shave more than once a week, and had to wait a couple of days post-shave before I could moisturize my skin. It was all just ridiculous. Then, I discovered waxing and didn’t look back. I do it myself, at home, which is OK because it’s not as painful as shaving was, but I still get ingrown hairs and I have to wait several weeks for the hair to grow out long enough to wax again so I find myself timing my waxing schedule around my social life. My husband honestly doesn’t care what I do with my hair, but I do. I don’t like being Sasquatch, and I don’t like how painful every method of hair removal seems to be. So if money were no object, I’d spring for electrolysis or laser hair removal, whichever one is least dangerous and most effective. Then I’d never have to worry about it again!
#3 Get knocked up
I’ve made no secret on my own blog that my husband and I would like to have children, but we are unable to do so without significant medical intervention (read: IVF). If money were not an issue, I’d just saunter right down to UCSF and plunk down my 15 grand and get the having kids show on the road. I wouldn’t have to be concerned about only getting one shot (heh) at having a baby, because if it didn’t work the first time we could just try again. Plus, I’d like to set up a trust to help fund other people’s fertility treatments who couldn’t otherwise afford them; it’s my opinion that people who really want kids shouldn’t have to go without the ability to be parents because they can’t afford fertility treatment or it isn’t covered by their health insurance. Finally, I’d like to donate money to infertility research. I feel that several causes of infertility are woefully understudied and it’s really unfortunate that every couple with unexplained infertility seems to have to pull out the big guns (needles! hormones! stress!), when it’s possible that with a little more research there could be other treatments available.
#4 See the Galapagos
As I mentioned before, I’m an experience-loving kind of girl. I especially love to travel (my husband and I met on a travel message board! we are travel nerds!) and one of my dream trips is to the Galapagos Islands. I’d love the opportunity to get to see the Galapagos in all their weird glory, in a way that was as minimally harmful to the fragile environment as possible. I know that every tourist who goes there damages things just a little further, but I’d really really like to see it all for myself.
#5 Bespoke Boots
The one THING I have despaired of ever finding is a pair of boots that fit exactly the way I’d like them to. I have large calves thanks to a combination of genetics, 15 years of ballet, and short achilles tendons, and I’ve never found a pair of boots that fits well without pinching or making me feel like my circulation is being cut off. I’d like a pair of real leather motorcycle-style boots with a stacked heel, that came up to the top of my calf, with a zipper and an internal adjustment system so I could make them wider to accommodate jeans or thick tights. Right now it’s a pipe dream, but if money were no object I’d pay someone several hundred dollars to make exactly the boots I wanted to fit my feet and legs perfectly.
Mennogirl 