What I would do if I didn't need the money

One of the main reasons (OK so it might be THE main one but I'm too proud to admit it) I started this blog was because my friend Lety got her own, and if anyone knows me they know how technologically savvy I usually am, and I felt that if Lety, who's one of the least techie people I know, was able to get her own blog, then by God I guess it was time for me to get my own! What propelled Lety to get her own blog was the fact that she was taking a year off from work to go on sabbatical and travel the world. Her friends gave her the blog as a virtual gift so that she could update us all on her travels and to basically help us ensure we could live vicariously through her. After all, not many of us have the option of taking a year off work and traveling the world...

So I guess that you could say we're a TEENY bit jealous of Lety, but really much more than that we're simply amazed that we actually know someone who's not only got the money but also the guts to leave everything behind, pack up their lives (and baby!) in a suitcase and take off to travel the world. As a result, often times we sit there and wonder, what would we do if we, like Lety, didn't need to work for money?

There's a saying in Puerto Rico that goes "el que juega por necesidad, pierde por obligacion" in reference to those people who play the lotto. I hate to admit I've become one of those people as of late, and I hate even more admitting that I do it not because I want he money but because actually need it. And c'mon, if you hated your job, you dreamt every day of what would you do if you weren't there, and there was a $370 million jackpot, wouldn't you play too? I thought so...

So I've put together a list of ideas of what I might choose to do with my time if I didn't need to work for money. Drum roll please...here it is! Anyone willing to make this exciting feel free to let me know what you think might be the best way to go for me, whether you know me or not!

• Wedding Planner: my friend Jamie recently got engaged and I am so happy for her. The minute she told me about it I said "I'll be your wedding planner!" I love that s***. I'm a planning freak as my husband likes to call me, making up lists for everything. I really enjoyed planning my own wedding, and everytime my friend Elika who's also getting married asks for any wedding-related help, I am all too happy to stop what I'm doing (especially if it's work) to help her out. I think I would make a wonderful wedding planner, my "niche" would be in the non-cheesy weddings, so anybody out there looking to have a non-cheesy wedding, please drop me a line. That means that, as much as I love dancing, there will be no "Thriller" and/or "Dirty Dancing" choreographies like the ones going around on YouTube at your wedding...You dont' like it? Tough, get a cheesy wedding planner.

• Dance teacher/choreographer/dancer/Fit person!: I've always loved to dance, my last foray into this area forced me into a reggeaton recital with a bunch of 15-year old girls (and I was 30 by the way!). Can't say I did too shabby -- what I lacked in talent and flexibility I more than made up for with effort and enthusiasm, and I even got to be one of the "lead roles". I love the thrill of learning a new dance, practicing the steps over and over, and eventually putting so much energy into it that people recognize it and put you on the lead. There are three things that prevent me from doing this today: a) I hurt my ACL not too long ago and it'll never be the same, b) I'm over 30 and therefore have no chance of getting discovered as a rising prima ballerina anytime soon, and c) there are no good dancing studios that I know of here in Cincinnati. But here's what I thought I could do, there's a dance studio on Mt. Lookout Square close to where I live, so I thought maybe I could buy it off, hire a bunch of teachers, and open up a dance school for little girls. My "niche" here would be to teach different international dances - flamenco, salsa, reggeaton, etc. I would basically run the whole thing and do the marketing and stuff, and this wold allow me to spend more time with my Gabi-Wabi, who I really hope grows up to enjoy dancing as much as I do. Better yet it will also enable me to get back to being fit, and I've always said it's awesome if you can get a job that actually pays you to stay in shape! I guess I just need the seed money for this little idea so if you are reading this and have some money to spare (like the Georgia guy who just wont the lotto, feel free to send me a check for any amount, I also take PayPal ha ha). Maybe I can also get hired to work on either "Dancing with the Stars" or "So You Think You Can Dance" (and I'd much rather work for the latter if any TV producers are reading this).

• Apple Store Genius or Googler: OK so I guess this would technically pay, although I wouldn't expect it pay nearly as much as I earn now. But really, I have come to face the truth that if I were to stay in Corporate America it would really have to be for a company that is on the "bubble" to borrow March Madness lingo, meaning a company that was COOL to work for DESPITE being officially considered Corporate America. That it almost felt like it wasn't Corporate America despite that fact that it is. I guess I could add Amazon, eBay, and Starbucks to that list.

• Take pictures all day long: when we still lived in Puerto Rico I was the friend in charge of "documenting our lives". Everyone knows my camera doesn't leave my side, and that (in my mind at least) I've been particularly prolific at picture-taking since my daughter was born. I don't know where I heard that in order to get a few good pictures you gotta take thousands and thousands of them, which I really think is true...But I think my friends in the Yearbook (both High School and College) would be proud, although I do end up annoying my husband a great deal with all the clicking all day long...And thank god for digital cameras otherwise I'd be broke developing all that film.

• Tied to this, I could make photo albums and video DVD's on my iMac for friends of mine who get married, have kids, etc. and don't have the time or the tech savvy to do it themselves. Everyone seems amazed when I show them a photo album that I made either on Kodak Gallery or my iMac. It's super easy and fun for me to do, although it usually does end up taking a little bit more time than I would like it to. So I guess the fact that people are so amazed at what I can do must mean there's something in there that could turn into something more...

• Blog all day/write: I don't pretend that I'm nearly as clever as Carrie in Sex and the City, as much as I wish I was. Plus let's face it, the blogosphere is as crowded as a Los Angeles highway, with about 60 million blogs as of March 12, 2007. It would take a massive earthquake for my blog to stand out from the rest of them so I think getting paid to blog is probably out of the question. But I do love writing and it's been a hugely therapeutic undertaking for me.

• Interior decorator: let's face it, everyone has gotten hooked on this stuff with the whole DIY phenomenon. I could sit there and watch those shows on HGTV for days at a time and not get bored. Which also makes me kinda sad about not having the money to be able to redecorate my house, but I could spend OTHER's peoples money right? And I have tons of ideas in this arena, I guess my creative side has been developing more and more lately, I can barely remember the time in which I called myself a Chemical Engineer.

• Buy and sell stuff on eBay: I admit it, I'm an eBay addict. I'm sure there's a group for us out there. It's kinda like gambling, the thrill of seeing that you're the winning bidder, or better yet the thrill of seeing that the item you are selling is quickly going up in price as the time to bid comes to an end. During my maternity leave I said screw scrapbooks and knitting, that crap is not for me. And so I started selling a whole bunch of stuff on eBay and made some pretty good money. Not enough to afford 3 mortgages of course, but anything that you can do from the comfort of your home that makes you some money is pure genius in my book.

• A DJ: everyone who knows me knows I live through my iPod, I have an almost irrational affinity for music, I have playlists for every possible occasion (I even created that for my labor!) and I love "iJacking" (as I have come to term it) any party to play my music. I am always the one that wants to have all the cool music, especially the one that no one has but as soon as they hear it they go "I love this song!". This is closely tied to my love for dance. Fortunately and unfortunately, like my friend German always says, being a DJ is all about instant feedback. The minute you play a song you'll know whether it was a good choice or not. That part of being a DJ I'm totally ok with, what I'm not ok with is that you can't really please everybody with any one song choice, you may play a song and 99% of the room might love it, but the other 1% is gonna come tell you about it and ask you to play something else. It's like you can never win. That part of being a DJ, not so hot. After all I want to enjoy the parties too, not be all grumpy that people are not happy with my music choices.

• Songwriter: I was probably 13 or so the first time I "wrote" a song. I really don't write songs, I take existing popular songs and change around the lyrics to adapt them to different situations. Some of my friends can testify that this has often gotten me into BIG trouble, but for the most part I find it incredibly fun and stimulating. So when I saw the previews for that movie with Drew Barrymore "Music and Lyrics" I thought, hey, there are actually people out there who write lyrics for a living! That could be me!

• Read all day/book critic: I absolutely love to read, and after taking a personality test the other day I really thought this description fit me well..."You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information-words, facts, books, and quotations. Whatever you collect, you collect because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather, to add more information to your archives." Of course these days with the baby and the blogging there is not too much reading going on, but when I do get a chance to read, it doesn't matter what I read, it's just as therapeutic and as comforting as writing is.

• An inventor: But let's admit it, I'm not one. Why do I know? Because if I was one I'd be rich by now, I would have invented Google, or YouTube, or Tivo or satellite radio or any one of those things which actual inventors come up with. Something that creates so much momentum that it takes on a life of its own. I admire those people inmensely, I'm just not one of them.

• Other ideas: Comedian, Howard Stern staffer, ESPN Sports Center sportscaster, pole dancer (this one's courtesy of Lety!), etc. I love to think that I'm funny and engaging and a great public speaker, but I have a terrible voice, it's really nasal and high-pitched. More like a shriek really, which I guess could make me qualified to play a cartoon voiceover on some of my daughter's favorite shows. Unfortunately Elmo's voice is already taken. Otherwise, I'm going to have to get voice surgery or something. Oh and by the way, most of the time people don't really get my humor, although I'm sure Ellen would.

• And of course, last but not least, join Lety on her world tour! I am really hoping to be able join her in Florence one of these days...And I really hope she would start writing on her blog so that I can daydream a little bit more while I'm at work.

I've heard some saying go something along the lines of "dance like nobody's watching, work like you don't need the money, etc". The idealist in me has always loved that saying, but the realist in me has to say, if you didn't need the money would you really be working? Those of you who say yes must be the same people who made up the saying "work to live, don't live to work".

The picture above is of me and Lety from Elika's bachelorette weekend in Miami. I truly love and miss my friend, and I'm counting down the days before seeing her again. We had our first babies with only a few weeks difference. She's now pregnant with her second child and I'm not quite ready yet. But I do hope our children get to spend lots of time together someday...