What's Your Ten Year Plan?

The past couple weeks have passed with relatively little to write about here. I have become (or maybe I already was) a mundane blogger.

I am starting to have the first real pangs of fear of being old. I think at some point, most women take a look at their 5-10 year plan and realize a few things.

First, that 25 is QUITE young, no matter what those college kids think. (Just the fact that I refer to them as kids now completely negates my point here.)

Secondly, we have to realize the whole child-bearing age thing. This is most depressing and quite daunting to me. If you are a woman of 25, it seems you have about 10 socially-acceptable years to squeak out a family, plus or minus a couple years. I know, that's a whole decade, but I remember going to homecoming sophmore year in high school like it was yesterday. So right now, the time line is looking something like this:

1. Meet Boy
2. Date for a couple years (2)
3. Get Engaged (1)
4. Get Married
5. Have a couple years as newly-weds (2)
6. Start on baby-making project #1
7. Wait a couple years (2)
8. Start on baby-making project #2

That is a lot to do in 10 years! I mean there are variations obviously, people can date for less time, maybe get lucky and have twins your first go-around, elope, etc... But for the most part, that is something about what "The Plan" looks like to most straight women my age I think. (Let me know if I'm wrong, or let's admit it, freaking you out)

Thirdly, what about the other things I want to do in my life? Going to grad school, living and working in Europe, being on a [reputable] reality show, getting my professional license, etc. seems to fit most appropriately before the whole kids thing. Let's face it, who wants to study cement mixes with a screaming newborn on their hands. (Actually, who wants to study cement mixes period, but that's another issue for another day...) That seems like a lot to do in ten years.

I do like to plan things, so it is my nature to want to find an advantageous order of events.

However, I'm at a loss on this.

Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Oh, and I didn't add the part about wanting to be a wildly successful business women, for the sake of simplicity (and sanity).

I Need Ideas!!!

A coworker and I have decided at the last minute to submit an entry and video to be on "The Amazing Race" Season 10. This is one of the last reality TV show I feel that has any credibility, and we're only young once, so why not give it a shot? And it turns out I'm too old to apply for RealWorld. *sigh*

So seeing as entries are due in LA by next Friday, we need some FABULOUS ideas for an original video, less than 3 minutes in length.

Tha catch with us is that we have only known each other 6 months. Seeing as we're both women reaching six-feet in height, we are thinking an appropriate caption would be "Corporate Amazons." A little about us:

I'm the girly one, she's the tomboy.
Both relatively athletic to a point of natural ability, but lack the drive to strive for Olympian greatness in sports.
Both engineering women surrounded by the world's most boring characters in a politically-connected (and questionably ethical) large corporation.
She's the bossy one, who's slightly older with more experience.
She's married, wanting to have one last big adventure before she's expected to settle down and have kids.
I'm in a relationship, wanting to have one big last adventure before I settle down with the boyfriend.

We need some kind of theme/edge for application so feel free to brain dump here!

Happy Friday the 13th! spooky.

King Kong = Snore.

One of my favorite leisure-time activites is going to the movies, and this weekend I was lucky enough to have the time to spend some time at the theater. Well, sort of lucky.

I saw King Kong (the 2005 version). Amidst all the hype about the special effects, etc., I have to say that even the most amazing, mind-blowing special effects of all time couldn't have saved this movie. First of all, 3 hours is WAY too long for a movie - "Titantic" taught us that the first time. I don't care how great the effects, or how epic the story, it is impossible to even keep me (an avid movie fan) entertained for that long. 1 hour into the movie and we STILL hadn't even met the gorilla. Secondly, (another striking similarity to Titanic), the sparseness of dialog doesn't give the movie the ability to sustain an audience for 3 hours. In "Titanic", the script had "Jack!" "Rose!" about 5 millions times - enthralling, really. "King Kong" however had endless scenes of the gorilla staring at the (annoyingly) weepy-eyed Anne Darrow, back and forth in camera angles atleast 5 million times as well. After a while, I was thinking, "right, I get the point, they have a deep connection - can we get on with it?"

I went and saw this movie with 3 guys (the reason I didn't get to see "Memoirs of a Geisha" - my first choice), 2 of whom enjoyed it immensely, while 1 apparently suffers from A.D.D. as bad as I do.

I like cute, over-sized monkeys, really - I just found this movie lacking in any real guts.

Oh, and another thing- how annoying was Jack Black's character?

Welcome to 2006

And it's a new year! After several holiday hang-overs and sessions of binging on hearty food, family fun, and more weddings, we have entered 2006. It's going to be a good year folks.

So many decisions to be made this year. As most people of my generation, I have so many choices to make I often feel over-whelmed. Do I want to do the embassy program? Do I want to apply to grad school this year? Do the boyfriend and I officially move in together and risk insistant parental pressures of marriage? Not exactly "soup or salad?" type decisions. But we will attack them with vigor and enthusiasm! How great it is to be so naive in the first few days of January...

New Year's Resolutions:

Health - To lose that 20 pounds I talk about (yes I have been sucked in to main-stream American resolution fads - have you seen those Jenny Craig ads??), to take my vitamins regularly, attend yoga class once a week, and eat less processed foods.

Career - To organize my time between the 2 jobs better, and to avoid over-booking myself and those dear to me who are gracious enough to take up the slack for my time-management blunders.

Academic - Read 1 new book per month, and read the paper (not Star magazine) weekly. Aka - less food network, more reading before bed.

Spiritual - Say my prayers regularly.

Behavior - To be better about returning phone calls to friends and family, check my voicemail more often, and make a concerted effort to call friendsand family that live out of town frequently.

Joyous New Year to All!