Goals listed: take 1

Alright, I'm getting down to business a bit with the listing of a few goals AND I'll let you in on a few that I've been in the process of lately.

Alright, major list of lifelong goals (in no specific order); we shall start with 5 for today:

1) Re-learn French-I took it for 3 years in high school and scored like 83 or something in the 80s out of 500 in the U.S. on the National French 3 test.  Now this may seem tame and maybe a little lame to some but I've ALWAYS been in love with the French culture, the words, the life and I want to re-submerge myself in it.  Since I am newly married and am broke, I can't afford Rosetta Stone but Derrick promised me that if we stay broke (which we probably will at least until Grad. School is over) then he'd buy it for me when he became a lawyer-a LONG way away, lol.  Hopefully I can get on it a bit sooner but even still-a goal.  If any of you language fiends know where I can "rent/checkout" any or buy for cheap, holla at a sista!

2) Own a home-I feel very American in saying that but I do really want to own a home.  To have the decor set as we please, to take responsibility and nurture our abode to make it something we are both proud of and something we enjoy. Now I do not mean a sickly mansion or something of that obnoxious sort (I'm not that American) but a place to call home and for (potentially) our kids to come back to visit and yearn for after college.  I will say a home with a wrap around porch is something I'm dying to have-regardless of the actual size of the house.  Luckily Der and I have very similar style and taste in homes so ours should be a nice one once the economy picks back up and we grown a little older.

3) Donate more-I am a huge fan of charities and donations: I'm that girl that gives $1 every time at the gas station or McDonalds for cancer research and poverty stricken countries.  I have heart strings in so many different places but unfortunately not much funds to help.  So, when I can become a bit more stable financially, I'd like to donate a nice chunk of money to an assortment of places, people, things I feel strongly in and want to help with.  I've always been a huge helper-it's in my nature and if you've ever met my mom then you'd COMPLETELY understand.  Even when I have my few $'s I still try to throw a quarter in the jar or write my name on the balloon at WalMart because every bit helps and I just simply want to help.


4) Become a professor of Sociology: this is a big one for me, one in which I'm in the small process of doing. I fell in love by accident with Sociology but in retrospect I've always been a socio. just without the exact knowledge of being so.  My ideal goal for this is to go to UC Berkeley or Duke and receive my masters (while Der is in law school) and then go on to achieve and reach my doctorate though the location is a bit fuzzy at the moment.  Then I want to teach in a university setting.  Pretty simple really but I ADORE the subjects and hope to travel in the name of research.  I'm not fully sure of the specific subjects I'd like to hone in on, but I'd almost bet gender differences and/or sexual natures and preferences of the human race will probably be the winner(s).

5) Learn more-now I know that sounds pretty simple and self-explanatory but let me say that if I had the choice and didn't have to work, I'd probably go to school 24/7 and take classes and lessons on everything...for real.  I have always and will always love to learn about anything.  Obviously there are some things that interest me more than others but I still want to learn about those uninteresting things.  I have decided to help me in this process, I am going to pull up Wikipedia every day and read their daily featured article as well as log on to dictionary.com and learn a new word and its meaning-EVERY DAY.  Simple: yes.  Silly: yes. But this is how we as a group can start the basic accumulation of knowledge of our world in which we live.  Obviously there will be more intricacies such as buying and renting books on specific subjects and travel and experience but I think little steps make just as big as an impression as some of the large ones.  And hell who knows?! Maybe if we are doing okay financially in life I can be in school full time all of the time...*sigh* I'd love it.

These are just stepping stones and long term goals I am assigning myself to.  I have not set a specific time frame on any of them (though I'm sure some will come much faster than others) for the chance that they may change and may expand.  That being said, I'd say when I'm 33 I will have achieved at least these 5 things-maybe even more...we shall see!

I am working on little goals that put a smile on my face and let me see things in a bit of different light.

For example, one of my daily goals is to check Wikipedia and Dictionary.com (see above for the details) and yesterday I did just that and stumbled upon a fine piece of architecture in Chicago-the BP bridge.  It's really quiet nice and any of those who know me know that I LOVE art in any fashion it comes in and yes, this bridge is a piece of art. I learned about its cost, the architect,  the city backlash for its naming after the huge oil tycoons (but BP paid $5 mil for help in its construction and claimed naming rights so...what were they really expecting?!), and its function in the city.  Now see, look at that: you just learned something too!  See what a little knowledge can do for ya?

Example #2: another daily goal is the fact that I am trying and learning to grow up a little. NOT in the sense of checking the stock market and prepping for babies (not yet anyway) but in the sense that I have some very immature and selfish tendencies that I don't like about myself and need to grow out of a bot.  Granted, I accept who and what I am as human and Taurus, but that doesn't mean I have to act like a pouting 5 year old when Derrick doesn't want to eat Mexican one night or when my favorite show goes off for the season....seriously, I get like that sometimes. SO in that process, I am also making a daily effort keep myself in check when needed and to smile a bit more when things don't always flow my way.  I was pissed off yesterday because I thought I had lost this blog yesterday after thinking about it all morning and this morning I come to find out that it automatically saves itself-which turned it all around for me  =]

Alright kids, sorry for the overwhelming sense of goals and such-maybe the next one will be shorter?! Hah, doubt it!

Love love love.