Five Other Lives

So it's been snowing for the last 48 hours or so, and I'm feeling pretty much over it.  Does anyone know the Jimmy Bufet song about "I wanna go where it's warm?"  There's a line in there about having cabin fever--I can related to that right now.  But that wasn't my intended topic when I started this post.  In The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron has an exercise in which she asks us to list what we'd do or be if we had five alternate lives.  And that's been on my mind lately:  What would I do if I weren't busy being an English professor?  First, I'd definitely at least consider being a makeup artist.  Really.  It would be fun to design makeup for stage, wouldn't it?  I'd also be a writer:  there's so much I'd like to write about, including reviews of all kinds of stuff.  And yes, writing reviews is real writing.  Third, I'd design and sew stuff.  Fourth, I'd be an attorney.  I think that copyright and intellectual property law would be super interesting.  I don't so much see myself as a trial lawyer, more someone who'd work for a big corporation.  On a related note, I'm interested in "open source" issues lately, especially as related to crafting and such.  Fifth, I'd make my living making and crafting stuff.  Ok, that was vague, but there are so many things I'd like to do in that area.  This exercise--listing one's alternate career ambitions--seems important to me because it seems to say a lot about how I'd really, really like to be spending my time, you know?  And I am so not ready to quit my job--that's not the point at all.  I am, for the most part, quite satisfied with my job (I'm even getting over my general irritation with my students!), but I always feel like I want to spend more time doing some of these other things.  I want to sew and cook and craft more.  I want to write more for a general audience.  I'm even considering starting a new blog for makeup tutorials and reviews.  And although YouTube is absolutely FULL of makeup tutorials, it feels like something I might want to do just  because it would be fun, not because we need yet another lesson in creating the perfect smokey eye.  These things interest me and bring me a sense of creative fulfilment.  As I move towards 2009, I want to think about how I want to spend my time outside of work, about what I really enjoy.