List what you would spend a million dollars on, just for you:
I love this list!!!
Making this list is how I’ve often brought myself back from the brink of depression. It’s how I’ve spent the long hours between buying a lottery ticket (only when the mega-millions jackpot has gone so long without being won that it seems like a sin not to at least take a chance…and even then, only twice in the last two years) and the actual drawing. It’s how I’ve often diverted my attention from a long list of unpaid bills and obligations. It’s great fun!
I am put off just a bit by the directive, “just for you,” which seems to take a bit of the fun out of the exercise. My list usually begins with houses and cars and health insurance all around for my children and grandchildren. Is it unfair to think of that as something for me? Maybe. Only because, in addition to giving me great joy, I’m sure I would also wield it as a weapon of guilt whenever their behavior was not to my liking. So, the kids are out, since I can’t be nice about it.
- I’d get caught up with all my bills. Property taxes. Insurance. Last winter’s heat.
- I’d pay off my mortgage.
- I would have a “carriage house” style garage built. In the size of a three car garage, with a small apartment above. It would actually only have one port for my car; the rest of the ground floor would be a large art studio. I’d move my printing press and other art supplies in to the studio. I’d move myself into the apartment.
- Then, once my little house was cleared of all the necessities and excesses of my life, I would have it finished properly. Hardwood floors throughout. Woodwork and trim. Real closets. New windows. A deep, comfortable bathtub. Matching switch plate covers throughout. Light fixtures. Paint. A nice guest bedroom where the studio is now. An added screened porch. Only when it was all completely finished to my satisfaction would I move back in. The extra living space, then, could possibly be used for guests, or rented, or bartered for help with garden and yard work, or care of the dogs when I’m away…
- because I’d travel. Not a lot, but more than I am able to now. To see family. To visit friends. To participate in art workshops or archaeological digs. To lay, occasionally, in the sun on tropical beaches. To have fun.
- I’d have a wood-fired kiln built. I’d set up an area for working in clay.
- I’d get back to making large art projects, whether ceramic sculpture or two-dimensional work. I’d spend the time and money to learn the encaustic process.
- I’d repair the garden fence, and get help to finally get my garden back to the way I imagine it. Raised beds laid out in a grid, with flower borders and wood chip pathways.
- With money to hire help and buy wood chips, I could also get the yard in shape.
- I’d buy the piece of property that’s for sale on Fox Lake. Maybe I’d put a little cabin up. Definitely, I would buy a little rowboat to keep there.
- I might quit all of my jobs.
- I would definitely take my friend Judi out for an extravagant dinner, because today is her birthday. Not having a million dollars in hand, I’ll simply say “Happy Birthday, Judi!”
cindyricksgers 