If I had a million dollars...

(resisting singing the song)

I was thinking on this post for a while earlier today. When you're out of college and job-hunting in an economy that makes for a better Steinbeck novel than a meal ticket, that whole winning-the-lottery thing allows for some pretty good dreaming.

But after work I wandered into my favorite indy bookstore in Asheville (and also the place with the best coffee in all of downtown), and I picked up Inspiration Sandwich by a woman who goes by the name SARK (her initials turned into a clever pen name). She writes inspirational, creative, hand-lettered-and-illustrated books such as Eat Mangoes Naked and Fabulous Friendship Festival, and if my sweatshirt hadn't been making me uncomfortably toasty I probably would hav taken a closer look. Her writing/illuminating style makes it look like Lynda Barry and Mollie Katzen got in an illustrating mind warp. Somehow I think her handwriting would be distracting, but further research will be required.

Anyway, as I was flipping (seriously flipping, not even reading a page here or there) I flipped past something that made me go back. It was a segment were SARK was explaining one of her favorite games to play with her journal. The game was simply, "I want." This is an iteration of that:

If I had a million dollars...

- I would freelance to do what I want on my schedule
- I would call my Mom to tell her she can stop worrying about me
- I would make the most beautiful books, like the kind people would want me to initial and hand-number
- I would get a couple of dogs and a rabbit
- I would buy the most beautiful letterpressed wedding invitations
- I would get myself a set of these reindeer café au lait bowls
- I would learn how to roast coffee and pull and excellent shot of espresso
- I would do all my Christmas shopping at the Renegade Craft Fair
- I would rent a cute loft apartment and make it look like something out of Ready Made
- I would sew "for a living"
- I would blog "for a living"
- I would invest in microloans to women in underdeveloped countries
- I would invest in green plants and unadulterated land
- I would support local business
- I would become a local business
- I would learn how to screen print
- I would buy my fiance a studio/cafe/venue of sorts
- I would knit all my socks
- I would buy an old diesel car so I could use local biodiesel
- I would buy from independent designers
- I would listen to independent thinkers
- I would live to make Eve proud
- I would love forever

An interesting experiment. I may have started out with things that need money. But I certainly didn't end that way. And so it is. Peace.