The Thursday Three

What would you do if you all of a sudden acquired $25,000 (or the equivalent) - with almost no strings attached? How would you spend it and why?


Here are the rules. No bill paying, no doing anything responsible like college funds or investing. You can't spend it on anything you need. And it must be for you. Other people can benefit from it, but it needs to be what you want.


How Would You Spend $25,000?



Here's what I'd do...



#1. Travel. Anywhere and everywhere, as long as the money held out. I've travelled a fair amount in my life, but not lately and I'm really missing it a lot. I want to go. As I said, I'll go pretty much anywhere, but there are places very high on my list. Australia, for one. I'd like to spend time really experiencing the country. All over Europe would be great. Asia. Anywhere with a beach. I want to look at the lights of Manhattan from the highest hotel room possible. I want to eat in the dining car on the Orient Express. I've never been to Italy. I want to go.



We have the potential to be able to go abroad for a semester or a year for the Film Geek to teach film production. The three places that are the most likely are Sterling, Scotland, Singapore and somewhere in Australia. I keep trying to find out exactly where in Australia and hear a different story every time. I believe it's Melbourne, but don't quote me. This is by no means carved in stone, as my husband has film projects lined up for the next couple of years and what would we do about the dogs? He doesn't want to do it as much as I do, which of course is a problem all by itself.


But it sure is fun to think about it.



#2. Buy a mini-van. Not because I need one, but because I want one. And yes, I am an old fart. I'm tired of fitting three kids and their friends and all their crap in a five seater car. There's kind of a funny story here. A couple of years ago when I was commuting an hour and a half a day we went car shopping. We had a mini-van, but the gas mileage was nothing to write home about. Well, we ended up buying a good mileage commuter car, figuring that whoever would be schlepping the kids around would drive the van and whoever would be driving a lot would take the smaller one.



I was at work one day and the Film Geek called from his office. We were catching up on events of the day so far and all of a sudden he started screaming. Now, I love the man dearly, but he's not always rock solid in a crisis, if you get my drift. I'm thinking someone has burst in with a gun because he's shrieking "No!! OH MY GOD, NO!!" And just before I wet myself he yells that someone has gone off the road, across a huge lawn, through a very large parking lot and plowed right into our parked van. Totalled it. He has watched the entire thing, from car leaving road to impact out his window. We had owned the commuter car for two weeks.



This is why I want a van.




#3. Have my yard landscaped by a professional. I am so overwhelmed by my property that I don't even know where to start. It's not even like it's big. I have about half an acre of land with a house and a studio on it. There are a bunch of very large trees and a daylily patch that is very large and very old. I have a pile of old house issues, like a brick patio and arbor that need some serious TLC. There are a lot of orphan perennials in bizarre places. We're on a corner and people cut through our yard, which pisses me off and makes me want to plant something really big and intimidating. Preferably with thorns.



I'm not from here, which of course makes it more problematic. I've been trying to get a clue about what likes to grow here and what doesn't, but I feel like I'm in over my head. If someone could come in and design and plant a garden for me I could maintain it. I know I could. They would just have to teach me what to do. I don't have a problem with yard work. I have a problem in not knowing what to plant and where.



I believe my money is all gone at this point. Now you can all spend yours. Please? I hate to shop alone.