Won't, Will, and Might

Five Things That Won't Happen in the Next Month:

• I won't work for Microsoft. It didn't take me long to decide that the job I interviewed for was absolutely NOT for me. It requires a gamut of experience that I don't have (Flash programming, for example) and focuses on content that I have absolutely NO passion for (college-level organic chemistry, for example). I appreciate my former co-worker thinking of me for the position, but referred them on to someone else who would do a far better job than me. I need a job, but I need the right job -- and this isn't it!
  
• I won't write that novel -- at least not the one I have been contemplating for the past few years.
  
• Summer won't return. Alas, summer has bid its final adieu and we're reeling headlong into another Pacific Northwest winter. I could so feel it today! It was windy and rainy and the entire sky and earth took on a dark autumn hue. When we left for Germany at the beginning of summer, the days were still long and warm, but oh, what a difference a month makes!
• The war in Iraq won't end and innocent people won't stop dying. And Bush won't stop being clueless and stupid.
  
• I won't give up morning coffee or evening bubble baths, and I won't become a night-owl.
  

Five Things That Will Happen in the Next Month:

• Aleks and Kat will begin applying to colleges. My babies are fleeing the nest next year... along with Peter, who has been at the local community college, but will head off to the university as well. I'm scared to death of the sudden empty nest!
  
• I will continue to blog. It's not only become a habit and a passion, it's become the connection I have with some pretty amazing new friends. Ya can't stop me now!
• Christmas consumerism will begin -- before Halloween, even. I absolutely love Christmas, but I absolutely hate the materialism and consumerism that surrounds it. I fall victim to the "one more present to even things up" and the "hurry up and buy" mentality, and I hate it. My mom had the right idea about how to celebrate Christmas (music, candles, traditions).
  
• I will strongly consider taking a photography class. (If I put it under "WILL strongly consider," there's a better chance that I'll actually do it.) I obviously love taking photos, but I need to take the camera off auto and begin to really understand how to get creative. (With thanks to Geoffry for the inspiration.)
• I will begin to bring the muslin sacks that I bought in Germany to the grocery store and pack my groceries in there instead of using "paper or plastic."
  

Five Things That Might Happen in the Next Month:

• I might start scrapbooking again... starting with our trip (how can I whittle 2720 photos down to maybe 40?!), and then moving on to graduation albums for Aleks and Kat?
  
• We might finish the front yard landscaping. Doubtful, but possible.
  
• I might find the right job. I might love it. I might realize that it was all just a matter of waiting for the perfect position to reveal itself to me. I might get my self-confidence back.
  
• I might continue to lose weight. I lost about 8 pounds while in Germany, even while eating delicious cheeses and breads and sipping on ice-cream laden eis kafees. It was obviously the walking... so I have promised myself that I'd walk at least a mile with Shasta each day. It won't be nearly as much fun as exploring castles and fortresses and historical cities, but it will be a start.
  
• I might hear from my dear childhood friend, Luki, who seemed to disappear off the face of the earth a few years ago. It's doubtful, but I always hold out hope.