More lessons, and some free association

Wow, I am just learning things at a breakneck pace over here. Like how you should not create and order wedding shower invitations at 11:30 p.m. because there will be the slight possibility that you will enter an address that is a strange hybrid of your address and your mother-in-law's. Wouldn't a psychoanalyst have a field day with that one! Speaking of which, I was reading a little bit about Vladimir Nabokov in The Annotated Lolita, and it turns out he said some really nice, pithy things about psychoanalysts. Not a fan, was Nabokov. In terms of his positive feelings about them, he fell somewhere near Scientologists. Anyway...in related news, I have also learned that there are some really helpful people over at VistaPrint who will be happy to use their brains to solve the problems caused by your failure to use yours.

Speaking of dreams (right, weren't we?), I just saw someone's fbook comment about opening a bakery, and it reminded me that when I was about six or seven, my best friend Chae, my Wonderful Big Sister (WBS, for those of you keeping track), and I decided we were going to open a bakery, and we were debating about whether we would call it Pieces of Dreams or Grandma's Bakery. Because we were fine, sensible children, we decided that the only proper way to go about such a thing would be to get ourselves a woodburning stove and set it up in a trailer in front of our elementary school so we could sell baked goods to all our friends and teachers. Oh yes. We were fine, sensible children who happened to have a fanatical devotion to Laura Ingalls Wilder.

True love. And Ma was a fox in those books! In real life? Not so much.

Laura also at various times in childhood inspired me to start my own nineteenth century-style dressmaking business and to make cheese from scratch. So essentially I was disappointed early, and disappointed often. I still maintain I was a visionary! My dreams were just too big (and too...old) for my circumstances. I just love that I thought I could make cheese at home. I also tried to mix grape juice and milk once, that didn't go over so hot. Laura had nothing to do with that idea - it was all mine. Remember what I said about being a visionary?

By the way, just to give you a little window into my very organized and focused writing process, I was googling for famous failed businessmen, so I could make some kind of savvy cultural reference (but not too current, so it wouldn't seem like I was trying too hard to be topical--no automaker references) about my early entrepreneurial failures, and I came across this tragic and yet hilarious page, which features an article by a bankruptcy attorney listing all the famous and wonderful people who have filed for bankruptcy and gone on to have great success--or not. (Needless to say, I forgot all about what I was looking for.) Just take a little read through some of these stories; they're pretty special. I especially like Oscar Wilde's little bio, which tells us,

He was declared a bankrupt on November 12, 1895 and his property was auctioned off. After being released from prison he published his poem, The Ballad of Reading Gaol. His health was affected by his prison experience and he died at the age of 46.

Clearly a bankruptcy success story, right there. Also, did you know that Mickey Rooney "is still preforming live shows today"? Thank goodness for Mickey Rooney. Those shows that aren't pre-formed are just too risky. Too many variables.

(Ha! Just went back to that bankruptcy page, and apparently Wayne Newton also pre-forms to this day. It doesn't say what he pre-forms, but it does tell us where - the Stardust Hotel.)

I have now spent all my blogging time working, and have to rush off to class. Really rush, seeing as how I'm supposed to be at UCLA in an hour and 15 minutes, where I will get to manhandle Star Trek scripts and other fun things in the Special Collections. Yay!

Have a lovely day, everyone :)