Ennui

Lin Yutang said: "Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination."

So I usually only blog when I am bored or annoyed. I was unbearably unhappy at work today. So much so that on my lunch hour I spent time searching for another job. I cannot handle the social dynamics at work. It's so frustrating sometimes. In the last few months, I've had a couple of dreams that include me quitting my job. As you know, I have also been unhappy generally and have felt pulled somewhere else, I just can't figure out where.

A friend suggested that perhaps blogging my ideas for alternative realities may help the build-up of unhappiness. Awhile ago, I wrote about a house I wanted but I wouldn't share the link because it was too dear to me. That house has since sold (shockingly, not to me). So I've decided to share my insane dreams with you all from now on.

Today, my big plan when I couldn't find anyone hiring was to buy a house (still have no down payment mind you) in Palmer, Alaska and start growing peonies . People on weddingbee.com are always moaning about how they cannot get peonies in the middle of summer because they're not in season. I thought I was brilliant for coming up with the idea of growing them in Alaska. When I was in college, I would love it. It would be lilac season in Michigan and then when I got home to Alaska it would be lilac season all over again because Alaska's summer was about a month delayed. Clearly, I could use that same theory for my peony business!!

When I was home this past summer my dad mentioned a family friend had considered going into the peony business. So perhaps I should have realized that my brilliant idea wasn't so unique/earth shattering. What I didn't realize, was that there was a whole association!!

So perhaps the peony thing won't work out, there will be too much of a glut on the market and I don't have a job lined up for the two years it would take to start the plants growing strong. But follow me down this path for a bit, the one where money is no object, and I actually don't kill every ivy plant that crosses my path (supposedly one of the easiest plants to grow).

I would buy this house: http://www.trulia.com/property/1074787248-20723-N-Glenn-Hwy-Palmer-AK-99645 it's reduced guys, it's like a siren song to the buyer in me! As an aside, if you went to look at the house, I hope you made it to the last few pictures of the 25 where there are gratuitous "cute moose" pictures (notice they didn't show you the bears or wolves or scary animals). It's half the price of the house I have my eye on here AND it has 13 acres of land, surely that would be plenty of land to grow peonies! The house is slightly over 2,000 square feet and has a large outbuilding so there's got to be a space for my boy to set up a dark room, not to mention to start thinking about making my compound for family/friends to visit.

We would be 20 minutes away from the fairgrounds and certainly live far more in the wild than I ever have. This means my boy could take all the nature pictures he could possibly want and once a year there would be a market practically in our back yard to sell them!

Maybe we could branch out, in the winter we could offer to cater holiday parties, or go to church bazaars and similar events with a cotton candy machine or kettle corn. In fact, the Alaska state fair has a LOT of nice booths, ice cream booths with fresh made waffle cones filled with barley caramel ice cream, genuine southern gumbo, and lots more yummy items, but I don't think they have deep fried cheese curds. We could TOTALLY fill that market. If that's too tough though, maybe we could just make deep fried oreos (such a simple treat).

I think we could totally make it work, and I also think, barring the fact that we have no money and I don't love winter, we'd be way happier than we are currently (and by we, clearly I mean me).

While searching for property in Palmer, I vaguely remembered a for sale sign I saw when we were up there this summer. Wolf Country USA is for sale for $950,000 I've always been a fan of crazy road side attractions. The problem is, I find wolves mildly intimidating and I'm not a great gold panner, so I am not sure that wolf country is the best fit. Perhaps if they had something in the way of pink flamingos. . .

EDIT: My boy heard about my plan and said he'd rather grow giant cabbage and start a sauerkraut canning company -- perhaps that's what we could do with the winter months? I mean he is from the land of pork and sauerkraut.