kitchen sweeties

I have a little secret that is a little embarrassing but kind of funny, too, because I'm sure a lot of people do this, or something like it. When I bake, I imagine myself on a cooking show and think of what I would say to describe what I'm doing, and have little historical facts or funny quips to add. Of course there is a laugh track in my mind thinking I'm so charming as I flash a big smile.I was thinking of this because I'm making orange tea rolls right now. The dough is in the bowl (hopefully) rising.

Thinking of my culinary endeavors, my mind trailed back to the many, many careers I wanted as I've grown up. I wanted to be a...

• Ballerina in early elementary school. I remember a picture I drew once in class when the teacher asked us to draw what we wanted to be when we grew up. I think I saw it in my accordion folder my mom has of all my childhood achievements.
• Airplane stewardess in 4th grade. Hey, I had just flown in an airplane for the first time in my life and thought I was indestructible. I wanted to feel like that forever, and liked how happy all of the stewardesses were. I announced this to my class after the school counselor came by to do some sort of presentation and asked everyone what they wanted to be... All of my classmates laughed at me.
• Homemaker in 5th grade. Same counselor, same presentation. I had abandoned the thought of a stewardess after the embarrassment from last year, and said I wanted to stay at home and be a mom. My classmates laughed harder than last time, but I just got mad this time. I remember yelling, "I will be able to stay home and watch TV and eat cake and do whatever I want while you're stuck at stupid jobs!" ...because that's exactly what moms do all day with their kids...
• Scientist in 6th grade. I had just won my school's science fair and thought I was AWESOME. I'm pretty sure I had no idea that there are like, a thousand different types of scientists. I just wanted to be a scientist and do science forever!
• Astronomer in early 7th grade. I don't really know why I wanted to do this. I just wanted to study space and stars.
• "Imagineer" in late 7th grade. The Disney Channel would do these little 2 minute commercial break shows, and one was about the engineers who design all of the Disneyland rides, called Imagineers (hah, clever, Disney). Combined with my want, no, NEED to be a scientist, I had no other eyes than ones set on designing roller coasters at Disneyland. This career choice actually lasted a few years.
• Psychologist in 9th grade. In my speech class we had to give a presentation about the career we wanted. I think this is when my brother, Drew, started studying psychology in college and it seemed like fun.
• Actress 9th/10th grade. I was hot stuff on the stage and wanted to be a good role model actress. Later I realized I wouldn't be able to do hardly any movies because my morals would prevent me from doing them.
• English teacher in 11th grade. I had my favorite teacher, Mr. Petite, and wanted to be exactly like him.
• Supreme Court Judge in 12th for a little less than a week. My government class did a supreme court simulation, and I was one of those selected to be a judge because I was most moderate of my classmates in my political views. I thought it was so fun to listen to cases and use facts, past cases, laws, etc. to decide outcomes. It was one project that I gladly spent hours and hours every night working and researching at home to pick the winner and type up a defense of my decision. Then I remembered that I hate politics, politicians, backstabbing, and CSPAN, and that one doesn't just simply apply to be a judge. They are hand-picked and stay for life. Man, we sure did a lot of fun simulations. But that's a post for another day.
• Nurse freshman year of college. I wanted to help people and I thought I was still good at science. Then I took an introduction to nursing class and decided that I didn't want to do that. I wanted to explore more before I decided the rest of my life.
  
• Pastry chef end of freshman year. I love to bake and wanted... still want... to learn from professionals.
• Ballroom dancer beginning sophomore year. I had no idea what I would do with a degree in ballroom dance, or where I would dance. I just liked to dance and wanted to do it all the time.
• School psychologist sophomore year. I took an MFHD (now isn't it SFL?) class from Dr. Nelson and loved loved loved it. I wanted to be an MFHD major and school psychology seemed like a decent career to get into with that.
• Librarian sophomore year. I heard that there was actually a major called Library Science, and that combined with my love of books made me a little excited. I didn't tell very many people about this one because I imagined them all starting to sing "Marion the Librarian" to me and telling me I'd be an old maid. Because all old maids are librarians, right? (I'd actually still like to do this...)
• High school English teacher junior year. With the school psychology idea I realized that I want to work with teenagers. I would be very happy doing that, but the long schooling and counseling part of the school psychology didn't please me. So the winner is the career choice from my junior year. I wish I hadn't listened to the multitude of people telling me I didn't want to be a teacher. If I had gone to school with that very first instead of nursing (which I think my mom brainwashed me into that :D) I could be done by now.

Well, I need to go check and see if my dough has doubled! Maybe I'll post pictures when they're done/if they turn out. I have a hard time with yeast...