Weekend Assignment #270: Magic Makeover

Yes, I know, I'm about 24 hours out from my old schedule. But I worked today, and had a time consuming project on Facebook, and took the dog to the vet, and had computer problems, and...well, that's it for Friday, but Thursday night I did CPA review assignments until 1:30 AM and then collapsed into bed.

So. I'm delighted to say that a few people have finally come up with "guest professor" topics. I need to juggle and tweak them a bit to avoid them being too close in theme or scheduling to similar Weekend Assignments, but it's still a big help! And yes, still want more topic ideas to add to the mix.

Meanwhile, though, let's go with a topic idea of mine that I've had shelved for a while:

Weekend Assignment #270: You've been given the magical opportunity to change just one thing about yourself, instantly and painlessly. There is no going back; whatever change you make is permanent, aside from normal aging. What would you change - or would you choose to stand pat? (Please note that this is a change to yourself, not the world around you. Also, I'm disallowing weight loss, because it's just too obvious.)

Extra Credit: If you could change two things, what would the second thing be?

I think the reason I've been sitting on this idea is that it asks you to implicitly criticize yourself, which can be a bit of a downer. But let's try to have fun with this, shall we?

Now, let's see. I don't care about my age, my graying hair, my big feet, my need to wear glasses or my lack of a gall bladder. It would be nice to ditch my allergies, but is that big enough a thing to go for? Perhaps I'd be better off magically erasing a fault of mine, such as messiness or mild shyness or being oversensitive to criticism.

But you know what? In theory, I can do something about personality quirks, at least enough to cope. Indeed, I am coping. I can be braver. I can do dishes. I can do what I need to do.

Allergies, though. I've been suffering from allergies since I was a small child. I was tested for horses and ragweed and lots of other things when I was in fourth grade, and came up positive for nearly all of them. In junior high school I was once "caught" taking an Allerest, something I didn't know was against the rules. Cats give me asthma. I was awakened this morning by allergies, and I'm sitting her with nasal congestion right now. There is currently no medication I know of that makes a dent in my symptoms unless I double or triple the dosage.

Yeah, allergies. Let's go with that. And the second thing? Well, it would be nice, at the decidedly post-adolescent age of 52, to finally get over my acne.

How about you? What would you tweak about yourself it you had the chance? Tell us about it! Write it up in your blog, and please remember to include a link back to this entry. Then leave a link to your entry in the comments below. I'll be back in a week with the results. Here, meanwhile, is last week's results:

For Weekend Assignment #269: Good Sports, I asked for your interactions with parades. Here are excerpts from the two replies:

Julie said...

I enjoy sports, and I watch politics like a contact sport. But this is about organized games. No political jokes this time around.

I like football - both soccer and US football. Just last week I picked up a Manchester United shirt. Yes, I'm a ManU fan. There goes half my readership! ;-)

Paul said...

Like any sport or activity, curling has developed its own unique terminology (as touched upon in the previous installment). The terms, out-turn and in-turn are used to describe which direction a curler turns the handle when delivering a rock. On an out-turn, the handle of the rock is turned out from the body of the thrower, and an in-turn is turned in towards the body of the thrower. Of course, that means the terms refer to different directions of spin depending on whether the thrower is right or left-handed. For a righty, the out-turn revolves counter-clockwise, and the in-turn, clockwise. For a lefty it is the opposite. [This is part of Paul's series The ABCs of Curling]

Florinda said...

I was raised on Major League baseball, but most of the games I've attended in my life have been in the minors. During my first few years living in Memphis, the city was home to a AA franchise, and in 1998, the Memphis Redbirdsbegan playing in AutoZone Park as the AAA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. My son has a July birthday which usually falls somewhere around the All-Star break, and even if we couldn't do it on the day itself, his preferred place to celebrate while he was growing up was always the ballpark, and we were always glad to take him.

Mike said...

I don't think I could be called a sports fan. I don't plan my weekends around sporting events on TV, though that could be due to the fact I work a lot of weekends. But still, I wouldn't do it anyway. I never envisioned myself growing up to be the guy who never gets dressed on a Sunday because there are too many football games to watch. Instead, I don't get dressed because I'm too lazy and want to watch Fletch for the 3,000th time in comfort.

Mike adds in his comment...

And Paul, if you see mine, I'm sorry. I mentioned curling in mine All in jest of course.

I'm still dangerously low on "guest professor" suggestions for these Weekend Assignments, so I ask again: please, please, please, email me some new ones. Thanks!

Karen