Bunny in your case the profession would be gigolo! Nice work if you can get it. I was never pretty enough and my gag reflex is too strong. Math has haunted me all my life, unfortunately I can't stay away from it as I am in the science field. I can barely keep my two phone numbers straight in my head. Last summer I suffered through college algebra (again) in a vain attempt to raise my GRE anayltical score. Plus studied all the tutorials for the math part in my spare time. I would hate to imagine what kind of score I would have gotten had I not done all of that! Still it wasn't good enough to get into a doctoral program. So if I ever have any spare time again, I will be back at the math tutorials. I just don't have the knack, it's a real struggle. The job I want is to write trite, innacurate platitudes and make a bundle selling books to miserable bourgeoise who dream of being a forest ranger! People say I'm a good writer. Another gig I fantasize about is travel WRITER. You know, go on fantastic trips, and then write about it for the poor slobs stuck in the office! Having had jobs that a lot of people fantasize about being easy and stress free, it is one of my pet peeves. Like the idea that teaching science to kindergarteners is "easy" because it is at a basic level. Yes of course it's easy for a college educated person to understand the science part, but the difficult part in managing the kids with their different perceptions, experience, maturity level, and 15 minute attention spans, etc. It's not just a matter of speaking slower and louder! And to work as a tour guide at a national park you have to put up with years and years of grunt work and moving from park to park. One of my former students works for the National Park Service. Sure he has had some great jobs--he once lived in a lighthouse on an island off the coast of WI on Lake Superior. But i saw him last summer and he says he longs to settle down. He said he wants to finally know where the hardware store is and what box he left that book in. He's lived in five places throughout the country in eight years--FLA, WI, CA, WA, and now ND. Yes, he's finally gotten a job where he can settle down a bit--in the Badlands! Going on a nature hike in a park is fun and relaxing, but it isn't necessarily fun and relaxing for the person who's job it is to lead it. They work hard to make it look easy. Not that I haven't loved my career, but non-competitive and stress free it aint. The visitors feel non-competitive and stress free--but they are on vacation. The employees are not, and all the things that they deal with and take care of are the stresses the visitors are there to avoid. That's what they get paid for, to deal with them so the visitors don't have to. If you live in a tony vacation spot it is even worse. On your way running errands or to the grocery or laundromat you have to pass by folks lounging around on the beach, something you would LOVE to do, if only you had the time! But you're NOT on vacation. It's like torture, lol! I much prefer grungy Allentown where the housing is affordable and the parking is ample and folks are as stuck here as you so might as well smile and make the best of it! But having worked outside most of my life I am unfortunately spoiled for a desk job. It also doesn't suit my personality--I need to be up and doing.

My DD's have pretty unusual names. The eldest was going to be Amanda as I was in love with that name, it was unusual and I thought it so romantic. Then Bea Arthur was in a short lived TV show called Amanda and since I couldn't stand her, there was no way we could call our baby that name. Her father came home from work one day and asked what I thought of the name Tara (rhymes with Car) and I loved it, so that is what we named her. She's only run into a very few with the name pronounced the same, most are pronounced like the plantation in GWTW. Ironically, Amanda was a very popular name in the early 80's, and she went to school with 3 girls with that name! The next DD is named Dayna Elaine. I just LOVE her name but it's forever pronounced Diana or Dinah. How can you mess it up? My poor DS got a very common name, Jonathan, but I always loved the spelling Jon. He's got only one friend with the name Jon, but tons of Jared's, Justin's, Joel's and Jeremiah's!

Dr. Landrum Shettles and David Rorvik, who wrote "How to Choose the Sex of Your Baby", claim the Shettles method is 75 percent effective. Because Y-chromosomes (for boys) move faster but don't last as long as X-chromosomes (for girls), Shettles says it makes sense to have sex as close as possible to ovulation if a boy is what you want. If you try to conceive two to four days before you ovulate, you'll most likely have a girl. According to Dr. Ravnikar, the Shettles method, and others similar to it, is scientifically sound in suggesting that couples try for a boy baby closer to ovulation since Y-chromosome-bearing sperm is lighter but more fragile than those that carry X-chromosomes. But as with other techniques, you're not promised the boy or girl baby you want

"At what point does reneging on your promise/vow/decision make you, if not evil, and least an undesirable person with whom to associate?" I did not say I wanted to make these people my best friends. I said I respected the decision they made in this hypothetical situation by putting their children first. There are many variables that have been entered into this discussion, but I was talking of one specific only - a mother who gives up her child at birth so that it may have a life better then they know they are capable of giving it. That choice I respect. I would like to say that marriage should be forever, but I have a more realistic view. I have seen the damage first hand that can happen to a child with parents who stay together, are abusive toward each other and make their kid's lives miserable - many of those scars do not fade even as an adult. Are they bad people because they realize that their "togetherness" is hurting their children and end it? I like to think no - they are trying to do the best they can in a situation with no good answers. Yes, marriage is work, but there are some problems no amount of work can fix, and some situations when all parties involved are not willing to work. Does this analysis apply to men/women who leave their families because they got an itch? No. I am talking very specifically, so please take my words in that context only.