Oops, sorry about that. Out of town till tomorrow.

I like being a lawyer, but did enter college thinking I'd be a psychiatrist, and earlier considered being a vet. I'd still enjoy those career paths, I think, if I had to choose another than the one I took.

I also still think about retiring to run a kennel and/or try to be one of those late blooming authors.

I have always said that I should have been a pharmacist. Good money, lots of different kinds of employment opportunities. I don't know if I could have hacked all of the science courses, though.

Oh, and I meant to say that I'm a lawyer and if I could do it all over again, I would never have gone to law school unless someone was willing to pay for it. I will be saddled with student loan debt for many, many more years (though under the new loan forgiveness program, my loans will be forgiven after 25 years! Booyah!).

I'd be a butcher or a mechanic. I like chopping into things, pulling out the guts, and arranging them just so.

For the longest time, I always thought I would have been well-suited to the job of librarian. I still think I could be a librarian quite happily. But circumstances of late have led me to believe that my true calling is actually in the building trades. I'm small, so I'll never be hoisting any rooftops, but I can manage and plan the SHIT out of a building project. My next career may be as a construction manager.

Maybe a lawyer? My work involves working with legislation every day and I find I quite enjoy the research and analysis of the law, then applying it to the relevant situation. Plus, I think I'm fairly good about arguing a position I don't personally agree with ;-)

I never really get why people are so into the idea of time travel in their own life unless it's some kind of "I should have taken advantage of that time sensitive opportunity" like the tech bubble, modeling in your teens, going to architecture school or some story that ends with "--little did I know that was Helena Bonham Carter."

Yet I know for a fact lots of seemingly inconsequential stuff in my life had huge ramifications for other people, or maybe that's why it seems so silly. I should look up that guy who was being forced into architecture school by his stepfather who switched to his beloved photography to see if he became dentist.

I probably should have let that old guy I met in front of the National Gallery will me his 401K or taken blank scholarship or slot or opportunity or etc. etc. but I think growing up where eight year olds were graduating high school generally starts throwing the idea of there being a right time for things out the window.

Once you've lost your shot at being a legitimate prodigy as a tween there isn't much to stop someone from starting something at fifty, but I am enduringly haunted by an episode of a talk show that had advanced age strippers. While the women in their fifties and sixties had experience in dancing and burlesque, the woman in her eighties who had just started recently showed clear signs of mental health problems. I may be biased against anyone who employed a peekaboo or "oopsie" style of anything while wearing frilly pantaloons.

Damn you, Maury Povich

Also, sanctioned vigilante.

I would have aimed for a more profitable profession. If I could have gotten my head around statistics, an actuary. Now I'm thinking an optometrist would have been interesting as I'm fascinated with the switchy lens thing (which Google tells me is a phoropter).

As I've gotten older, I keep thinking I wish I'd gone into public health. I have told Stewriffic more than once that I would like her job.

Either that, or a gynecologist. So many bad gynecology stories out there. (I should never have dropped out of med school, I guess, is what I'm saying.)

Not too late, 'pode-- for med school, I mean. Or a degree in public health. I went back to school in my 30s and didn't start teaching until I was 36.

If I could do things over, I'd go into medical research, especially genetics. Astronomy also interests me. I'd still want to write, too-- (what I need is more than one lifetime).

Assuming a miracle happened and I'd also actually be good at it, I think I'd like to work in the field of physics. Especially all that "how the universe works" stuff.

I would patent my time machine and make millions.