I think most people wonder at some point in their lives, what their lives would have been like had they taken Path B rather than Path A. Or maybe life gave you no choice in the matter and you were swept away by fate. Here are a few of my "I could have been ..." scenerios.

• A Ballerina

When I was a child I wanted to take ballet lessons. What little girl wouldn't? But Mom said no. Just no. I don't know why. I am pretty limber, always have been, and I have "peasant toes" which are perfect for wearing toe shoes. But this photo below is the closest I ever got to beng a ballerina, as one Christmas I got a leotard and a tutu in a little carrying case. Pretty pathetic. Would I have been any good? Who knows, I never got the chance to find out. (By the way, 'peasant' toes are ones that are pretty much all the same length all the way across. My sister is blessed with peasant toes as well. Must run in the family on the Italian side--My grandmother on my dad's side immigrated from the Naples area.)

• A Pianist​

But that didn't work out as planned either. I had to take organ lessons. Ugh. Why couldn't I take piano lessons? Well, because my father loved playing the organ but mostly because my sister took piano lessons. For some unknown reason, at least to me, I could not take piano lessons because my sister did. Huh, why can't we both take piano lessons? Nope. Therefore Lynne cannot take piano lessons because her sister was. Kind of like my mom didn't think I could swim either because my sister couldn't. What??? You need to read this older blog entry to get some insight here. Just click to be magically whisked off to that entry. It's worth your read. It may even give some insight into why I couldn't take piano lessons, but then again, it might not. Maybe you can figure out my mother's logic.

When I started playing the organ I couldn't even reach the pedals. I had to sit so far to the front of the bench that I was in danger of falling off. The only advantages of organ lessons that I can tell is that they gave me a sense of musicality and a larger hand span and longer fingers.

• A Broadway Star

Well, maybe, you never know. In grade school when we still lived in New York they formed a special offshoot of the choir, called Ensemble. I was part of the Ensemble. We were chosen for our voices and when my best friend was chosen I sure as heck belted out my best singing voice so I would be chosen too. We put on special skits and numbers several times per year. One year that I remember best we did "Give My Regards to Broadway." We made long skirts out of crepe paper and top hats out of cardboard and decorated them. I wish now that I had a photo of that! We were practicing for our Spring Ensemble when my parents pulled me out of school to move to Florida. So, I never got back into it in my new school as they had no such thing, and well, that was kind of that. But I loved it! I have also loved the little bit of acting I have done at the Mystery Dinner parties Rick and I used to give. We all had parts to play and our goal was to fool everyone else if our role was the murderer. It was great fun and I always got into my parts. Maybe I little too well because no one guessed I was the murderer!

Perhaps I am stretching things a bit in my "I could have been..."

As you know, I am none of those things. The only ballet I do is fall into my own little made-up ballet position (somewhat like the third position) while waiting in line at the grocery store because it feels easy and it's something to do with my legs while just standing there. (By the way, I hear that now in ballet there is no third position anymore. Oh well.) I do not play any musical instrument and doubt I can even read music anymore. I can play a mean "chopsticks" on the piano though. And as for singing, I only do that in my car, belting out the oldies from the 60s  and 70s station, or I can be found singing and dancing around my kitchen while cooking dinner to ABBA or Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." I've been told my voice "ain't half bad."

I have no regrets. My life has been extremely blessed. Still one does wonder, doesn't one??

(And please, no comments about my who-put-a-bowl-on-your-head to cut your bangs or the finger curls my mom was so proud of. Thank You.)

Yup! Sadly, no ballet for us. My theory is that Mom probably thought since I was taking piano lessons, you should take organ lessons to make more use of the big organ in our house, because only Dad played it. Not sure, but…

I took up ballet as an adult, which is already too late, but a good workout anyway. I gave up on classes because everybody knew more than I did and they were younger and could do splits.  I still do a modified barre workout when I feel like it (not much lately!)

Those pics are priceless with our fake fireplace in the background and your ballet outfit, which I remember very well. Not to mention the sausage curls we both had to endure.

Love our peasant feet!!!

Interesting! I never wanted to take ballet lessons even though we had a book about ballet as a kid. Had never seen an actual ballet until I moved to NYC when I was around 20 years old. I took both piano and organ lessons. Did you know I was organist at the church we went to when I was in high school?

Big sis, but so not fair that I got stuck with the organ! :( Please, no more mention of sausage curls!

C, no I did not know you played the organ, let along playing one in CHURCH. Wowza