Goddess, I Am.

Since 2006, I’ve been downing copious amounts of peppermint mocha just to get the yearly Starbucks planner. This year, however, I’ve decided to break what has become tradition.

You see, I have the attention span of a gnat. All three of the planners that I’ve owned over the years all suffered the same fate of being forgotten after March or April. This means that the nearly P6,000 I’ve spent on coffee each November through January for the past 3 years is simply not justified. Besides, Octavian does practically everything for me now anyway, so another Starbucks planner is going to be as useful to me as a bell tv subscription when I live in the Philippines.

Be that as it may, The Family and I are still hell-bent on acquiring each of the 3 planners for those in our fold who actually, umm, plan. Last night, we got the first one for The Husband who fills up one notebook after another with his Blu-ray orders, tracking numbers, suppliers, and what-nots, so it’s looking like this is one planner that’s going to get plenty of mileage. We’re now halfway through getting the second (for the brother-in-law), and it’s looking like we’ll be getting it before the week ends. Yes, the team effort is getting its results, and fairly quickly, too. If we keep this up until January, we’d probably end up with half a dozen planners or so!

I must say, though, that the new planners are a hell of a lot prettier than the ones last year. And the coupons aren’t half bad, either.

How about you? Are you getting a Starbucks planner (or two, or three) this year?

I’m depressed. I am now down to my last two Masters of Rome books, and though they’re both thick enough to keep me occupied for the next couple of months, it still makes me sad knowing that in approximately 700 pages or so, my beloved Caesar will be dead. That, and knowing that there will be no more books forthcoming in the series now that Colleen McCullough is losing her eyesight to macular degeneration.

Anybody who’s been reading my blog would probably know by now that I’m completely obsessed with Julius Caesar and all things Roman. I can say with all honesty that Ancient Rome is definitely one of my life’s greatest passions, even if it’s one that I only found less than a year ago.

So in my current despondent state, I find myself wondering what my life would’ve been like if the whole Roman thing was something that I’ve been into since childhood. Would I have chosen to become a Roman historian? Would I have taken an online teaching degree with a major in Roman History? Would I have pursued it, even if it seemed too impractical and useless for one living in the Philippines? Would I be writing in Latin right now, maybe even annotating Caesar’s Commentaries myself, rather than ordering an English-translated one from Amazon?

Yes, how’s that for an alternate universe? The thought of myself leading a scholarly existence is strangely interesting, if not a tad disconcerting.

So will my Roman obsession end with the death of my beloved Caesar, the end of the Roman Republic, and the last of Colleen McCullough’s books? Definitely not! There are more books to read, more stories to enjoy, and more great Romans to get to know and love. And no, I – or anyone else, for that matter – don’t need an online degree for that.

Indeed, my Roman romance is far from over. And that thought, at least, cheers me up somewhat.