Escalation
Tonight Dutch, in a bedtime freakout, wailed "I wish I could have a perfect day, with no crying! I wish I could have everything I want!!"
Sometimes I daydream about What I Want. I am not greedy, I tell myself. All I want is enough extra money (after budgeting for rent, childcare, health insurance, utilities, groceries, and used shoes) to buy a couch... and a vacation, just a little one... and maybe better health insurance that covers more than getting-hit-by-a-truck. And occasional babysitting so Cook and I can have a date. And more shoes! And my dream vacation - two weeks in the UK walking around and eating fish and chips in delightful pubs where witty locals play terrific live music.* Also, a kitchen timer. And an electric mixer. Oh oh oh! Also, new pants! And a comfortable easy chair! Storage things... An apartment in a cohousing development! A dishwasher!
Anyway, you get the point. I AM greedy. I can totally see why poor people go into serious credit card debt. When you're not making enough money to afford your basic needs, you kind of shrug your shoulders - oh well - and go ahead and buy stuff you don't even really need. Because you're already living beyond your means and have no hope of living within those mean means ... and everybody else seems to have all this great stuff. And you don't. And if you're downwardly mobile, like me, you have all these cool friends with some money and great taste. And once you start thinking about that one thing that would make your life way better, the list never stops.
Cook and I have a special combination of hangups that make us extra-ridiculous about consumption. We have expensive tastes (not diamonds or iphones, but a yuppie preference for well-designed, well-made things), but we also have a commitment to reducing (if ever so slightly) our monstrous American ecological footprint, so we try to buy things that are used and/or extremely durable. So when our old dish rack fell apart, we considered our options for MONTHS. We dried our dishes by piling them up on a towel on the counter. We pored over online reviews. We debated the environmental impact and aesthetic quality of various materials. We seriously considered spending $70 for a dish rack. In the end, I found a stainless steel rack for $30 at a local kitchen store. It works perfectly fine. That's still a lot of money to pay for a dish rack, but we tell ourselves it'll last forever. We really needed it, too, just like we really need all those other things. I'm sure tomorrow will be a perfect day.
*It's possible that I have read too much Nora Roberts lately.
Sometimes I daydream about What I Want. I am not greedy, I tell myself. All I want is enough extra money (after budgeting for rent, childcare, health insurance, utilities, groceries, and used shoes) to buy a couch... and a vacation, just a little one... and maybe better health insurance that covers more than getting-hit-by-a-truck. And occasional babysitting so Cook and I can have a date. And more shoes! And my dream vacation - two weeks in the UK walking around and eating fish and chips in delightful pubs where witty locals play terrific live music.* Also, a kitchen timer. And an electric mixer. Oh oh oh! Also, new pants! And a comfortable easy chair! Storage things... An apartment in a cohousing development! A dishwasher!
Anyway, you get the point. I AM greedy. I can totally see why poor people go into serious credit card debt. When you're not making enough money to afford your basic needs, you kind of shrug your shoulders - oh well - and go ahead and buy stuff you don't even really need. Because you're already living beyond your means and have no hope of living within those mean means ... and everybody else seems to have all this great stuff. And you don't. And if you're downwardly mobile, like me, you have all these cool friends with some money and great taste. And once you start thinking about that one thing that would make your life way better, the list never stops.
Cook and I have a special combination of hangups that make us extra-ridiculous about consumption. We have expensive tastes (not diamonds or iphones, but a yuppie preference for well-designed, well-made things), but we also have a commitment to reducing (if ever so slightly) our monstrous American ecological footprint, so we try to buy things that are used and/or extremely durable. So when our old dish rack fell apart, we considered our options for MONTHS. We dried our dishes by piling them up on a towel on the counter. We pored over online reviews. We debated the environmental impact and aesthetic quality of various materials. We seriously considered spending $70 for a dish rack. In the end, I found a stainless steel rack for $30 at a local kitchen store. It works perfectly fine. That's still a lot of money to pay for a dish rack, but we tell ourselves it'll last forever. We really needed it, too, just like we really need all those other things. I'm sure tomorrow will be a perfect day.
*It's possible that I have read too much Nora Roberts lately.
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