UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

NEW SPECIMENS OLD SPECIMENS THE SCIENTIST MY LOG CONTACT ME
2001-10-16 - 6:34 a.m.

IF I WERE A RICH GAL....

Every once in a while, I get a glimpse of how the rich live. Saturday night, Mr. Philately and I went to an open house to celebrate the opening of a wine cellar. Mr. Philately and I drove up in our poor, old, balding van and there was valet parking...for a party at a house....really. The valet parking service opened the passenger side of the van and welcomed me while holding an umbrella over my head. The poor guy who had to park the thing didn�t even mention what was obvious to all: the van needs a new muffler.

The really amazing thing is not the house. It�s not the wine cellar or the swimming pool inside the house. It�s not the spacious grounds or the outdoor grill that almost my entire kitchen counter space could fit into. It�s people in that house. They are very nice and down-to-earth. I knew for years before I saw that house that the woman in it had money although I knew it more by rumor than by anything she did. It wasn�t until the first party I ever went to there that I realized the extent of it. She has lots of money but still is proud to wear $30 bargains from local stores.

After being there, I tried to fantasize about what I would do if I were rich. I assume, of course, that I would retain my good character: Mr. Philately. As long as I�m retaining him, it�s reasonable to assume that some of the money would go for stamps. Everything has its price, especially keeping Mr. Philately. I�d seriously consider building him a room just for stamps except family history teaches me that his stamp collection expands to fill the space allotted�and then some. Give him a room and he�ll take a suite.

As a general rule though, I dream small when it comes to money. Sure, I�d like to get a new muffler and a new paint job for the 1991 van. Heck, I might even be persuaded to replace it with a newer used model. There just doesn�t seem to be much point in buying a fancy vehicle to haul children, candy wrappers, sand, and soda cans around in. I�m just not the Porsche type. I can barely spell Porsche. I have to rely on my spell-checker to spell it for me.

I would like to travel though�even if I found myself the only American flying these days. I could spend a weekend with far-flung family and friends such as Tricia, Mary, Bev, and Lisa. If my Kat and Day-Hay were in good moods, I might even take them with me, whether Mr. Philately could come or not.

I�d also like to give more to charities than I do now. Each December, we sort through and decide what charity gets what. We give the moderate amounts we currently can afford. I�d love to give the big amounts�anonymously so the focus stays on the charity and not me. I�d adore having what I was able to do with the money for others be a big secret. I�d find it fun to have a secret of any importance.

I don�t think I�d make a very good rich person. Having all that money would feel like a lot of pressure. I just don�t seem to have great needs for money for myself. I�m not a big spender. Until recently, it just made me cheap. Nowadays, according to our government, I guess it makes me unpatriotic.

I guess I�ll tell Mr. Philately to stop buying his occasional lottery ticket. He just might win.

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