| | I went home this weekend...spent a few nights at my
parents' place, a house that I haven't lived in for longer than a month
or two at a time...and I spent one night and three hundred bucks in the
heart of Chicago Korea-town.
It's always the same story when i
go back to Chicago: I take a late flight in, I get a rental, while my
mother waits at home, preparing a quick dinner of some of my favorite
foods (king crab, sushi, and sometimes, beef short-ribs).
My
father's dietary requirements prevent him from eating too much at
night, and my mother insists she gets more sustenance from watching me
enjoy my meal. So we sit around the dinner table and they watch me eat.
But it's not as creepy as it sounds, really.
Small talk is made.
They ask about school, about my job, about life in San Antonio. Whether
or not I'd found a church I'm comfortable with. Dinner winds down and
we eventually get to money. They try to give me a hefty stack of
twenties. Then the words "I'm a real man now" came out of my mouth.
I'm standing on my own two feet, I say. I make enough to support my
ardent spending habits...then I go out and I use my paycheck to
extinguish friends' thirst for alcohol.
Laughingly, they asked
why I would say such a thing. I replied that I didn't believe a man
should have to receive monetary support from his parents. While I
mostly scraped by during college, my parents still had to throw me a
little cash every now and again to help pay for unexpected car repairs
or condoms.
And while I (kind of, sort of) enjoyed my last job,
I wondered how on earth I could ever do this for the rest of my life. I
didn't want to have to, as one of my co-workers did, drive 140 miles
every day and work under some chode so that he could afford a backyard
for his boys. I mean, I guess a lot of people do it. A lot do it on a
lot less, even. But I like to have a good margin of error and if you've
been reading this blog or know me in real life, you know:
a) I have expensive tastes
b) I'll be damned if I'll ever have a month in which I debate paying child support or rent.
One
of the reasons I'm so thankful to have gotten away from my parents at
the age of 18, is that I've had independent financial security as long
as I've been able to buy porn. Assuming all goes according to plan I
can support my parents and, once I decide to settle down with a trophy
wife, maybe I'll take care of my own family as well. And that makes me
feel, for lack of any fancy words, good... |
| | Posted 10/16/2006 7:02 PM - 3 comments
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