Thursday, December 4, 2008

Dream Smasher

Last night, Dylan, Gioconda's 16 year old son said, " I have been thinking about not giving gifts this year and donating money to a worthy cause."

I think to myself, great that saves me about $200.00 I was going to spend on an IPOD you will loose in a haze in about 37 minutes after you open it and so
I said, " I think that is a terrific idea.  What cause do you want me to donate your gift?"

He didn't reply.

According to Gioconda that makes me a dream smasher.  Really?

The following is a sanitized version of our conversation

Jody : What part of the statement is a dream?

Gioconda: He is excited about something and you are being petty and cruel.

Jody: Granted I do not need another lemon/cookie dough bath gel or eucalyptus/pumpkin spice candle; however, if someone wants to give a donation as a gift I think the person should be willing to receive a donation as a gift.  If this makes me a dream smasher, then I wear the title proudly.

Gioconda then threw a yellow plastic ashtray at my head and that ended the conversation . (Editor's note- Gioconda didn't throw anything, just went silent. But violence makes a better story)   

Dylan is taking a ecology class through the junior college and a few weeks back he suggested we eliminate our water based toilets and use buckets to compose our waste.

Translated, he wants us to shit in a bucket and then put it in the yard.  We have dogs, pigs, rabbits, cats and a chicken, believe me we are at our quota of shit in the yard.

In the spirit of compromise I suggested that if for six months he turned off the fan/light in the bathroom every time he left I would do away with our water toilets and use a bucket for my waste.  

As this is a request which is biologically impossible for him to comply the water toilets are safe.

Another dream smashed.

I am cynical.  I used to be competitive and cynical, but being competitive took too  much energy so now I have scaled back to just cynical.  

A week ago a blond haired 20 something approached me in Old Town Pasadena.  Dread locks, ring in the left nostril, Ed Hardy T-shirt, Lucky jeans, a grande soy latte balanced in one hand a clip board in the other, asked ,would I like to join Green Peace?

She just graduated from Berkeley and she was now volunteering for Green Peace.

I thought about her parents, now living in their Chevy Tahoe,  their family home foreclosed on after taking out a sub prime mortgage in order to finance 5 years at Cal, with a semester in Barcelona.

Perhaps they could have suggested to young Brittany it might be a good time to seek employment which had attached to it an  hourly wage, maybe even health insurance, a comprehensive dental plan...but then again no...no one wants to be a dream smasher....












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