A large portion of my weekend was spent with the husbeast doing mostly nothing at all. Not that we don't normally spend a lot of time together doing nothing, but this weekend we spent time together doing different nothing than our usual nothing. I am not making sense, let me try again.
Normally on a Saturday the husbeast and I would lounge about the house playing on our laptops and watching bad tv, or going out to a movie and to eat. It really is not doing much of anything, but we are together. This Saturday was different. I had to go down to Perth street, the fabric Mecca of DFW, to pick up some material for a new bodice for the upcoming faire. Normally I would go alone, but he mysteriously wanted to join me. After that excursion we did some chores like oil changes and car inspections, and then went and walked around a yuppie mall for a few hours. There was some lunch and a trip to Half Priced Books where I was the only one to walk out with a book.* We ended our outing with a trip to a furniture store we were passing by.
At one point during our visit to the furniture store we settled in on some chaises and started pipe dreaming. We had seen several things we would love to own, but sadly can not afford at this time. So the question was asked; what would we do if we were suddenly ridiculously wealthy?
My answer is easy. The first thing I would do is to go buy an ice cream cone.
Why?
Because I can.
Never would an ice cream have tasted so sweet. It would be like eating ice cream as a child when ice cream was a simple lovely pleasure. As a child you do not worry about calories, or cost, or anything else. You are not eating the ice cream as part of guilt, or in mourning, or stress. You simply enjoy the sweet cold creamy goodness because you want to. It is something I would like to do again. Eat an ice cream and enjoy it because I have nothing else to worry about in the world.
After that joyful treat I would spend money on other people.
We decided we would pay off our house and have all of the improvement projects on it finished professionally. Once it was done we would give it to the husbeasts mum. She is retired and disabled and needs a place that is good and where she doesn't have to worry about rent on her fixed income. We would also pay off my parents house and pay for some renovations that need to be done there.
After our parents were taken care of we would pay off their cars as well as our siblings cars. Well his brother and my brother. We both have far too many siblings that we have never really spoken to to go and by everyone a car. There are also a few friends who would find themselves with new vehicles.
At that point we would have to look at ourselves. All our debt would be paid off (which actually would have been the first thing after the ice cream). We would buy a new house, though there was debate about having something built since we both have some pretty specific desires. I want a sewing room and studio. He wants and office and workspace. We both want a game room.
He has a few classic cars that he would want to buy and putter with. I would most likely indulge in buying fabric and end up sewing a lot more than I have time for now. There also would be horses. One for me and one for him. It is a thing. After that though I think all we would do with our money is travel really.
The only other thing we were both very agreed upon was that we would be generous to strangers. I have always wanted to have enough money to anonymously buy someones meal, leave a diner waitress a $100 tip, give a good samaritan a large amount of cash, slip an envelope of cash to a needy family, and other random acts such as that.
They were nice dreams, even if that is all that they were. Who knows, perhaps some day I will win the lottery and ice cream will once again taste so sweet and diner waitresses everywhere will benefit from my good fortune. Until then I can dream.
What would you do if you had a million dollars?
* This is completely unheard of. Normally I buy nothing and he buys 5 or 6 books. First fabric shopping then not buying books, the world may be ending.
I'm glad it's just not my bloke and me that play this game :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd I never thought about an ice cream in that way, but you're so right :-)
There would be paying off of debts until the money ran out. Ours, and some family that desperately needs a fresh start.
ReplyDeleteBut now I'm adding ice cream to the list too!
I love the part about being generous to random strangers. This is something I would love to do. Adopt needy families at Christmas...help a single mom during the holidays...do something for a nursing home...stuff like that. I am, of course, selfish and think of all the things I want...but after that...I would definitely love to just help people.
ReplyDelete