Yesterday, I went to my friend's house in San Jose. She lives close to the antique stores -- one of which has had this ring I've wanted for about a year now. I'm not big on jewelry, but this is a green andalusite surrounded by tiny diamonds. I have little hands, so I like delicate jewelry. The problem is, I need no jewelry, delicate or otherwise, so I simply go visit it.
So we're walking in the neighborhood. She is worse than me in that she talks to everyone, but I live in an area that is MIT/Stanford PhDs. They're not nearly so friendly. In fact, most people think you're nuts if you talk to them!
I'm not around the real world a lot. Meaning, people who work REAL jobs -- basically where I came from. I forget how friendly the real world is, that it's not pulling teeth to have a conversation. I'm craving that now.
There's a store there that specializes in old house fixtures & hardware. My girlfriend's house was built in the twenties, and the owner makes old things new again. To find others who share my love of older things was really fantastic. He has a fan that has INCREDIBLE artwork on it. It was gorgeous. And was used in a funeral parlor at the head of the casket before air conditioning. This creeped my friend out, but dang, I wanted it. I grew up Italian Catholic, we used to have the bodies in the my relatives' houses, so this didn't freak me out at all. (Would that bother you? If it was really cool, I mean?) I just love old things made with care.
I love that someone cares for these items.
After that, we went to a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant and heard their story. (Their kids are a UC Berkeley Lawyer & a Stanford Physician's Assistant.)
Then, we met San Jose's Rainman. If you tell him your birthday, he can tell you what day of the week you were born. Every day he goes around town on his routine. He's getting married in 2020 (he hasn't met her yet -- he'll tell you that day too) but he goes in and talks to the store owners to tell them his plans, to make sure they have the cake ready for the wedding, etc.
I forget how cool the world is to people on the fringes. People on the fringes give a lot of hugs. (Having grown up with a developmentally-disabled brother, I'm used to this) so I felt pretty loved on yesterday.
Maybe this is the reason for college getting more expensive and jobs getting less plentiful. Maybe more people are meant to own their own businesses and find their true callings. I look at their lives down there in the "poorer" neighborhood, and it seems a lot richer to me than what I see on a daily basis.
I'm ready for my 40's Bungalow and life in the real world. Only a few more years until my kids are off to their callings and I can redo my bungalow. Is your world friendly?
oh, id love to see that ring!
I think my world is pretty friendly now. Texans are friendly. More friendly than upstate ny-ers
Posted by: Tonya | June 08, 2012 at 09:53 AM
I go back and forth about corporations. From strictly an economic perspective they are highly efficient at producing wealth for shareholders (well also for their CEO's but one rant per post LOL) Evan during a rescission a lot of them have kept their profits fairly stable. Yet having worked at one, I hated it. There is nothing more life sucking than being expected to be a drone. I think your right though, once of the nice things about tech is that is can make small business just as efficient as corporations.
Posted by: Tony | June 08, 2012 at 02:02 PM
I think living near Apple & Google has me flawed in this perspective. Google comes out of itself, but Apple doesn't seem to. The selfishness of the company overall is what is wrong with corporations. They definitely take care of their own, so I can say that for them.
Posted by: Kristin Billerbeck | June 08, 2012 at 02:09 PM
It just appeals to me, it's not that special I don't think. It just feels like MINE. I should try and tell my husband this. LOL
Posted by: Kristin Billerbeck | June 08, 2012 at 02:10 PM