Coach light...
Hand towel...
Linen closet...
Breakfast nook...
These are phrases I'm only now, as the owner of a suburban home, beginning to understand. Until Monday, they had only vague ghost-like meanings, without any application or example in my life. Sort of like unicorn or phlogiston. But last night when Cecily said, "remember to turn out the coach light," I was alerted to just how spectacularly foreign my life had become, and how quickly it could change.
Bear in mind that 17 years ago I was homeless--not in the soup line, Salvation Army sense--but my name appeared on no deed or lease...my only job was a part-time night-shift gig loading beers at a local delicatessen...my few sticks of furniture were in storage...and I was living on my girlfriend's fold-out couch. Oh, and I was drunk almost all the time. So you'll understand if it seems a little strange to have a coach light or a linen closet.
During those days, in the work-a-holic 1980s, when most of my peers were cutting each other's hamstrings to get one rung ahead on the corporate ladder, I realized that if I were ever to succeed financially in any sense, it would be by charity, luck, or crime. Certainly not by my work ethic, which is even harder to find than phlogiston. And since I don't have the belly for crime, and I'd have to hold my mouth open a long time before a veal parm would fly into it...luck would have to be with me.
So I think that buying a modest rowhome from a friend and in 4 years selling it for triple its value (and without putting any substantial work into it) qualifies as luck. Big time. Further proof that anyone can pick the right horse.
So here we are in our new home, and with an instant 50% equity, thanks to the proceeds from the old home. And I'm learning new phrases like hand towel, breakfast nook, and finished basement. Maybe life IS all pizzas and cream afterall.
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Slang of the day will return when I locate my dictionary. In the meantime, here's a thought for the day...
Starved for Leadership
Californians electing Arnold Schwarzenegger governor is like a hungry man eating a picture of a hamburger.