Acting Fancy

Like I have said before in previous posts, my dad and Sharon are pretty well off. After Sharon got a promotion to being a manager of her department, they are even more well off. So when they make plans to leave for Italy for two weeks, or run off to Vegas for a weekend, it doesn't really make their purse strings any tighter.


I usually only get a little share in that wealth. Since I have moved out, Sharon basically decided she wasn't going to take me out to JC Penney's anymore to buy khakis for work, nor was she going to give me food to take home. She even went to far as to boycott me from going out to dinner with her and my dad for a while.


I didn't really care that she did this. Sure, it would have been nice to get my khakis for free still, or to get some yummy food from our local italian place, but I didn't need it. And the beauty of the situation was that I knew Sharon would come around eventually.


It took her a couple of months, but she did decide that I was still her favorite, even though I had my own place, and soon enough they were inviting me back over for dinner and giving me loads of food, (most stuff that never even got eaten.)


By the time March rolled around, (and thus spring break) Sharon had warmed to the idea of me being "so far away." In fact, I think she liked the fact that there wasn't me zombie-ing around the house on my days off. Now that she was finally okay with the whole arrangement of my room being farther away, she had decided she was going to let me have something.


Dad and Sharon had bought one night at one of the fancier hotels in town but they were too busy to use it so they gave it to me. Originally, I was supposed to bring four girls with me, but Ambria flaked, and Christina was working, so it ended up just being me and Gina.


We drove up, let the valet take my car, and headed into the Chase. I was wearing my five inch cork wedges, so I pretty much towered over everyone at about six foot one. Gina looked very petit next to me, and even though she was wearing heels, it didn't seem to help.


At the check in desk, we had a little hiccup of having had the reservation made for next month. But apparently it was much of a problem for Tuesday, so they got us a room easily.


They gave us our cards and directed us upstairs to the sixth floor. We hopped in the elevators and away we went. Gina kept saying over and over again how she felt just like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. I pointed out that she was a prostitute, but that little detail didn't make her not say the same sentence over and over again.


We had a corner room, and Gina was very excited about it. I set my stuff down while she ran around looking at all the things in the room. Though I hadn't stayed in the Chase, or anywhere else quite this fancy, it was pretty much what I expected. There were two flat screen televisions, three magazines on the glass coffee table all talking about restaurants like Tony's and the local private schools, and Whole Foods, the liquor cabinet was stocked with Grey Goose and things of similar nature, and the bathroom had hand folded towels that looked like bows.


For me, it was kind of like walking into a cruise ship room. It basically had everything without having a kitchen. I went and flopped down on the bed and looked out the windows at the park and watched the cars go by. Gina was still excitedly looking around, but I was hungry and was ready for her to finish her inspection.


And that was when she said the weirdest thing. In order to have an understanding of why what she said was weird, I need to back up.


Unlike me, Gina and her family doesn't have a whole lot of spending money. When she told me about her graduation vacation to the east coast, and how they didn't have money for a hotel so they all stayed slept in the van each night for most of the trip, my jaw dropped a little. She has four other brothers and sisters, plus her parents. And while I didn't understand why her mom insisted on homeschooling instead of getting a job that could let her kids stay in cheap hotels on family vacations they only take once every few years, it wasn't really my call either.


And while I pretty much believed the reason for going to college was so that I could get a good paying job and to then be able to do the things I liked like going on nice vacations or buying sexy shoes, Gina didn't really agree with the sentiment. Sharon had pointed out on numerous occasions how Gina should strive to do better that her parents. Of course, the way Sharon said these things was in a condescending and overbearing tone, but she meant well.


Gina on the other hand seemed to fight Sharon tooth and nail on the subject saying that living below the poverty line was all she ever wanted and that she didn't need anything more. I decided not to point out that people below the poverty line don't get to have things like big houses or a Camaro in their driveways, but it was mostly because I didn't see the point in arguing. She would make the rebuttal of, "I can save up!" Which she knows as well as I do that "saving up" just can't happen when you have to spend every penny you make on food, current car repairs, and cell phone bills.


So all of these things, Gina trying to fight making herself better than her parents, making more money than her parents, but still trying to appear like she has more than she does took me aback when she tried to make it okay that she doesn't have the means to spend money on even a weekend vacation.


She was looking out the window, fiddling with the fancy curtains when she said, "You know, I am glad I don't have the ability to do this all the time. I wouldn't appreciate it at all, I think."


And just like that, she made it okay in her head to not ever strive to be able to just go and spend money at a fancy hotel, or on a nice dinner, or on sometimes expensive clothes. I bit my cheek. I wanted to say things like you should want to have this! You have the ability to go to college and make it happen. You are selling yourself short.


But I didn't. Because what is the point in arguing over her not wanting to be able to do something nice for herself?


So we left for dinner, walking down to Bar Louie for burgers, then heading back to the Chase to watch the movie Wanderlust. Then it was almost midnight so we made our way back to our hotel room, and exhausted from working earlier in the day we went to bed.


The next morning we headed back out for coffee at the Coffee Cartel, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a hand delivered newspaper. We read parts of it while drinking our calorie loaded drinks and eating sausage, egg and cheese sandwiches. When then hit our last stop at The Cup and bought cupcakes to bring home to our families.


I picked up my car from the valet and tipped him the ten dollars Sharon had given me. The guy got a lot friendlier after that. I guess he wasn't expecting any tip from the girls with the wheezing Hyundai. I drove Gina home, and it seemed that the "fancy" had worn off, since she was ready to get back to work painting houses and wearing basketball shorts.


While I definitely enjoyed myself, (especially the down pillows), it was probably that one comment of Gina's that made me just really sit back and think for the rest of the night.