Slow day.

This morning it was sort of chilly and grey outside.
Those are nice days to wake up to when you can look out the window and decide to go back to bed.
They are hard days to wake up to when you have to go to work.
But, still it is nice to walk to work without working up a sweat from the heat.
It is nice to have a nice slow day at work while it is grey outside.
It was a good day.
Do you know Caitlin?
She is my friend who is staying with us while she tries to get an apartment squared away.
She is losing her mind.
It is cute.
Some day she will see it as cute.

One time I was sitting in the kitchen of our house on Indiana St.
I was trying to tell my Mom that I didn't really want to work full time OR go to school.
I liked riding my skateboard and playing music with my friends, and I just wanted to work my dish washing job and let that be that.
Somehow I ended up having to describe to my Mom how I planned on accomplishing things in life without a full time job and full time money.
Unfortunately I ended up saying something close to this, not verbatim, but close enough...

"Well, I guess I would just offer to work for the things I wanted, like, directly with no money exchanging hands, just services and stuff."

My Mom asked what did I mean by this, please describe this concept further.

"Fine, for example, say I want to learn how to skydive, well, I could just maybe offer to work for the lessons, like, I could wash the planes, or clean the hangars or something... I mean, I don't know HOW I would do it, but I am pretty sure I could figure something out."

Way to go me! You have gumption and I like that!
I blame my Navajo genes and the concept of Wampum that was planted in my brain by these genes.
I knew at the time I was taking a risk by explaining things like this to my Mom, I knew I would probably have to hear about this for a while and true enough, I still hear about it occasionally.
But the thing is, when you are basically given two choices, work or school, what are you supposed to do?
I know, I know, washing a plane in a hangar in exchange for a cot and a chance to jump out of the plane you just washed IS work.
But I don't see it like that.
It is work, yes, but it is on my own terms.
It is more satisfying in a way, right?

I just wanted to be able to have more choices than school or a full time job.
Who wouldn't?

So Caitlin, she is figuring out a lot of things right now, and often she says things to me that immediately take me back to my little kitchen on Indiana St and I wonder if in ten years she will look back on any of this and have the same feeling I get thinking of younger me.
Wash bucket in one hand, rag in the other, walking out into the hot desert sun to "work" for my lessons.

i love you guys.
lovemahtew