Career Talk

GK and I were laying around the other night watching the second season of Rescue Me on DVD and talking about what she'd like to do for work in the future. She's not quite two weeks old and, therefore, uncertain what she wants to do when she grows up. Uncertain, even, what 'growing up' means, or what I was saying, or who I even am. But watching that show, which is about firefighters, reminded me that JP wants to be a firefighter some day. His two little friends at school want to be Power Rangers, he says, and I'm just thankful he's got a good head on his shoulders and realizes the pay for Power Rangers is steadily declining and the job itself will probably be outsourced to India by the time he's grown. C has said, since the time he could talk and hold a crayon, that he would like to be an artist like his aunt Elizabeth. I'm not sure about S. She hasn't said what it is she might like to do eventually, but I could see her as a prosecuting attorney, CEO or Mongolian warlord.

My Mom is in town this week and as part of her duty as grandmother she brought a bag of goodies which included embarrassing stories about me to tell my kids. It seems that when I was a young boy my goal was to be a gas station attendant. Lofty goal, indeed. I think I remember talking about it and I believe my reasoning was that it was a profession that didn't require schooling. I never did like school. Alas, I never became a gas station attendant because there are no more gas station attendants (The Quartet didn't even know what she was talking about), it's all self-serve now. Instead, I own my own business, which also requires no schooling, but which pays considerably less than a gas station attendant. (Other items in Nonna's bag of goodies, by the way, included airline wing pins she got in the Tampa airport for the older three to wear on their shirts, or to just stick themselves with, and junk food. She has been very popular this week as the kids have put on weight, mocked me and my childhood tales and bled just a little bit.)

Whatever my kids decide to be when they're grown, I hope that it makes them happy and that they excel at it to the best of their ability. I also hope they make enough money to take care of their elderly parents and to pay us off to keep the silly stories about them, including this blog, quiet.