Children's Stories

Talking to my mom on Friday about my "picking" business stuff felt a little like defending a thesis. At least I know it's not just me. Both of my parents put people on the defensive a lot, like you have to justify your life because they know better unless you can prove otherwise. I fear I do that to people, too. My mom had my cousin feeling like a charity case a few weeks back when we all went out to lunch.

I see more and more the disparity in general outlook between my parents, who have more money than anybody needs but will argue over a $5 mistake in their bills for hours on end, and much of the rest of humanity, who would never even notice a $20 service charge on their credit card bills. It's largely how my parents got to the point they are, but now that they're there, it seems completely distasteful when they argue to keep their every dollar because my mom "should" get her bangs fixed for free if she didn't like the way they were cut after a week.
What's the line from Streetcar Named Desire about "you just begged me to rip you down from those marble pillars" or something? Now I have to look it up...
Found it:
You showed me a snapshot of the place with them columns, and I pulled you down off them columns, and you loved it, having them colored lights goin'. And wasn't we happy together?

Sometimes my brain spits out elaborate stories for other people's lives based in very little. Overhearing a woman's monologue to what appeared to be a very young couple on the bus last week, I filled in her role as step-mom and their relationships and backgrounds and general life stories. Sometimes a bit in the news will have me convinced of a secondary back-story. Then one of my friends gave me a juicy morsel of gossip about himself without any further information, so when a seemingly random photo popped up in my Facebook feed I came up with an entire plot involving their grandchildren. Until three minutes later when I realized I had the timeframe messed up and the picture and the gossip didn't coincide, but I was still amused and convinced he should hunt her down and name grandkids. The next time we spoke I had to tell him, and it turns out, I was right. Well, not about making babies or anything, but all my stories in my head were kind of the ideas he had in his head and I am clearly the smartest person in the whole entire universe and I get at least their second born child as a prize. It's such a cute hypothetical story, too, since he had a crush on her sister but they were really just friends and then she's way more his usual "type" so it's perfect (this is why I came up with the story in the first place).

Soundtrack in my head right now: Fleetwood Mack's Landslide, as sung by the PS22 Chorus