Baby You're Out of Touch...

As I go through life, as the luckiest son of a bitch I know, I sometimes lose sight of reality.

2 years ago, when I was "downsizing" from a Lexus to a Hyundai, I was at lunch with my then secretary and now friend Mirta, telling her about it. I guess I was coming across as somehow noble, since I'd now be driving a much less expensive car. Mirta asked me how much it cost to lease. I told her, about $500 per month.

"David," she said, returning me to earth as she is wont to do..."I don't have ANY friends or family members who can afford to lease a $500 per month car..."

I felt like a schmuck, and I was.

So my day brightened considerably today when I played a phone message from an old acquaintance. The woman is a divorce lawyer, from beginnings far more humble than mine. She put herself though law school, and married another middle class fellow who hit it big as a lawyer, too, and they had children very late in life. She's easily old enough to be a grandma, and is raising 6 year old twins...

Still --the message was that she and her husband had decided to take their kids to an upcoming football game, but since the husband wanted to enjoy the game, they were taking their nanny as well. So, did I have an extra Club Seat for her nanny?

I just shook my head. Club Seat for the Nanny, I decided, would be a great title for a kids' book about overprivileged people living, oh, in Coral Gables...

I immediately called Dr. Barry. He earns a very healthy salary these days, but has remained steadfastly populist. Neither he nor I ever had nannies for our kids. We thought we were lucky enough to earn enough for our wives to stay at home and be full time Moms...the thought of paying someone for that role somehow weirds us out...

(When D1 was about 3, she visited our well off neighbors, who had a nanny. She came back and told me she had spilled her juice. I asked her if she cleaned it up. She answered "No, the OTHER mommy did it."). I always figured one mommy per house was enough.

Barry enjoyed the story as well. We agreed that these folks were guilty of a common sin: believing your own press releases...

So, Barry's boy Scott can bring his friend Nick with my extra ticket. The nanny's owners, I mean, employers, can get one from the ticket office...

But, I may bring some Grey Poupon...