The Dilettante Innkeeper

There are so many jobs I'd rather have than lawyer, but I'm too lazy to actually embrace them wholeheartedly. At the top of the list is innkeeper. I really enjoy hosting people, making sure they're comfortable and happy, and sharing their company for awhile, and then sending them off with nice memories. But I really DON'T wish to do it full time. This past weekend, Villa Wifey had two separate parties. My long ago English professor Ross was in town from Dallas/St. Louis, and we invited him to stay. Ross grew up in Miami, and then was off to Princeton and Virginia. After a stint at Yale, he and his wife Pam, also a Miamian, returned home. I met him and took two classes where he instilled in me an appreciation and love of Hardy, Lawrence, and Blake (but not the Bronte sisters). Ross became a Dean at the U, and then was recruited to Dallas to become Provost at SMU. Provost is Dean of all Deans, and he and Pam and their two, by then college aged kids, enjoyed a great life. Alas, Pam died young, or a rare cancer, and Ross ended up marrying again, to Heather, who was half of a couple friend Ross and Pam shared. They now have a little girl, who is close in age to Ross's three grandkids. Anyway, Pam's mother died, at 98, and Ross was here for the memorial service. I invited him to stay, so we could catch up and share tales of life. He noted that when we met, he was a grown up of 31, while I was a kid of 19. Somehow now we're both geezers. Wifey's BFF Edna also checked in -- here to see her parents at the nursing home for the final time before we all leave on a birthday cruise in October. Friday night, Edna, Ross, Wifey and I went out to the Gables, Ross's old 'hood. We had a great meal together, and then walked over to Books and Books, for some wine and music and book browsing. Ross has written 30 books, mostly about Modern British Lit, and Literary Criticism. Edna, Wifey, and I have written a combined ZERO books, so we felt it pretty cool to be in a bookstore with a prolific author. Saturday Ross went to be with his kids and grandkids as they honored the departed grandma, and I headed off to a fine tailgate for the Canes. I typically drink a lot, but this time my date and designated driver was someone named Patrick. At the risk of being politically incorrect, generally guys named Patrick aren't the best designated drivers, and so I went moderate on the Absolut. Still, we had a fine time, and the Canes are now 2-0. Edna checked out of our inn and headed home to Atlanta. Sunday am, Ross and I met Norman and 2/3 of his son army. Norman and Ross are both Gables High alum, and compared notes of their experiences graduating in the 60s and 70s. They had several people in common. And Norman's S2, Michael, was off to return to his graduate studies in Israel, and so he and Ross bandied about some terms like "theory" while Norman and I wondered what the hell they were talking about. Benji, Norman's S3, seemed to get it -- he has one Bachelor's degree and is working on a second. I sent Ross off with the Sunday Herald, and directions to FLL. It was lovely stay. Wifey has no fantasy about being an innkeeper. Whenever we would travel, and visit lovely properties, I'd gaze at them, and say maybe someday we'd buy a B and B. Wifey would reply: "I don't even want to cook or clean for my own family -- you think I'd do it for strangers?" A woman's gotta know her limitations, Clint Eastwood would say... So the past few months, I got to flirt with being an innkeeper, and that's enough. I have no doubt that if I did it full time, I would rapidly become Basil Fawlty. But in small dosages, as one of Wifey's friend malaprops, it's a nice gig.