Growing up, I remember a book full of these stories used to teach us, hopefully, to do the right thing. The most popular of these tales is probably the race between the Turtle and the Rabbit. The Rabbit being much faster should have won the race of course, but the Turtle drove on and stayed focused on the task at hand, The Rabbit, thinking itself superior and thus not respecting its opponent, lost focus, went off the trail and even took a long nap, only to find itself losing because he got so far behind the Turtle who just kept moving forward.
So it goes with the Squirrel and the Grasshopper, but this one is about planning for the future. Squirrel spent his days busy at work, always planning and saving for tomorrow. Grasshopper, being of a different sort, preferred to play it cool and instead spent his free time sitting out in the sun chilling and having a good time. When the weather changed and it got cooler, suddenly Grasshopper found himself kind of fucked because the party died down for the winter and there was nowhere to go in the freezing weather. Squirrel, meanwhile, had plenty of food reserves to help him and his family get through the rough weather inside his warm home, he did not have to forage outside in the bad weather.
This is how I felt last week when Girlie mentioned they (her and her BF) were going to celebrate their 1 year anniversary in San Francisco. All I said was oh, hmm, that sounds cool. But, I was left thinking "all I hear from you is that y'all are poor and I see that you get by on the bare minimum for food." Also, I mean "you two are stuck living with us, mostly because I was nice enough to charge you way too little in rent thinking you were just staying for a month or two and the BF doesn't even have a car." I mean the trip is a super fun idea and I certainly hope you have fun out there, but there are so many things that money could be used for. You say you want privacy and your own place all the time, a better gift would have been a deposit on a 1 BR apartment, but whatever.
I guess while "uncle Mando" as she likes to call me, has all the nuts, much like the Squirrel, I'll help them not die over the winter part of their lives (for her sake), but trips like these are such a ridiculous waste of money, we haven't dared while we have been getting our credit affairs in order the last few years and we make real salaries. Even Wife chimes in on this with "we need at least $5000 to go on a nice Disney vacation and next time I want to have that upfront."
The guy really should be smarter and use the money to get a car, what if they end up breaking up, what is the trip going to do for him? In the end, it's his butt that doesn't have a nest full of nuts to lean on. Girlie knows she can depend on my nuts for sustenance in Squirrel parlance. I am not sure her Grasshopper has the wherewithal to transform into a Squirrel, but I guess some prefer to live in the moment and say fuck it to a long term plan.
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