"chance of a lifetime"

one of my restaurants has a mother-daughter duo working there. they are lovely women, both with very nice husbands and the daughter's 2 girls couldn't be sweeter. i like them.

the mother comes from an insanely large family, and produced one of her own. the daughter never finished high school. info that was offered weirdly, it's never something i would ask. (or think really; that's way out of my life's context, but i work with a few kids like that here.) they are both natives in a very affluent town, but are of the working class who fix and clean the homes of the range rover drivers.

next month they are taking a trip to the old sod. 100% irish extraction, 2nd and 3rd generation, it's been a life-long dream of both. the mother came into a very small inheritance (it had to be divvied up so many ways!) and decided to take the plunge and blow the cash. they both keep calling this 5-day trip "the chance of a lifetime."the daughter is 28 and has never been on a plane. while i am happy to see how excited both are as the days count down, it also saddens me to see their perspective. that they see their lots in life as so fixed. only a windfall has made this possible, so unless somebody else much more well-to-do drops dead, they're never going anyplace again.

as much of a pit as i feel i am in now, as much as i've gnashed my teeth in here and in lawyers' offices over these last months, i really believe my situation is temporary. shoes and trips will again be in the budget. this is just a bad patch, and they happen to most. (mark twain and donald trump both filed for bankruptcy. they kept going, right?)

the owner would say i'm trying to frame them in my world-view, and he's right. maybe they are perfectly content. i don't know. i hope they are, you know? however, i don't think it's a bad thing for me to want more out of life.