2024, Family, Theatre, Travel, Uncategorized

Hamilton

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At the end of her work program in London, YA took a couple more days just for herself.  She transferred to a hotel in the City (the group program had been in Hampshire) and enjoyed her time walking around, seeing the sights, doing a bit of shopping. 

On Friday I got a text asking if $120 was too much money to spend on a Hamilton ticket.  My first response, as a cheap, miserly old mom was to discourage her from blowing a wad on anything.  It’s almost always my go-to position, sorry to say.

But as I thought about it for a bit I realized a couple of things.  #1 – she is a grown woman, enjoying time in London.  If she has the money for it, this would be a wonderful memory of her trip. (And truth be told, I’ve been to the theatre in London and remember it fondly [although I didn’t have to pay for it myself].)  #2 – paying $120 for a ticket to Hamilton in London is basically stealing it.    I sent her a text telling her to go for it.

She chose the Saturday matinee so she could walk to/from during daylight.  Then she texted me that her ticket was in a box.  When I asked why, she said it was the best deal at that showing.  She got there pretty early so was able to sent photos of her box (the header photo) and this photo showing the view from the box. 

Apparently her box price included a drink and a snack, which was provided by the butler, whose services were also included as part of the box.  My goodness.   And then, as if enough fortune hadn’t already given her a wink and a nod, the other three seats in the box remained unsold.  So for $120 she got a private box, a butler, a drink and snack, a walking transfer and, of course, Hamilton.  What a way to go!

I’m so happy that she was able to have this marvelous experience and so so glad that I got over myself and didn’t spoil her fun. 

Can you ever remember a time you’ve given dubious advice? Taken dubious advice?

27 thoughts on “Hamilton”

  1. Based as it is on my personal experience and limitations, all of my advice is dubious, as was that of my parents. Neither I nor they are (were) omniscient. For that reason I am not only not offended when my advice is ignored, I am a little relieved. When my advice is taken seriously and followed I feel responsible for the outcome.

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  2. poor tara . she wanted to be a psychologist, i told her listening to other peoples problems all week was a poor way to spend your life, then she chose a teacher, i told her grandma was not a happy teacher, her mom was not a happy teacher and only saints should be allowed into teaching.
    she ended up as an office worker in financial advising , in a lawyers office , in an office for that manages insurance claims for corporations.
    working. she is happy as a mother bit its time for her fo go back to work again. ill bet she wishes she hadnt listened to me.

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    1. There are all kinds of MSW (Masters of Social Work) degrees she can get on a working schedule. IT is a great degree and she can do what she wants to with it because MSWs are in great demand.

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      1. PS, a good psychologist does not just listen to “whining” but has solutions to offer, as well. That job is not what people think it is. I loved the work, and the above comment is JacAnon.

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  3. “Buy sugar futures! They’ll make your soybean profits seem like peanuts in comparison.”

    Fortunately, I bailed on the sugar trade before I’d lost all my soybean profits. Got out of the commodities futures trading game with a small profit and a hard lesson learned: Don’t blindly trust anyone with your money. Trust only yourself.

    I rarely give “serious advice” to anyone. And I certainly don’t insist that my advice is the best advice. So I may have given dubious advice to someone in the past, but I don’t think it was ever about any important decisions that person was making. In the end, we all need to take responsibility for our decisions, and not blame anyone when things go wrong. It’s called free will.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  4. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Given advice: I told my son to go to college and he was not ready for that. He had the intellect but not the organizational skills. I wished I had guided him to working for a while first.

    Taken advice: Well I took that advice about getting married from my uncle and my mother (“no one else will want you”. “What will happen to you if you don’t get married?”). What a mistake that was! So I started over by getting divorced and living by myself as a single person and mom for awhile. Best thing I ever did. And then I stopped taking their advice about relationships. Then things were much improved for me.

    My mother’s advice about managing money turned out to be good, though, which has given me financial security. So, thanks Mom.

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  5. My father knew he wanted to be a lawyer fairly early on, but there was a whole nother entrepreneurial side to him. He was always thinking about ways you could start a business. When I was little, he owned an ice cream truck for a while. He didn’t run the truck himself. He paid a college kid to do it. He also did a massive fireworks tent in St. Louis two summers in a row. And he was always on me about some business opportunity. I made a good loaf of whole wheat bread in high school and he thought I should bake this bread and go around the neighborhood and sell it and take orders. He wanted me to open a church’s fried chicken outlet at one point. he absolutely thought I should open my own bakery. I hope it didn’t bother him too much that I completely ignored all of his suggestions.

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  6. It’s tricky when parents try (consciously or not) to live vicariously through their children. You were right to follow your own heart, and I’m guessing you “let him down gently” when you didn’t take his advice.

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  7. I grew up in a home where things were rather chaotic. My wife once said of me that I had been “raised by wolves.” That may be a bit extreme of a description, but it fits well enough.
    As a teenager I found affirmation in a church youth group. I grew into a “young fundamentalist”, and thought myself capable of giving advice on many subjects far beyond my scope. Firmly rooted in a Bible college context, I once advised a guy who was “between colleges” and wanting to finish his degree to consider mine. I’m glad he ignored me.

    I think I was generally impervious to others’ advice directed to me. After all, as a “young fundamentalist”, I only needed a Bible in one hand and God whispering in the other ear.

    I’ve grown out of all of that. I’m happy where I am, but look back in regret at the damage I caused to others, and to myself, along the way.

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    1. Way to go, VS. I would have had the same hesitations, but what a great experience for her.

      I just love to give advice – I’m so often right about everything! : } Uffda.

      My dad, when I was changing majors once a year at Iowa State, said “Just be sure to get your teaching license – then you’ll always be able to support yourself no matter what.” The summer I graduated, everything changed, and there was suddenly a surplus of teacher-candidates. The baby boom was over, and there were fewer students… I was in San Francisco and was lucky to find a half-day kindergarten job in a parochial school.

      I’m sure I’ve given plenty of bad advice, and will try to remember something…

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  8. We didn’t tell either of our kids what to major in. One is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. The other is Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. I suppose that their parents both being psychologists had something to do with their choices, but we didn’t even hint at what direction they should take.

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  9. Neither of my parents gave me career advice, though dad did dissuade me from becoming a radio telegrapher onboard a ship. “Anything that can’t piss over the railing doesn’t belong on a ship,” were his exact words.

    Early on, I considered becoming a nun (mainly because I liked their habits!). But, by the time I graduated from high school I was sufficiently interested in boys to know that was probably a mistake; instead, I decided to become a nurse. Fortunately I discovered within the first couple of weeks working at the children’s hospital in Basel, that I was pretty miserable being around sick people, so I abandoned that idea.

    I have never really had a strong sense of what I might be good at, what I’d enjoy doing, and that I could make a living doing. If I had it all to do over again, there were a couple of forks in the road where I might have meandered down a different path.

    I tend to consider carefully advice that I have not asked for, but two such pieces of advice changed my life. The first was from Paul Dean who advised me to apply for admission to SIU, and lent me the money that enabled me to do so. The other was Dick Klein, the managing partner of the first CPA firm I worked for. “Buy a house,” he said, “you can’t afford to keep renting.” I countered that he should know that I couldn’t afford to buy a house with what I was being paid. He sat down with me and explained how I could, and six months later I bought the house I still live in. Both Paul and Dick are long gone, but I owe them both a debt of gratitude.

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    1. great stories
      i have always wondered possessed the church to proclaim that priests and nuns couldn’t be married. i have supposed it was to keep the family problems certain to come up in life from being associated with the church and the poppycock about being married to god. nuns are given the short end of the stick and pretty subservient and priests are a disappearing breed and those who have served over the last century must have shaken their head in dismay more than once. you hear about the conservative priests who are upset with the current pope for his apologies to all the people wronged in the name of the church and for acknowledging gay catholics. you would have been a perfect nun and having a husband wouldn’t have gotten in the way at all.
      were there secrets to buying a house that could still apply today? i feel so bad for the kids. my daughters in chicago are figuring they will never be able to be homeowners.

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      1. I’m not any authority on what the church was thinking when they decided that priests and nuns should remain single. I imagine it had to do with the advice given by the apostle Paul that Christians should not marry or have children, but simply be celibate and wait for Jesus to come back.

        But maybe it had to do with making a place in the world for people who did not have the ambition to be parents. Instead of partnering with a person of the opposite sex they could partner with the church. Once birth control became a reliable option, that became obsolete.

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      1. No, I bought the house on Sidney St. six months before Hans and I got married. We bought the house in Inver Grove Heights five years later. We lived in IGH six years, and sold that house when I quit my job at the law firm. Our intention was to move to a farm we intended to buy in Frederic, but Hans changed his mind about moving his shop to Frederic. Had I known that at the time we sold the house in IGH I wouldn’t have sold it. I would have sold the house on Sidney St. instead. The house in IGH was a much nicer house on a gorgeous lot; it still pains me to think about it.

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  10. Probably the worst advice that I was given was the result of a vocational aptitude test that told me I should be a file clerk. That was based on my ability to quickly and accurately alphabetize things. Of course, this was in the late 70’s, and not so long after that, people who had those kinds of jobs were replaced by computers.

    Of course, if I had gone into a job that was focused on alphabetizing things, I would have been bored silly. Being able to perform a task and being happy performing a task are two very different things.

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  11. OT. Blevins Update.
    Sunday, November 17
    Jacque & Lou’s
    2 p.m.
    Quite a Year for Plums (Bailey White)
    &
    Fried Green Tomatoes at The Whistle-Stop Café (Fannie Flagg)

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