We're Rich!

I got my first job when I was 17- housekeeping at a hotel in Alaska. It's the only time I've ever worked in the private sector and I think it paid minimum wage.

After making beds and cleaning toilets, I fantasized that one day I'd be rich- so rich that I'd walk down the street and flip quarters to everyone I saw.

There are reasons why I stick with low-paying work in the public sector.



The third-best feeling in the world is riding on bikes with people you love. It doesn't even matter if it rains.

The second-best feeling in the world is meeting new friends, which is tied with seeing old friends.

The first-best feeling in the world is eating cake.



Walking around the neighborhood in Eugene, I found a penny and picked it up so that all that day I'd have good luck. The rest of that day went OK. Nothing lucky happened, but it was a good day, and I can't win lotto because I don't buy tickets.

Yesterday, in Portland, I passed a penny on a bike ride. I didn't stop to get it because it seemed like hassle. But it gave me an idea- I'd like to be so rich that I could cover the streets with pennies. Pennies everywhere, in Portland and Eugene and New York and Peru, pennies in Old Town and Chinatown, in the fountains and the streets. Pennies on lawns and in phone booths and next to stop signs. Pennies flattened along railroad tracks.

It would be like an oilspill of pennies.

We wouldn't cry. We'd all have good luck.