Boyfriends

Mom: Where's Heather these days?
A.: Here...
Mom: She lives here?
A.: No, she lives in London. She's in town for the holidays. We have New Year's Eve plans...
Mom: Is she married?
A.: No.
Mom: Does she have a boyfriend?
A.: I believe so.
Mom: Oh, well as long as she has a boyfriend. What's she doing in London?
A.: Working...
Dad: Doing what?
A.: Fundraising.
Dad: What an odd thing to do as a profession.
A.: Is it? It's a really important profession to do well.
Dad: Who is she fundraising for?
A.: The Royal Ballet, I think.
Mom: Where are your New Year's Eve plans?
A.: At Jay's, I think.
Mom: I hope you don't expect me to pick you up from there?
A.: I'll ask if I can crash there.

After all, none of us want a repeat of last year's adventures in picking me up from Jay's on New Year's Day, as comic as it was. The urine had hit me over the head, according to mom, as some of you will recall.

Heather and Jay, I am not sure why mom is so concerned about your respective boyfriends. I think it's because she cares.

***
Dad's fundraising comment is curious because I used to work in fundraising--Development, we call it euphemistically so people don't think we're telemarketers. I say that glibly but it's a very important job and it takes a lot of skill and specialized knowledge. Heather and I worked in development together many years ago. We're both, separately, having dinner this week with our former boss from those days. Anyway--speaking of those days--my parents certainly didn't come close to acknowledging that fundraising was a career, and did everything in their power to show me the light as they saw it, i.e. that that job was a career dead end and that I was wasting my youth. They--well, mom--even had a friend leave me messages about how accepting that job would be tantamount to professional suicide. Don't listen to what they told you in the interview, mom said-- you will be telemarketing-- I know. That was over eight years ago, and they still don't see fundraising as a profession?