Goin' Out To Cally – Part 50, Money Matters

The drive out of San Francisco was not fun for anyone. Sunday and I were livid at Tim and Beth for their lack of consideration and they were mad at us for touching their things and sloppily packing their luggage. And we were all mad at each other for existing in the first place.

We all simmered and stewed and did our best to avoid interaction in the small cubic feet that was available inside the tiny blue Acura.

At this point, everyone was just ticked off and wanted to get home as quickly as possible. Our journey out to California offered us little surprises on the road because we had taken the time to get a trip ticket from AAA. It told us where there was road construction and bathrooms and restaurants and gas stations. However, instead of adding eight hours to our trip and traveling back to Los Angeles so that our trip ticket back home would be valid, we instead decided to just look at a map, pick the road that made a direct route east and hit the gas.

We scanned the map and found our path.

Now that Sunday had offered almost all of her money to Tim and Beth in San Francisco, we had to pool our resources in order to have enough for food on the way home. Sure, we could have asked Tim and Beth for some of her cash back, but that would require crossing the lines drawn in blood that separated us from them. Together, Sunday and I had just enough for one person to eat healthily for the next few days. That meant we would have to engage in an impromptu diet as we headed home.

It didn’t help that, at this point in my life, I had a weird obsession about not borrowing any money. It was a combination of trying to jump start my perception of adulthood and partially stemmed from being the last of eight kids. My older brothers consistently complained that I got everything I wanted from our parents. The reality is that I didn’t get everything I wanted, but it appeared that way to them.

I remember telling them that it wasn’t my fault if I asked for something and mom and dad said yes. I told them to take it up with our parents. They didn’t, of course, and instead took it up with me.

When I entered college I was completely unarmed when it came to financial management. No one really sat down and explained how finances and budgets worked and I’m sure if someone would have tried, I would have dismissed them anyway, as it was not something I really wanted to learn .

The end result was that I didn’t manage my money well when I got into college. I didn’t have a lot of money in the first place and to not manage it well on top of that only made things worse. To add fuel to the immaturity fire, I wouldn’t tell my parents I needed money or help until the sky was falling, putting them and the rest of my family into uncomfortable situations. I found out years later that my father, who believes our family, if we put our resources together, can accomplish anything, would call my older siblings and ask for assistance.

I so wanted to be an adult and realized that if I put myself in situations because of bad financial management, it was my problem and no one else’s. I hated borrowing money more than anything in the world. It was a sign of weakness and a sign of immaturity.

Add that viewpoint on money to the already volatile mix of personalities in the car meant that I would have rather doused myself in gasoline and walk through fire before I would ask Tim and Beth for any money. Sunday and I were determined to suffer whatever penalty we had to in order to finalize this trip on our terms.

It would make the rest of the deteriorating trip even more challenging than ever before.

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Part 50, (Text, Audio) - Part 49, (Text, Audio)
Part 48, (Text, Audio) - Part 47, (Text, Audio) - Part 46, (Text, Audio)
Part 45, (Text, Audio) - Part 44, (Text, Audio) - Part 43, (Text, Audio)
Part 42, (Text, Audio) - Part 41, (Text, Audio) Part 40, (Text, Audio)
Part 39, (Text, Audio) - Part 38, (Text, Audio) - Part 37, (Text, Audio)
Part 36, (Text, Audio) - Part 35, (Text, Audio) - Part 34, (Text, Audio)
Part 33, (Text, Audio) - Part 32, (Text, Audio) - Part 31, (Text, Audio)
Part 30, (Text, Audio) - Part 29, (Text, Audio) - Part 28, (Text, Audio)
Part 27, (Text, Audio) - Part 26, (Text, Audio) - Part 25, (Text, Audio)
Part 24, (Text, Audio) - Part 23, (Text, Audio) - Part 22, (Text, Audio)
Part 21, (Text, Audio) - Part 20, (Text, Audio) - Part 19, (Text, Audio)
Part 18, (Text, Audio) - Part 17, (Text, Audio) - Part 16, (Text, Audio)
Part 15, (Text, Audio) - Part 14, (Text, Audio) - Part 13, (Text, Audio)
Part 12 (Text, Audio) - Part 11 (Text, Audio) - Part 10 (Text, Audio)
Part 09, (Text, Audio) - Part 08, (Text, Audio) - Part 07 (Text, Audio)
Part 06 (Text, Audio) - Part 05 (Text, Audio) - Part 04 (Text, Audio)
Part 03 (Text, Audio) - Part 02 (Text, Audio) - Part 01 (Text, Audio)