Am I spoiled?
Do You Have:
(X) your own cell phone
( ) a television in your bedroom
(X) an iPod (A Nomad, actually, but technicalities count)
(X) a photo printer
(X) your own phone line
(X) TiVo or a generic digital video recorder (I would not live without TiVo)
(X) high-speed internet access (i.e., not dialup)
( ) a surround sound system in bedroom
( ) DVD player in bedroom
(X) at least a hundred DVDs
(X) a childfree bathroom (well, we’ve only got one, but there’s no children in it, last I checked)
(X) your own in-house office
(X) a pool (technically, its the apartment complexes pool.)
( ) a guest house
( ) a game room
(X) a queen-size bed or larger
( ) a stocked bar
(X) a working dishwasher
(X) an icemaker
(X) a working washer
( ) more than 20 pairs of shoes
( ) at least ten things from a designer store
( ) expensive sunglasses
(X) framed original art (not lithographs or prints) (Not as much as I used to)
(X) Egyptian cotton sheets or towels
( ) a multi-speed bike
( ) a gym membership (I’ve just canceled it, so no)
( ) large exercise equipment at home
( ) your own set of golf clubs
( ) a pool table
(X) a tennis court (again, apartment living)
(X) local access to a lake, large pond, or the sea (we have a pond, and Lake Lanier is less than an hour’s drive)
( ) your own pair of skis
( ) enough camping gear for a weekend trip in an isolated area
( ) a boat
( ) a jet ski
( ) a neighborhood committee membership
( ) a beach house or a vacation house/cabin
( ) wealthy family members
(X) two or more family cars
(X) a walk-in closet or pantry (If only we had a walk-in kitchen…)
( ) a yard
( ) a hammock (gave that away, as we’d no where to put it)
( ) a personal trainer
( ) good credit (working on this)
( ) expensive jewelry
( ) a designer bag that required being on a waiting list to get…
( ) at least $100 cash in your possession right now (not on me)
(X) more than two credit cards bearing your name
( ) a stock portfolio
(X) a passport
( ) a horse
( ) a trust fund (either for you or created by you)
(X) private medical insurance (presuming this is as oppose to public medical insurance, ala medicare/medicaid)
( ) a college degree, and no outstanding student loans
Do you:
(X) shop for non-needed items for yourself (like clothes, jewelry, electronics) at least once a week
(X) do your regular grocery shopping at high-end or specialty stores
(X) pay someone else to clean your house, do dishes, or launder your clothes (not counting dry-cleaning)
(X) go on weekend mini-vacations
( ) send dinners back with every flaw
( ) wear perfume or cologne (not body spray)
( ) regularly get your hair styled or nails done in a salon
( ) have a job but don’t need the money OR
( ) stay at home with little financial sacrifice
( ) pay someone else to cook your meals
( ) pay someone else to watch your children or walk your dogs
( ) regularly pay someone else to drive you (taxis)
( ) expect a gift after you fight with your partner
Are you:
(X) an only child
( ) married/partnered to a wealthy person (went for brains and beauty instead)
( ) baffled/surprised when you don’t get your way
Have you:
( ) been on a cruise
(X) traveled out of the country [Canada hardly counts for Michiganders, but there it is)
(X) met a celebrity (I’ve met more celebrities than I can count, honestly)
( ) been to the Caribbean
(X) been to Europe
( ) been to Hawaii
(X) been to New York
( ) eaten at the space needle in Seattle
( ) been to the Mall of America
( ) been on the Eiffel tower in Paris
( ) been on the Statue of Liberty in New York
(X) moved more than three times because you wanted to
(X) dined with local political figures
( ) been to both the Atlantic coast and the Pacific coast (hoping to rectify this soon)
Did you:
(X) go to another country for your honeymoon
( ) hire a professional photographer for your wedding or party
( ) take riding or swimming lessons as a child
( ) attend private school (For one year, does that count?)
( ) have a Sweet 16 birthday party thrown for you
The list seems a bit young-adultish to me. I mean, my own phone, or indeed my own mobile? I’m in my 30s, this is normal stuff, I’d think. Then again, maybe I just don’t appreciate how plush my life is. (::counts his sweeties::) Nah, I know *just* how plush my life is. *grin*
stevieannie
It seemed a bit skewed to me, as well. A sign of being “spoiled” was that I lived near a pond. ???WTF??? The ducks come and give me backrubs? I don’t even *know* what a Sweet 16 birthday party is -- presumably it is different from a normal birthday by dint of the fact that it has a special title… And hiring a pro. photographer for your wedding is absolutely the norm here -- you’d be looked on very strangely if you didn’t…
the_gwenzilliad
It’s quite biased toward american young ‘uns, I think. Where I grew up, if you didn’t have a sweet Sixteen, you probably seren’t a realy girl. 😉
(And we didn’t have a photographer at all for our wedding)
sarekofvulcan
I think “local access to a pond” means that your property is physically connected, as opposed to short-walk-away.
kitanzi
And as for having your “own” phone line, once your an adult it would be odd if you weren’t paying for your own phone, I should think. I can’t see you being counted as more spoiled if you live by yourself than if you live with a spouse and/or family, so that technical difference on whether it’s “your” phone doesn’t make sense, even.
hrrunka
Yep, it has the feel of having come out of a US high school on an idle Friday afternoon… 😉
kitanzi
By my most generous interpretation, I only come up with 33. (I don’t think either of us actually shops for items like clothes, jewelry and electronics at least once a week. Windowshop, maybe…)Some of these are pretty silly to count as spoiled for adults living on their own -- the phone line particularly. And hey, I forgot our complex has a tennis court!
kitanzi
33 for me, I mean. We overlap a lot, but not quite identical -- I’m not an only child, and I’m told I went to Hawaii when I was too young to remember, for instance.
annonynous
It is quite an odd assortment of supposedly valuable experiences / perks, isn’t it? That being said --
“( ) a hammock”
No, even though we’re land owners and have trees (be still, my swinging stomach) but I’ve written a filk that mentions one. That doesn’t count, I’d guess.
“(X) go on weekend mini-vacations”
Does o/~ The fans are sleeping 9 by 9 ~\o in a con hotel room count? 🙂
“( ) been on a cruise”
This is probably also *not* what they mean, but --
Like space needles (see below), when we tourist at a World Con, we try to get out on any nearby accumulations of dihydrogen monoxide -- Maine, on our honeymoon (by sail from Boothbay Harbor out to the Atlantic -- be still, my swelling stomach), Baltimore (inner (paddle, paddle) and outer harbors), Toronto (Lake Ontario), New Orleans (The Mississippi), Chicago (Lake Michigan and the Chicago River), Winnipeg (the Red River), San Antonio (The Riverwalk), San Francisco (the Bay).
“(X) been to New York”
Yeah. I was *born* in New York (the city). Haven’t been back there since we moved my mother up here when her health failed. And don’t want to, even to go to the Statue of Liberty (which I’ven’t ever been to).
“( ) eaten at the space needle in Seattle”
Space needles are cool. We’ve been to Canada’s in Toronto (no meal) and to San Antonio’s (dinner, in a rotating space needle -- be still, my spinning stomach). Now if Seattle had won its World Con bid… 🙁
“(X) met a celebrity”
“( ) been to the Mall of America
“(X) dined with local political figures”
Like, why would I want to do any of these, dude? 🙂
Ann O.