Poster Child for Bad Choices

I work two jobs. Most days, I am at A Cut Above Costumes, working as seamstress and co-designer for Ramona Haass. However, before I started with her, a couple of years ago, I worked as many hours as I could get at Thundercloud, a local chain of sub shops.

I much prefer the costuming job, but Ramona doesn't have enough work to keep me around full-time, so I still keep up with sandwiches. I may have a paid-for house, but there are still taxes and utilities to pay. I enjoy working at Thundercloud, usually.

I wound up with the job at Ramona's because her daughter, Chelsea, was in a play with me in Georgetown about 10 years ago. I costumed the show, as well as acted in it, and Ramona, herself a theater teacher and costumer, was impressed with my attention to the details of the costumes. She could tell that I loved doing that. She told me then that she hoped to open a costume shop someday, and would like to hire me to come and work for her.

Dearly Beloved, it's the most satisfying job I've ever had.

I went to University, after graduating second in my high school class (before you congratulate me, that class had 42 students). Trouble was, I had no idea of why I was there. I had no idea of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. My main ambition, the thing that kept me going through high school, was to get out of the little town in which I had lived for the past five years. Get out, get to a big city, find some people who thought like I did, and with whom I could be myself. A laudable ambition, no doubt, but not one designed to pay the rent.

I dropped out of college, and allowed life to pull and push me around for years, through a couple of marriages, and a move halfway across the continent, "in and out of weeks," until I found something I loved to do: theater. I was 34 then, and loved acting. I still love acting, but there is no money to be made there. The second show I worked on at Sam Bass was as a costumer. Here, I could combine my interest in sewing, design, fabric, texture, history and expressing character through clothing. I had found my niche, but there was no money there, either. At the time, I was a stay-at-home mom, but that didn't last much longer. I had to support myself and my kids, so I took any work I could get, from cleaning houses to food service, retail sales, factory work, child care, sewing; anything honest that I could do to put food on the table, I did.

I had always thought Thundercloud would be a fun place to work, from way back in the day when the first one opened in Austin in 1975. I've been at the one in Round Rock for three years now, off and on.

Someday, I may be at Ramona's full time. Until that time comes, I shall keep my job at Thundercloud.

Here's the rub. Today, Brendan's theater teacher came in for lunch with three of her students, Jordan Baker, Eric Isenhower, and Hope Runde.

Not one of those kids even looked at me, let alone said "hi."

Yesterday evening, I was hugging them after their show, and telling them honestly, and from my heart, that I thought they did a terrific job. Today, they can't even look at me?

I am very, very hurt.

Are they embarrassed that their classmate's mother works at a sandwich shop? I had thought they were Brendan's friends, but I guess they are not. I would never have treated my friend's mother that way. I hope Brendan would not treat anyone that way.

Three kids from Round Rock High School's theater program have dropped considerably in my estimation.

Just remember this, every one of us is about three paychecks away from being homeless, and one catastrophic illness away from being destitute.

If you know what you are going to do with your life, more power to you. If you don't, pick something at random and get yourself an education in whatever it is. That way, you can support yourself until you figure it out. That way, you might not be working in a sandwich shop when other people are thinking of retirement.

And don't look down your noses at people who made some poor choices at your age.