I work too hard for my money

At a Christmas party we were talking to some people we only see now at Christmas parties, and the wife was talking about a recent trip of theirs.  They always enjoyed traveling, and to make their trip to the Grand Canyon easier, they decided to take a bus to the Canyon.   They really enjoyed the experience, pretty much on all accounts.

A little while later we got on the subject of going to a casino, which is something I really like to do.  I rarely overspend, but I do so enjoy video poker.   When I was a kid way back in the 1960s, someone gave my mother a plastic, battery-operated hand-held video poker game, and at that time in my life - - long before the Internet and instant access to all kinds of electronic games - - any game that was both hand-held and battery operated was so cool.  So for ages and ages, I have enjoyed the game of video poker. Don't even have to be gambling, just playing the game is fun. Now I also enjoy playing some slots some time.

Anyway, at the Christmas party, after explaining what I do for fun, the wife of the Canyon couple said, "I work too hard for my money to waste it gambling in a casino."

Oh how I love to hear those words!  So I replied, "You know what I work too hard for my money to do?  I work too hard for my money to ever want to spend it riding a bus with 40 or 50 people I don't know, for hours and hours, across a dessert to go out and look at a hole in the ground."

The world's a big big place with plenty of things to do.  Unless what you like to do is rob banks - - especially if my money that I worked so hard to get is stashed there - - or shoot people for no reason except that it is fun, then there is no reason what you do for fun is better or more noble or smarter or whatever than what I do for fun.  This person could have simply said, "I have tried casinos a couple times, but I really don't like it," or something similarly nondescript rather than take the demeaning attitude that "What I do for fun is good and noble and enriching, and what you do for fun is stupid."

I don't think we have crossed paths since that encounter. If she did want to cross paths, she would easily know where to find me. As for me, I still try to avoid large holes in the ground.....they are just not my thing!