royal purple, baggy jeans

I heard once that you should not love your job. The reason why did not follow the warning. Maybe it's because you should not love material, carnal things? Or maybe because you can lose it? Or maybe because it can be taken from you? I dunno. Why you should not love your job wasn't explained.

So, I don't love my job. I like it an awful lot, though. An awful lot. I'm one of the few I know who actually looks forward to Monday morning. What I do for a living leaves me with a feeling of great satisfaction.

There's a good thing about where I work: there's a lot of young people there.

There's also a sometimes hella frustrating thing about where I work: I work w/ a lot of young people.

It was maybe 3 yrs ago when someone, just back from Mardi Gras, came to work with a necklace of big ol' bangly, royal purple beads. They were mine, if I wanted them. Of course I did and put them on! I wore them with pride for the next two days, too.

Not long after I first put them on, one of the aforementioned young people, seeing what he had seen, came up, laughing. Poking fun. To his point of view, I was a sissy. Or worse. What on earth would compel a "real" man to sport such jewelry? I laughed along with him, looking at me from his point of view. But I did not remove the royally, purply, bangly, beads. They fit me just fine.

As he began to leave, I wondered if he might amuse me:

"Say, Alexander (not his real name), answer me something. What can you tell me anything about the history of the color of these bangly beads? And can you tell me anything about the origin of how you wear your jeans?"

See, the young man wears his jeans so low--more than half off his butt--that he not only has to walk as if he is cursed with a physical deformity, but he has to yank 'em up every third step he takes less they fall completely to the floor. Of course, there's nothing wrong with wearing your jeans that way if that's how you want to spend your day, I'm just sayin'. I may not be a "real man," but at least my jeans fit!

I digress...

The 19yr-old had no answer then, and has never returned with one.

Royal purple. Baggy jeans.