I did a set of benches before going in since they had a pool. Right then.
These people are rich. Not 'they make a few hundred grand a year' rich, but really rich. Like house with great view, boat, a bunch of bedrooms, maids, the whole deal. They made their own money though so it's not like they were always that rich. They started a business, it did great, sold it for millions. Now they're constantly working on other stuff to bring to the market. but i digress.
While there, i had a little moment of clarity. I'm looking around their big ass house and looking at their TV. It's a fairly standard flat TV LCD deal that's a few years old. In contrast, everyone of my friends that its in deep fucking debt has a better TV then these guys do. However, unlike me or my friends, these guys couldn't give two shits about impressing someone by having a 70" LCD that comes out of the floor because they, you and your 2nd cousin know that money they do have.
Even their cars are not what you'd expect. They don't have a driver and are not pushing a ride that comes anywhere near a tiny percentage of what they're worth. You can chuck it down to them not being into fancy cars, but mostly to seeing it as a waste of money.
I was looking at Best Buy online and seeing all these TVs that are newer in model from mine, thinking i should find an excuse to replace it. And then i realized that i'm just falling to the same bullshit trap of consumerism - thinking that something else is somehow better than what i have. It's a stupid game and though i'm not as much of a victim as others, i'm still playing it a little.
Why the fuck should i care what people think of my car (GS Lexus, btw), or my TV or my kicks? But strangely, at some level, I do enjoy the kind of acknowledgment that i get from others from it.
I'll end this here because i'm afraid i'm hitting the TL;DR threshold of internets...