The Bracelet of Hate

We went to Legoland a few weeks ago.  Maggie's a little old but Sally's the perfect age and we were in San Diego for the weekend so we thought it would be a good way to spend a Saturday.  The night before I went down to the hotel concierge to buy tickets and they said they sold 'move to the front of the line' bracelets.  They only sold 75 of these a day and all you had to do was flash it and you could instantly get on the ride.  Now, I know how to spend money.  A penny pincher I'm not.  But even to me, the cost of these magic bracelets seemed crazy.  But so did standing in line for 45 minutes on a hot summer day.  I hemmed and hawed for a few seconds, made a few thousand rationalizations in my head, decided that the elitist message I would be teaching my kids could be counteracted somehow ... okay fine I bought them, whatever.  We get to the park and split up. I take Sally and Tony takes Maggie to ride the roller coasters, we agree to meet for lunch.  Well ... Sally and I float through the park like a couple of movie stars.We flash our magic bracelets and gain access to the wonders of the helicopter rides, the jousting, the driving school, you name it we did it, sometimes twice, cause you know, why not, there's no wait.  And yes, I did feel a little bit like a jerk as I breezed on past the sweating, waiting families, but I'd just smile and say excuse me,  I was the idiot after all, at least they'd be able to pay their mortgage that month.  Anyway, Sally and I floated to  lunch on our cloud of entitlement and what we met up with was the miserable faces of Tony and Maggie.  Yeah they rode the roller coasters as often as they liked, but the fun was ruined by the hateful glares they got from the 'regular people'.  Maggie dubbed the armband the Bracelet of Hate and an important lesson about elitism was learned that day.  Sally and I are elitists and Maggie and Tony are just plain folks.  They can visit our castle any time they'd like ...  Here's a picture taken on the first and only ride the four of us went on together, the boat ride down the fairy tale river.