Okay, so I've got my usual Monday morning blahs, and it didn't help to log on first thing this morning to Claycord.com, and read about the murder/suicide in Concord. But I went out for a run as the sun was rising, the sky going from indigio to purple to pale blue, with clouds streaked with orange, yellow and pink. It's warmer out this morning than it has been in the past few weeks.
Anyway, how is everyone else doing? Speaking of the economy (which my co-workers and I, in our gallows humor way, refer to as GD2, or Great Depression 2): How is it affecting you?
Have you lost your job, your home, or are you afraid of losing either? Are things generally okay, but have you seen that 30 orf 40 percent drop in your retirement and kids' college savings? Do you have family or friends who have been seriously affected?
Are you worried? And, if so, how are you coping, emotionally? Drinking more, refusing to get out of bed? Or are you turning to more healthy solutions? Like taking up meditation, a new exercise regimin, diet?
How are you coping practically and financially? Have you changed the way you spend money? Or where you shop? No more Tiffany's and more Wal-Mart? Going to the library more instead of buying at Barnes and Noble?
Do you think all the worry about the economy and the nation's future is being overblown by the media? Do you prefer to just ignore it? Have you stopped logging onto news websites, or listening to radio, watching TV, or--gulp--reading newspapers, just to keep your mind free and clear from the constant drum beat of bad news?
What about the new presidency? Will a President Barack Obama make a difference?
Finally, if you could do anything else today besides go to work or school, or do whatever your regular Monday routine is, what would you do?
I'd go to the beach. I was listening to the news on the radio this morning, and the weather by the coast sounds it will be clear and pleasant. A walk on the beach on a bright, sunny January Monday. Doesn't that sound like heaven?
5 comments:
I never shopped at Tiffany's and probably never will. My health care costs are going way up. We were offered a cheaper program through work, but my husband has certain health care needs and a doctor he likes. So, the increasing health care costs, and our car breaking down... No spring vacation, and the summer vacation is up in the air. And not sure, what will do with our kids and their summer camps. My husband and I both work.
We're doing okay, but I have a couple friends who lost their contract jobs, and my husband had to lay someone off at his work.
I'm trying to get back into yoga, which I did when I was pregnant, and am reading books to learn about meditation. I think there is something important about trying to live "in the moment" and in the "present" rather than driving myself worrying about what COULD happen in the future.
I am a long-time contract employee with great benefits and flexibility and fair income. I am now officially working without a contract for a company that has lost 50% of it's employee and contract force in the last year. I know a contract would not be a guarantee, but it would show the expectation that I won't be next. My husband is a contractor and his business has been solidly in the crapper for 15 months.
I am worse of financially than I have been in so many years, I can't remember. I was going to say ever, but that would not be true. I do have money to eat and provide a roof and apparently pay for internet service.
Don't you just LOVE IT every time some newscaster talks about all these problems being caused by a lack of "consumer confidence" then they start talking about how terrible everything is. Is there any WONDER that the consumer confidence is low????? Jeeze!
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