Scary Times

Is it just me, or does everyone need a vacation from life right now? (Need a vacation, but can't afford it...) Things feel uneasy and uncertain, and there is a generalized feeling of anxiety in everyone. The war, the "housing bubble", natural disasters here and abroad, record-high gas prices...It's as if the world as we knew it is gone. Even my "Bush Bucks" (Economic Stimulus Check, as renamed by my Sister) didn't make me feel happy...there are so many places I could send it that it just causes me internal conflict. Do I send the kids to summer camp? Do I pay off a bill? Do I save it? Do I cash it into gold coins and put it in a sock for when the whole market collapses? Someone suggested to have it changed into Euros.

I remember happy things like meeting a loved one at the Airport Gate, and looking at your 401K statement without feeling a little ill. I remember when 10 dollars would buy half of a tank of gas. Sigh.. I remember being able to afford a house-cleaning service, but that was before milk went over 5 bucks a gallon. I never clipped coupons before, but I do now. I am finding myself needing to re-consider every purchase. I suppose this will make me a better, more fiscally-responsible person of high moral character, once it's all over.

I can sort of picture myself an old woman, muttering to myself about spoiled-rotten kids, knitting, unraveling and re-knitting the same wool into reusable grocery sacks, because that's how we had to do it in the Great Not-Technically-A-Recession-But-Very-Much-Like-A-Recession of 2008.