Monday, February 23, 2009

This Damn Economy

Given the financial climate, I guess we’re all hoping for a big win these days. Sooz spent the weekend wishing for an Oscars trip while I’ve faithfully logged on to enter the HGTV Dream Home Sweepstakes each day for the past month. I use it to cure insomnia, calming my mind before bed by picturing the dream home, thinking about how each spring we’ll head out to Sonoma to enjoy it, tour the wine country, and throw amazing dinner parties on the back patio where guests will perch on designer pillows made of bamboo fabric.

Then last week I panicked. What if I really win? I can’t afford those taxes! And how much would it cost to heat and cool the monstrosity? We could never sell it in this market!

The only prize I’m winning is for most paranoid person. It’s the uncertainty of it all that gets to me. Experts throw out “roller-coaster” and “unpredictable” and “I’ve never seen this before in my life.” So how I am supposed to know what to do? Even my husband, the absolute calm in all my storms, feels queasy.

Last weekend I handed over $8 and saw Confessions of a Shopaholic. (I felt ashamed that I had the $8 to spend but justified it since it was the matinee.) The message of the movie is that you don’t need things to be happy. And that’s true, but man did that actress have some nice things! I left the theater and went straight to the mall. More shame. More guilt. After all, people are losing their jobs, their homes, their retirement packages. I’m at Dillards gleefully sorting through the dresses.

According to my friends, I shouldn’t feel guilty about shopping since I am stimulating the economy. This may be true, but I hunkered down this weekend and didn’t spend a dime. Today, however, I’m back. After a multi-year struggle, a dear friend of mine just had her first baby and I plan on sending the first gift that strikes my fancy, whatever the cost. Her shiniest day has come despite these very gray times and I’m going to celebrate. In this damn economy, joy remains recession-proof.

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