Groovymarlin.com

Here is my obligatory “Happy Holidays!” post. But I’m really sincere. I hope my readers (all three of you) have a wonderful holiday, and a new year that’s full of hope and possibilities. Make resolutions, if that’s what you do, but wait until next week to do it. This weekend, just enjoy yourself.

My own Christmas plans involve sitting on my ass a lot, eating what I feel like eating without counting any WW points, playing WoW every night and some afternoons, and bemoaning the fact that I have zero freelance hours for December (and therefore no check in January). Oh well, at least I have time off work until January 2. And my father is visiting us, which helps distract The Bean. Also, our weather is decent here – no blizzards, ice storms, or anything else terribly inconvenient.

Things I Hate About the Holiday Season:

• Those stupid news stories about how expensive all the gifts from “The 12 Days of Christmas” would be this year. Please, local media outlets, retire this dumb meme already.
• Christmas music, decorations, and other stuff in stores BEFORE FUCKING HALLOWEEN.
• Endless local speculation about the possibility of a white Christmas. Look, Virginians: it doesn’t happen here. Get over it.
• Cheap, nasty wrapping paper that tears when you try to cut it. Pretty wrapping paper that I bought at JoAnn Fabrics, thinking it was slightly better than what I could get at the Dollar Store, I’m looking at you!
• Christmas cards. Endless chore, yet I still put myself through it every year.

Things I Love About the Holiday Season:

• Nostalgia.
• “A Christmas Story.” Closely tied to previous item, since I grew up in Cleveland, where much of it was filmed. Higbee’s downtown really WAS that awesome and amazing.
• Food! Christmas cookies! Extra-aged Gouda! Pate! Ham/turkey/standing rib roast! Bourbon!
• Finding the perfect gift for everyone on my list. Seeing The Bean open her presents. Balling up and throwing away all the wrapping paper afterwards.
• Time off work.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

…don’t hang your shit on me.

Recession. The last one I remember most vividly happened in the early 90s, just after I graduated from college (I know we’ve had at least one more since then, and before the current crisis). I had a job as an administrative assistant at the headquarters of a national recruiting firm (i.e., headhunters) in Cleveland. I had to work for two executives, and my duties went well beyond secretarial: I copy edited three monthly company magazines, prepared all the training materials for new franchise owners, then learned the new computerized system myself and taught it to others in a class every month. When the training director’s assistant left, we didn’t replace him because we were in a “hiring freeze,” and I had to take over all of his duties as well. Naturally, as a female just out of college, already stuck in the pigeonhole of “administrative” work, I received no promotion, no change in title, and no raise to reflect or reward these changes in my duties. When I’d been there a year, we were in a “wage freeze” and I didn’t even get a cost-of-living increase. I wasn’t even invited to the dinner that was held at the end of every training class, a class I slaved over for 10-12 hours a day for two weeks every month.

It sucked.

Obviously, I wasn’t getting a lot of credit for my work, even though my performance reviews were outstanding and the feedback from every franchise owner who came to take the training inevitably mentioned how helpful, knowledgeable, and indispensable I’d been. I did feel like I was stereotyped into a “secretarial” ghetto, even though we called ourselves “administrative assistants.” But maybe things would have been better if we weren’t in a recession – without the hiring freeze, ironically I may not have had as many opportunities. On the other hand, without the wage freeze, maybe I’d have received a living wage (as it was, I only made it because I was living with my parents and driving one of their cars).

So what I’m getting around to here is that was the first time I really felt what a recession was like, what it meant, and how the overall economy affected me personally. I’ve weathered economic downturns since then and done reasonably well. I’ve made more money every year, grown into a career that I like and am pretty good at, and invested wisely enough to be able to own a nice home with my husband.

But this time, I’m scared.

Yes, we both have jobs, and they’re in the federal contracting space, which is pretty secure even when unemployment is rising all over. I don’t think either of us is in any imminent danger, but I still worry a lot. Because if one of us lost a job, it wouldn’t take long for us to start having to make some very tough decisions in service of continuing to pay our expensive mortgage. We have little in the way of savings. We have some retirement savings, but had to dip into that a bit the last time my husband was unemployed, after being laid off from AOL. Plus, my IRA has lost a painful amount of value thanks to this crappy economy, so there’s not a lot left there to dip into anyway.

What I feel, is like we’re teetering on the edge. If something hits us too hard from one side or another, we’re going to go over. And that is what terrifies me. I read this editorial cartoon today, and felt so, so sad. I feel kind of ashamed of myself, contemplating having to give up manicures or maid service or whatever, when so many people are doing so much worse than us. I feel like I should feel very lucky, and I do, but I feel frightened all the same. I think this is what they mean when they say “consumer confidence is down.”

My confidence is sure down.

I love Hooverphonic, and the album that this song appears on, Blue Wonder Power Milk, is so awesome. I’m still listening to it regularly, 10 years after it was released.

I was going to see Hooverphonic live once, when I lived in Columbus. The show was cancelled at the last minute because Alex Callier was sick, and I’ve wanted to see them live ever since, but never got a chance.

I was browsing through my Gmail spam folder today, and found the subject lines of some of the spams so amusing, I wanted to post them here. But first…YAY for the new WordPress! Version 2.7 is really nice, especially the new dashboard.

Now on with the spam…have you received any of these? I bet you have! (When I have comments, they are italicized in parentheses.

• Manhood can get larger after 20
• Get nominated for MBA (wow, I didn’t realize an MBA was like an Oscar!)
• Get your pecker boosted
• Power to Hercules who have taken herbal supplements to get his godlike strength
• Get incredible sizing profit in pants
• Sceptical? But this miracle is free (their misspelling, not mine)
• Take your time with Cialis!
• Grow into real love giant
• Explode her mind with pleasure (yes, please)

I think my favorite is the Hercules one. At least it’s unique!