The year of being MAD!

Aren't we PISSED OFF!!!.....at Something? Oh yeah, let it rip, we are angry. This is the year of being MAD! We are so mad at a lot of stuff in 2009. Mad at work... Mad about Pay freezes, or worse, the sense we are not going to make as much as we did before...or worse Mad because we lost our Job. Mad because we cant FIND a job. Mad because we cant get the money for school. Mad because our homes are worth a lot less (remember bragging about all the equity we had?) and no one wants to buy them. Mad because we cant pay the rent....cant pay our bills. Mad about the Stock Market collapse. Mad because (for some) our taxes are going to go UP AND deductions are going away. Mad because now retirement just got put off until like... never. Mad because our 401K now looks like a .4b. Mad because we cant do all the things we did a few years ago, like buy a latte. We are mad because we cant SPLURGE like we used to. Like a little kid on a big giant financial TIME OUT.... this sucks wind! Put into to the corner and shut down from our crazy spending sprees. WTF I thought that card was good!? Ok, so maybe it was Nuts to buy a new car EVERY year. Or a HOUSE every 2 or 3 years ( Think about that one) Buying Stuff...Shopping Nordstoms/Barneys/Tiffanys/Prada - Living La Vida Loca! ....That's what the weekends were for... Ugh! That impulse weekend trip to Vegas just ain't in the cards. The annual girls week trip... the week with the Guys ...cancelled. The family trip to Europe...Ugh, no. Even the trip to Grandma's house was a little "lite" at Christmas time. Family Reunion? Sorry, cant make it. Everything is being scaled back. So quietly, we are boiling inside. Steaming about this F***ing economy and waiting to explode about something or on somebody, with the realization this is way more than a recession. Worse, this thing ain't going away anytime soon. So we are mad at anything and everything. The person driving slow in the right hand lane. The CIO who just walked away with 300 Mill... A-Rod... The Octomom.... The Bachelor... we are even pissed off at the weather. Normally, we can tolerate a little snow, a little rain, but this year, the weather seems worse (and maybe it is) and it does because we don't feel good about everything else. We just want to sleep this off and call it a bad dream.

So. What now?, besides playing the lottery. (Oh come on, don't tell me you haven't bought a lottery ticket, a LOT of lottery tickets). My Dad says this is recession is a "good" thing..a time for cleaning house. Look, America (and it seems the World) got too carried away, as we have done many times over the years (late 1800's and of course the roaring 20's and the ga ga 80's). Caught up in a orgy of materialism and money worshiping. The Party was even BETTER than Prince said it would be in 1999, and we went BIG!... Sometimes, I feel like after those Towers came down, people said "Better get my living in, like TODAY!" and we all went a little crazy. We were all like George and Weezy on the Jeffersons, and baby, we were "Movin on UP!!! and UP and UP....and UP!!! In the end, the bills had to be paid, and boy the bill was a Whopper!!! There is not enough Tylenol in the World to cure this financial hangover.

BUT!.....I'm Optimistic for the future, and believe we are on the brink of a new age. A lot of amazing things are in store, and the opportunities will be many. The last thing we need is a downer attitude ( as easy as that is to have right now). Yep, we took a big hit, big as we have ever taken in our lifetime, but come on... we have to get off the mat, dust ourselves off, roll up our sleeves and get with the program!!! Being Mad isn't going to help anyone. If anything, be Glad. Be Glad you're alive! Be Glad for your friends. COUNT your blessings. Be Glad for your family. Be Glad for today. Be Glad for what CAN BE. Collectively we can have positive mojo, and the faster we will get out of this thing. Really. Be Glad! Spring is around the corner, and better times are ahead. ...and hey, lets enjoy these prices. Stuff may never be this cheap again