Several Things On My Mind

1. The economy. I'm not going to pretend to understand it. I dare say we are in a better place than a lot of people, simply because we don't have one of those mortgages and Matt does have a job. I made the mistake of looking at my 401k the other day (I was curious) and I've lost 25% of it. Not that it was some monstrous amount in the first place, but it made me sad. I signed up for the "aggressive" plan and that makes my little egg more sensitive to the volatility of the market, so when the market goes ker-plunk, my little bit feels it more acutely than if I'd been more moderate in my investments. Sigh. But not the end of the world.

2. I'm cold. Why? It's about 60 outside and while most people would run outside and play in it, my fingers are frigid enough to give me trouble typing. I guess growing up in Phoenix conditions your body to shrivel up when it dips below 80. Luckily I have my trusty, 1960s-era space heater I got from Mr. Dozier several years ago. If it doesn't set the carpet on fire, I'll stay toasty warm in my little home office. Actually, if it sets the carpet on fire, I'll still be toasty warm, but I doubt the apartment complex would appreciate that.

3. My little home office. I'm rather proud of it these days. I like it. Happy, happy.

4. ADD. I read an article in Real Simple (yes, I sat still that long) on multitasking. Turns out humans are actually built to multitask, women more so than men. For some reason, we feel the need to over-do it, causing us to feel scatterbrained and underproductive, although we're doing so very much all at once. Yesterday I actually focused on one project for about 4 hours. 4 hours! Yay me! I used one of the suggestions in the article: envision how you'll feel once that thing you can't seem to focus on is done. Well, it's nearly done and that, my friends, feels good.

5. On that note, something that helps me focus is TV. I'm all about hulu these days, as they have every episode of Bewitched ever filmed. I'm on Season 1, Episode 12 and the difference in the culture back then and the culture now is amusing.

6. Having Netflix's Watch Instantly and Hulu at my disposal has made the idea of paying for any kind of filmed entertainment unthinkable in my world. Although I do pay for Netflix. A big, whopping $9/mo. That's less than cable and they have all kinds of stuff. Happy, happy.

7. Politics. [venting] Why such disdain when someone disagrees with you? I just got a note from someone I haven't talked to in YEARS regarding my Facebook affiliation with a certain candidate. She wants an explanation, and she's talking to me like I'm a stupid child with no sense. Most people I talk to know what they think and why. Great! This election has garnered more attention than most elections in the past. America cares! That's great! People are researching and looking at things and making informed decisions! Great! They're watching the debates! Awesome! So why a.) get so offended when someone thinks differently, b.) feel the right or the need to "correct" them and c.) avoid talking about it? I'll tell you what I think, you can tell me what you think (I listened to a self-proclaimed anarchist tell me his anti-government theories yesterday), and the beauty of it all is we can all do and think and say whatever we want. Isn't it great? Please don't ruin it by talking down to me because I'm different than you. I'm voting - you go vote too. Welcome to America. [/venting]

8. Blogging is a fantastic way of avoiding work. Ugh. Bye.

- LU