A Recession? What?

Like I said in my previous post, I felt that my opinions on the current state of the economy needed to be voiced. I've read many news articles, seen many news broadcasts/ interviews, and watched many an episode of the Colbert Report. All of these sources tell me that Wall Street is in chaos and the stock markets continue to drop several points in one day. I really don't know how the system works, and I really don't know what it all means; however, I feel like we are making the problem worse by worrying. Many are even tossing around the word depression, which only frightens the stock brokers more, which in turn makes the DOW drop.

I know that it is bad; I'm not denying that. I'm not saying it's all in our head and if we only just believed, things would get better. But, I think that while it is bad, worrying about it is not going to do any good; it will just make us feel worse. I honestly believe it is (although it sounds extremely cliche) a sign of the times. I think that this recession/ mini-depression/ downward spiral (or whatever else you want to call it) was something that was bound to happen, and in many ways, needed to happen.

The way that the majority of our society was living needed to be called into question, and hopefully this turn in our economy was a wake-up call to those living way beyond their means. Excessiveness is not necessary and is harmful. No, you don't need that fourth house (or the second or third for that matter); no, you don't need that $500 purse/ pair of shoes (or any other accessory/piece of clothing ). While I feel sorry for those who have truly lost everything (jobs, house, savings), I do not feel sorry for those CEOs that have to "survive" in their mansion by selling their fifth car.

I guess I have mixed feelings about what has happened as a result of the downturn in our economy, but in a lot of ways I think it is good. It made people see that the way their life was going wasn't good for them in the long run, and that we can rise above this like we have before. I always think that looking on the bright side is always the best way to come out of these crises on top. What is the bright side? Well, yes the stock market is going down, but so are the gas prices! Just look at how much it it was a few days ago (it has gone down even more now-- $2.19).

Holiday Juxtaposition

I know that I seem to revisit this topic every year, but it's because it just seems so ridiculous to me. I don't know why I seem to be so passionate about this topic, I've tried to think about it, and I really can't come up with a good excuse. Are we really in that big of a hurry to get through the end of the year/ holidays? It's not even exciting any more because there's no time to get anxious because everything is all out already. It's almost tempting and taunting you because they put out all of this winter stuff, so you buy it out of excitment for the coming season. But you can't put it up because your house will look ridiculous because it's still autumn.

This year it seemed that this occurance of stores supplying holiday decorations months in advance seemed a great deal earlier than I remember it being. Now I know some stores have it all of the time. Like Hobby Lobby, for example, has had Christmas (along with Halloween, Fall, and Thanksgiving) stuff up since July. But I seem to ignore this because it's a craft store. I feel like they always have all their holiday stuff up all year cause people make holiday gifts way in advance.

Other stores, like Target for example, started putting up holiday stuff around September. I walked into Target towards the middle of September and this is what I saw:

While walking down the aisle, on one side is creepy skeletons and Halloween decor, and on the other is happy snowmen, reindeer, and Santas. I thought it was so humourous and ridiculous and absurd all at the same time that I had to take a picture with my cell phone. Don't you just love the juxtaposition of this:

with this:
So ridiculous... I'm sure it confuses many children. It is no fun anymore if it seems like all the holidays get all mushed together. They have to be distinct and separate. Now I'm not saying you can't sell Christmas stuff till the day after Thanksgiving, but can we at least have Halloween stuff out by itself for a while during October before we start pulling out all the Christmas stuff to sell? (Don't get me started on how alot of the fall/Thanksgiving decor was in the dollar section).

In other news, my first journal that I edited came in today, and my name is in print on the first page! I feel so famous and important. Not that lots of people read it, but it makes me feel special. Be on the look out for another post pretty soon because I feel like my opinions in regards to the economy/politics merits at least one post... perhaps two.