Unexpected distraction
If you want to forget what ever it is that you might be worried about, be it your shitty job or an impending meltdown of your country's financial system, just come down with a stomach virus. Trust me, no other worry will permeate your misery while you are living in the bathroom. And if you're a woman and catch it at the right time of the month, then you can have bonus suffering! Monday was horrid, yesterday a bit better and this morning I'm going back to work even though my stomach is still making noises that sound like a creature from Star Trek.

Yesterday, after I was feeling a bit better, I attempted to make some sense out of this bailout of the financial markets by watching and reading the news. I didn't learn much. In fact, one expert I watched being quizzed on the situation answered every question with, "It's complicated." Oh yeah, that's a helpful explanation. As far as I can tell, this bailout is necessary because without it the credit markets dry up and if the credit markets dry up, things will come to a grinding halt because we are a nation of borrowers, not savers. Now I'm sure that's an oversimplification of an issue that's so complicated, but you can blame the lack of adequate information out there for any misunderstanding on my part.

I had plans to talk a bit about that whole concept of borrowing vs. saving and how pervasive it is, not just with corporations, but with the average American. Rob & I used to have savings, but that got wiped out after a series of layoffs for the both of us and we've never been able to build it back up. As for credit, we don't have any so it's strictly paycheck to paycheck for us right now and has been for years. And while I'd like to ponder on this a bit more, I have to take my smack-talking stomach to work now.