Recession Monday

This afternoon on my weekly walk to the bank (southward on the main street) and post office (northward) I saw a chalk sign in front of the Jo Shmo's that said "Recession Monday - $1 burgers."

It's a recession, alright. It's strange to have exited college just now. L sent me this a while back, and I really loved it. I felt like I could identify, in more ways than one, with its author (which is why I started following that blog).

I left a note on the blog, actually.. it's pretty recognizably me, down at the bottom.

Monetarily speaking, I am pretty broke. I am certainly not making bank on my enterprise of substitute teaching and occasionally tutoring Latin. But, I'm also handling more money than I've ever handled in my life. I walked past that $1 burger sign to the bank where I dropped off my check for two weeks of substitute teaching, a respectable sum, to me at least. People with real lives and families would probably balk at living on my income.

The recession isn't as big a deal to me because I've always been poor.. I've always trained myself to go without. Not because our family was bad off; we were fine. But I personally have never made so much money. (I don't count the grants that went toward my exorbitantly priced education.. I think, theoretically, I made like 40,000 in a year, but I never saw it.. it was all imaginary. I got a basically free frickin-awesome education instead)

I do feel the crunch in little ways. I was supposed to start teaching GRE prep classes for Kaplan back in the beginning of February. They canceled a bunch of sections though; I'll be doing it in April, now. I heard that they tightened down at the restaurant, too, where I used to work. But being a sub is both as precarious and as solid as it ever was. Teachers still get sick, and still have appointments, and still have field trips and mandatory testing. But I will only ever get paid for the days I go in.. and spans of time like spring break leave me out of work, SOL if I happen to need that money.

I'm pretty responsible, and do not feel the need to spend copious amounts of money on things like beer and cigarettes, thankfully. I treat myself on occasion (to the beer, not the cigarettes), but keep one tight fist around my wallet. Apparently, everyone does that these days.. but it's nothing new to me!

And I know this blog can be a bit on the hokey side, at times. But I honestly feel like I'm wealthy in the ways that really matter.

Gotta go.. dinner's ready.