Grasshoppers In Winter

Dervala writes great stuff about the fact that this economy still stinks. See her May 6, 2002 blog entry called "Freedom's just another word for everything to gain." Check this out.

Don’t believe anyone who tells you the recession is over. In New York, we are grasshoppers in winter. I have smart, talented friends who haven’t worked in months, who are surviving on whatever they stashed away in the foolish years. Rents are down, but they don’t have broker fees to move. Vindigo got 700 résumés last week from a single advert, and the people I meet at (rare) industry events have a desperate look as they press ‘Consultant’ business cards on one another. It’s a crazy time to look for a job, unless you have to.

And I love what she writes about all the money wasted on fancy meals and general goofing around we did in "the foolish years," as she calls it. Reading her credit card bills is no fun, she confesses. Same with me. I think we all did this. Remind me why paying $25.00 for two endive leaves and a microscopic piece of seared tuna on a tiny plate would make sense on any planet in the universe? Been there. Done that.

My credit card bills from the last few years make depressing reading now—I feel like a twit for spending thousands of restaurant dollars maintaining 120lbs of human meat.

I feel even dumber for spending my twenties in an office. Saturdays, late nights—I was expert at face time. Did I produce more that way? Absolutely not. Any parent dying to get back to a four-month old would churn out more work in six hours than I did in 12.

Deeper into her blog, she writes about skydiving. Brave girl. Made me nauseous to read it.