Reality check
Wow. I just.
Obviously I'm not completely oblivious to the state of the economy, but it just seemed so...far off. Kind of like the war in Iraq. I mean, you watch and hear those shows where families cut back on nights out, on groceries, and so on, until they lose their jobs and homes.
I never realized how close to home this was happening, because my family is still doing okay. Dad has his own business, and my mom has tenure so no one's going to get fired anytime soon. And we're going to be moving in a week or so, so financially we're not exactly hurting. Of course, we've never spent money flagrantly in the first place, so...
But yeah. A family that is friends with us lost their livelihood like a week ago. They used to have a Chinese restaurant, but they lost it. And they lost their house at the same time. So the last two days my family, and others, have been helping them to move their home and restaurant furniture so that they don't have to pay for a moving company.
It's stressful. Seriously. I just finished my own yardsale and then spent the following two days breaking my back moving heavy things and driving 100 miles plus. And I can't even complain about it because this family is so worse off. Suffice to say, "reality bites," just doesn't cover it.
It's emotionally taxing, too. It's not like we can shoulder all their financial problems (we've already helped them--in ways I won't mention here because it's, well...it can be kind of embarrassing, especially since they used to be quite wealthy...). But we'd be bad friends and bad people if we just watched them struggle, too. Gwah.
Life hands you lemons and you make lemonade, right? Well, this lemonade is especially sour. And I'm starting to hate lemonade.
So, uh, sorry to those who are waiting for me to join the rest of civilization. I realize I'm completely behind in fic writing and rping (which is really picking up). I just...it's hard, you know?