Monthly Archives: October 2014

Now that I work from home it often takes a conscious effort to go outside. I’m very much a hermit and so the most sunshine I get is through the windows of my home office. The only time I tend to go outside is when I’m heading over to my parents’ house for our weekly dinners. On one such occasion I discovered, after groaning at the brightness of the outdoors, that the season was changing. I could feel the slightest shift in the air and I could sense the crispness that the season brings. I always look forward to the Fall. I have no need to worry about the pollen-filled Spring. The Fall has always been my favorite season. There’s something romantic about the Fall. Additionally, it is the time of year that is most about family and heritage.

I’m not sure how it happened, really. I moved back to the US at an age where I remember learning about Christopher Columbus “discovering” the United States. Like so many others, I was taught, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” I also remember being taught about what happened to the indigenous people of this land, the Native American Indians. I remember quite distinctly 8th grade history class being all about the plight of these people. However, it wasn’t until I watched a recent episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver that it hit me like a ton of bricks. We were celebrating the person who brought about the decline of the American Indians. His accidental “discovery” and the subsequent colonization of the New World eradicated races, much of it in the name of religion and national pride. Read the rest of this entry »

Like a boa constrictor slowly wrapping itself around my neck, I have become enveloped by the thing that so many of us have accepted as our life-long companion, personal debt. In the wake of recent personal loss, the added stresses of consumer debt can truly be a further bane in one’s existence. Why is it so easy to throw caution to the wind, to put off until tomorrow what we should be dealing with today? And how can you stop beating yourself up over these mistakes?

I knew when I changed jobs that this was going to happen. I tried to put a more positive spin on it, the less money I had, the less that I had to keep up with. However, as we all often do, a change in income doesn’t always equal a change in our spending habits. We somehow convince ourselves that things will be just fine, that we don’t have to change the way we live or the things we purchase. And they are all just things, right? I know exactly where all of my money goes. I’m very meticulous in budgeting and ensuring that bills are paid. But I have fallen into the trap that so many of us do, I’m an emotional spender. When things get hard a bit of retail therapy or dining out is what gets me through a few moments of despair. Read the rest of this entry »