Money, Its a Crime

I've been walking around the house lately wondering what else I can unplug. The loft is already mostly unplugged- I've pulled the tv and dvd player and clock from one side of the room and my computer I'm starting to make a habit of having off and unplugged when the norm before was to have it chugging away constantly like at college. The excess lamps and the air filter have been retired for the moment and unplugged to avoid the loss of "phantom energy". One of the bulbs in the bathroom died and last night I started unscrewing every other one. Honestly there's like fifty in a row above the mirror, its a little ridiculous. I don't know how much it will help, but whatever. I shut off one of the livingroom lights that comes on with the switch and have been avoiding charging my cell phone at home. I actually walked around the house with one of the trillion useless baskets from the basement and started collecting candles. When you're a female you get alot of goddamn smelly candles and bodywash kits, and they're finally going to come in handy. I figure that every night after dinner I can place a candle in the kitchen and diningroom and we can completely avoid using the lights in there at all in the evening. We don't really do anything in there anyways after that time besides boil water and microwave shit. I haven't been too worried up until this point and then my mom started saying that she was finally getting worried and that's when the trouble really starts. When your fallback plan begins thinking about their fallback plan, you know there's a problem. At least my sister will get taken care of. She's still in good standing with my father, and he's a well-paid accountant. Not to mention, he could try to sell his large house and move into my grandma's old small house closer to his job. Or he could just sell that small house. Either way, he's got options and can finance my sister through college unless he decided to be a prick about it and that's always a possibility- he doesn't even put up halvsies for books for her and she just takes it. But whatever. It's only court-ordered. That's all.

These past two nights have been the only time its kept me awake, but its more because I'm brainstorming survival techniques. People only consider that they can be well-off or living in poverty, but I want to know that if it came down to it, I could live in nature for free. Violent Acres mentioned it in a post and its something I've thought about before and totally agree with her. I have a fishing pole and a filet knife and even tho it's gross, a river is right fucking there. I have a fireplace and a firepit and woods behind my house. I have a tent but I could also make a shelter if I had to and have a couple really good survival books with techniques and traps and edible plants etc, etc. I'm not exactly cut out for it, but I'm starting to get the feeling that I know more than most people. I was asking my friend Sarna how he thought he'd do and despite being well-built and visiting the gym on a regular basis I'm pretty sure he'd be dead in a month just for not knowing the least thing about trapping or gathering water when there's none handy. But I guess anyone could learn quick if they really wanted to. I gotta say tho, you get a step up with the knowledge. I used to feel like if that shit came, I'd be dead in a week. I still don't have the physique necessary, but I have the information, and that means something.

I've also been wondering if this is happening for a reason. Like, of course there are reasons, but I'm talking like a "cosmic" reaction to American consumerism. I'm not rich and I've bought some stupid shit. I was just about to buy a few skirts from Victoria's Secret a few weeks ago and then I scuffed my car in a minor accident and decided it would be positively stupid to spend my excess money-after-bills on skirts that I didn't need for a specific occasion. So far no one has made any claims, but I'm still glad I didn't blow $115. If I add up everything I need to pay off right now (the big things being the car and tuition loans) I've got about $22,000 to pay off. Which is, unfortunately, better than most people could say, or so it seems when I turn the radio on. Its really more worth it to put my money in savings "in case" and the get that load off my back quicker than it is to buy skirts and herbs and other random bullshit. When you think about it, why are you buying cookies? Or cigarettes? Or booze? Its like flushing your money. And you're flushing more than they cost because then you're fat and out of shape and probably have increasing medical bills. I can't lie, I did buy some wine when we went camping, but I'm a very lame person and haven't spent a whole lot on alcohol since my sophomore year of college. The biggest thing is just having your freedom. Being able to say that you don't want to be dicked around anymore (if you are getting dicked around) and having nothing to tie you down when you get sick of the bullshit. But back to my original point. All that shit we buy, its not that important. The clothes, the decor for your house, the brand-new "dream" kitchen, some stupid shade of eyeshadow where the damage is $30 more than it should be. Books from Barnes and Noble when you could buy them used for $7 with shipping included. What's wrong with us? Maybe we'll figure it out now.

In closing, I've been thinking alot about the Brazilian cleaning ladies and what they're going to do. They charge $65 a pop and we were having them once every two months or so, but I think we can clean our own house and I wonder if other people are going to start doing that too. Robert says there will still be rich people out there with dirty houses who this economy won't affect so much tho. If you're interested, he also said to have a five minute rule because switching your lights on and off takes just as much power, so make sure they're going to be off for at least five minutes so you know its worth it. That's my tangent for today. Maybe there'll be more to come later.