Food Crisis, Oil Crisis, Credit Crisis & Unemployment

Would a bag of nickles or a bag of grain be more precious today?

The question of "crises" is arising in my thoughts. Being newly unemployed, I suppose I am joining thousands upon thousand - maybe millions - of other North Americans who wonder just how disruptive all these crises are going to be to their lives, personally.

Will the cost of bread, already almost doubled since last year at this time, really impact my family and I, now that I am less able to afford it than I was when I worked for the man? How far will the credit crisis reach? So far my family has escaped, never taking out those promised low-interest forever loans or stretching ourselves too thin. But will that matter? Will be be able to heat our home next winter? This year our oil bill doubled from $70.00 a month average to more than $140.00. How cold will we have to let it get? Gas prices, too, are gouging at us.

I have thought of alternatives and tried to imagine ways of coping that aren't too uncomfortable. And, of course, I am still looking for a job. But with incomes stagnant (according to Stats Can the average Canadian makes only $50.00 more per year now than in 1982) and prices for necessities climbing higher and higher, comfort may be secondary to mere survival.

I am lucky. I am not alone. I have a spouse with income. I wonder what single people, barely making it, are going to have to do? I have often said that "I do not fit here." I say that because I am not the type to want to sit behind a desk and claw my way up a corporate ladder. I do not crave the material rewards like so many do, and therefore lack the motivation it takes to give up the best part of my days - of my life - to work for an ethically bankrupt organization in exhange for a week off a year and the chance to own my very own gas guzzling land-yacht or giant television set. Perhaps, in this way, I am more prepared for this next phase of life than some are.

Freedom - the chance to go where you want, when you want and speak the truth without fear of punishment.
Love - the precious gift of strong attachment to others that motivates us to feel discomfort and endure hardship for the sake of someone or something other than oneself.
Money - something pursued out of necessity in order to be able to continue to work towards freedom and be healthy enough to experience love.

Photo credit to Jurema Oliveira, used with permission under GNU, found at wikimedia commons

Margarita Ice Cream and the Hobo in Me

I'm going to make Margarita Ice Cream. I saw it on Nigella's show and I want it. Love. Love Ice Cream almost as much as fresh flowers, which I simply cannot get enough of.

The hobo in me has decided that margarita ice cream might just be gourmet enough to sell to the local restaurants as an addition to their dessert menus. I've done something similar in the past - I had a brief and profitable foray into Gourmet instant Chai tea, made lovingly (by me) with imported black tea in powdered form, (that took some research) and packaged in handsewn, smashing-looking fabric bags. (also home made.)

It was fun, but it's over now. I ran out of the powdered tea and Mr. Darlington would not be convinced to sell me another small sample. :.) Besides, hobos are NOT wont to stick to any one thing for long. (Freedom and all that). Besides, the love of chai had diminished.

So now, along with my plans to run around town with a dumbed-down resume in hand, pounding the pavement as it were, I will also make a batch of this delicious sounding ice cream. I'll tell you how it tastes.

Props to ElinorD whose photo I am using, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Coming To Grips With Being Fired or: Um.. yeah.. I have bills to pay!

Today I was sitting in my backyard and finally it hit me. I am not bringing in any more money! The average reader probably wonders how it is that that variable in the equation remained uninvestigated by my thoughts for so long. But it did. And there I was, on my patio, crying.
BAH!
Enough of that. I made out a budget and we're going to be okay. We're back to the proverbial clipping coupons and the vacation we had been looking into will have to wait. It'll be fine.

I'm concentrating on making the most of what I do have. (time, freedom)
I'm going to do all the little things around my house that need doing to make it more beautiful.(and are free. Love.)
I'm going to apply for jobs in the hopes that someone will find me neither overqualified or underqualified.. and hopefully I'll succeed. (paycheque. money)
And of course, I'll be plotting business ideas and book ideas and generally being my old hobo self.

All of this, of course, while good for the soul, is horrid for the resume.

ahhh. this is one confusing, stomach churning ride, sometimes, isn't it?

Check this out, too, if you have time: It's a little something for everyone who thinks their boss is out to get them.
xo
Marlie

Workplace Harassment - The Bully At the Office

I was bullied out of a job.
There, I said it.
No easy thing to do, what with the whole image of the 98 pound weakling so firmly in everyone's heads. No one wants to be thought of as that flood-water wearing, greasy-haired stereotypical target in fact, it's probably easier to admit to being a bully than being one of the targets.

I opined for a week about my mistreatment, and I will now and forever be an advocate for policy and legislation specifically targeting workplace harassment - and insidious practice that is detrimental to everything we know to be good. Workplace bullies know little or nothing about freedom or love or money. However, my personal experience with it is in the past.
Over.
Finito.

Now, I am concetrated on three things and will refuse to do anything, anymore, unless it pays directly into one of these three banks:
Freedom.
Love.
or
Money.

Right now, I've got freedom from the daily grind. Fab! But.. that takes its toll on family (love) and the budget (money.) so I'm doing a bit of what I like to call hobo'in. And as my husband says,
"Hobo'in ain't easy."

Any writing jobs, any odd jobs, any babysitting, paper delivering or tree planting.. welp, I've gotta take them right now. But the minute anyone comes close to calling me a foul name again - well baby - I am not going to sit there and take it like before.

Hobo'in may not be easy, but it is Freedom. Love. Money.

Freedom Love Money

Freedom.
Love.
Money.

Do you really need anything else?

Welcome to Freedom Love Money where I write because I want to, and you read because you can.