Doom and Gloom

For a couple of weeks, I have had this sense of foreboding...like those low rainclouds we've had lately. It comes and goes. Essentially, I still feel it, but it disappears when I am busy doing something creative or spending time with H or friends. My menagerie has the ability to keep me light-hearted. They are always doing something funny or endearing (and, sometimes something downright disgusting). But the cats and dog are not always with me to keep me up.

I think the feeling of doom comes from a combination of things. POLITICS: this Primary process has gone on way too long. Next time, it should not start so early. The in-fighting among the democrats is depressing. THE WAR: My friend's son just went back to Iraq for his second tour...his first tour lasted four years. He's a great kid and I worry about him. GAS PRICES: for whatever reason the prices are skyrocketing, I hate to see people lose their businesses and jobs (and it's always the smaller businesses that get the worst end of the stick). Sadly, prices will continue to escalate. ECONOMICS: between the sub-prime mortgage fiasco and the greed of credit card companies, I think we have not begun to see the damage. There are so many more people who will be going bankrupt before all is said and done. Not everyone can tell a credit card company to take a hike when they pull another outrageous fee out of their hat. I felt extremely self-righteous when I told one credit card company to close my account and get lost after they raised my interest rate to 15.9%. When asked why, they told me it had nothing to do with my credit rating (which, I'm glad to say, is excellent). It was just a business decision affecting almost all of their customers. When they refused to lower it again, I told them what they could do with that credit card. I love my shredder. But not everyone can do that. More people SHOULD do that, but they don't. GLOBAL WARMING: Too depressing to talk about. I try to do my tiny little part by not driving too much (and luckily I live very close to where I work), by recycling everything I can possibly recycle. It's just too sad and gloomy. FRIENDS: my friend, Lea, just spent the night in the hospital last night when she experienced pressure in her chest. They kept her for observation. But as of today the good news is that it did not appear to be cardiac related. Personally, I think she is under a great deal of stress.

I have a really bad headache right now. I just got back from the dermatologist, who froze three tiny "pre-cancerous" areas on my forehead at the hairline. Throb, throb! Being a fair-skinned redhead can be a pain in the you-know-what. She says not to worry because I've done a good job keeping out of the sun and taking care of my skin but it's not easy. And if I'd done such a "good job" why do I have this "pre-cancerous" stuff, huh? What's that all about? She says "pre-cancerous" is benign. It just means I have to keep going in to see her every six months to check it out. What a headache.

The elusive offspring called this morning to say the album launch was successful. This is his acapella group's second album. I'm supposed to be getting a copy of it as a Mother's Day gift...but that may happen when we get to Scotland in June. He has his first exam this coming Saturday, then he has two more, all spaced out over 9 or 10 days. They all involve such things as multivariable calculus, and lasers, and the like. My singing physicist. Can't wait to see him. He always becomes less elusive when exams are looming (oh, that rhymes with my doom and gloom title!).

So, this seems to be a really rambling post, without any real purpose except to...well...ramble. I'm going to go cut some of my gorgeous roses (they have been so happy with all this rain). I'll just have to keep them from my little Morticia cat, Wolfie. There's nothing like walking in and finding all the rose heads laying on the table around the vase, and and all the stems sticking up out of the vase.