This time last year...


I go off the phone with my friend Arson and we were chatting about this and that and she said something about "this time last year." We both paused and thought about it. This time last year the economy was sinking. WaMu (a Washington favorite) was tanking. Expedia, Microsoft and others were laying people off. And consequently other businesses were closing. The news on Wall Street was horrible. Main Street was nervous. My work's auction wasn't going to succeed. And people started saying "this time was different. It's different the the Dot Bomb. It's different than 86." Our lame president decided to do something - too little too late. Looking back on my blog then, I was plenty stressed out but I was also working on the Obama campaign; running around like crazy, putting a ton of time and energy into just about everything.

However, October last year was just the beginning of dread - of budget cuts - of failed programs, of seriously tough times. (In the last year I've had 15 friends lose their jobs - and luckily find new ones.) This time, now, this year, feels a little different. Things are looking up. We haven't bottomed out just yet (unemployment hasn't hit it's all time low), but there is still this optimism. (Americans are optimistic in general.) It's an interesting time. Are we going to learn from this? Are we going to change? Are we going to continue to save money and get rid of debt? I went to an investors presentation today and they're talking about changing the face of philanthropy - do they mean it? Will this be long term change?

What is October 2010 going to look like?

And that's question for my 500th blog posting.

Yeah!