Rainbow Cincinnati Post: On Economic Downtowns

New post over at Rainbow Cincinnati... and here's your preview:

My dad lost his job today. Of the six people that work in his architectural firm, they cut three. Despite everything he has done, he lost his job.

I remember in the early 1990s, when we went through a similar situation economically and the news was dominated by the crisis daily, my mother turned to my dad at the dinner table and asked if we were secure. He responded that it would be OK and there were no worries.

It's a shockingly vivid memory that keeps coming up in my head as you hear stories of people losing their jobs in this economy.

It's funny, this many years later, and with my dad finally in a job that he truly loved, that he would now have to go through this. And it's even funnier because, despite my own financial distress, that the economic crisis finally comes home. It finally "makes sense," if you will.
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Anyways, I've not been happy with a lot of the stuff I have been writing over there, so I've gone into kind of a writer's burnout on those posts. I haven't quite decided what I'm doing with the column.

I'll update you, I promise.

But check out Darren McCullough's excellent New Year's post. Your preview:

Resolution: noun. The quality of having a fixed purpose; determination or firmness.

It’s nearly eight o’clock on New Year’s Eve, and I’ve decided to stay in for the evening. I could blame it on my car, which is going into the shop first thing Monday morning; it (like its owner) is in need of a few repairs. It’s drivable (though it sounds a little like Danny Zuko’s 1948 Ford before it got its Greased Lightning makeover), but I’d rather not risk getting stuck someplace on December 31st, a night when cabs are impossible to get, let alone tow trucks.

My ex (Mike) and his husband invited me to their New Year’s Eve party, and I would have gone for a little while (they really know how to entertain), but it’s a little too far for me to risk it. And though it’s incredibly sweet that my ex and I (and his partner) are all good friends, for me it would be a little sad; New Year’s Eve three years ago was, for Mike and me, the moment when I think we both realized it wasn’t going to work. Returning to the house which was never mine but which certainly was now someone else’s would be, at best, bittersweet, and I knew my celebratory party mood would be disingenuous.
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Anyways, make sure you check out the excellent content over at Rainbow Cincinnati by clicking on the picture below.