ANYBODY ALREADY SPEND THEIR CHECK?

I feel a bit underwater this morning. Maybe it's the snow, that arrived yesterday after a week of full on Spring weather. Maybe it's fatigue from all this. Maybe I ate too much sugar with our Easter dinner last night. Carrot cake. That's it. The carrot cake blues. Or oranges. Or it's just the cobwebs that always fill the air first thing in the morning. Also, I slept in a bit later than usual, which always adds to the morning grog. Even by describing it, the feeling starts to go away, the sun comes out, and I try to connect. Don't get me wrong, it still feels insane and all that, and I know we have crossed the Rubicon of normal and are in a strange new land never to return to our old lives in quite the same way. We are different people. Still, some things remain, and for me, one of those things is needing a bit of time and coffee to wake up.

So, did I have weird dreams again last night? Of course. First, I was home, upstairs, and I looked out the window, and all of our furniture and belongings were on the street, and about to be sold by the bank. To make matters worse, some of the people hauling all the stuff out were playwriting students of mine. I ran outside, yelled at them, told them they had bad jobs and that they had no right to sell our stuff. The woman in charge, whom I didn't know, said they were just anticipating us not having money soon, and were taking precautionary measures. I freaked out, said a lot of bad words, and got all out stuff put back inside. Then we had some kind of Open House, and entertained our neighbors. And the people who were trying to sell our stuff stayed and had snacks. Then I woke up, at 3am, because my dog Padfoot needed to go outside. Usually he sleeps through the night. Not anymore. I don't know if he is just picking up on our anxiety, or getting older and needing to pee more often, but there it is. Had a second dream where I was remounting a Harry Potter show at one of the schools I teach at. We were doing an immersive version, using the school as the set, and having the audience be walking around Hogwarts, and there was this one scene we were trying to figure out which had the kids running in from the schoolyard and into the class room, joining a scene already in progress. Getting people from the outside to be in sync with the inside was proving impossible, and tempers were flaring. The sound designer in particular was freaking out. The kids, of course, were having the time of their lives, and trusted we would figure it all out. And I found solace in that. So there are my two big dreams from last night- fear of losing everything, and hope for the future. Sort of how things are these days.

Speaking of which, today I get to have the joy of navigating the IRS website to make sure our bank info is there so we can get our little checks, which are already spent. What are we going to do next, as a country, in terms of finance? More and more people are out of work, behind in their bills, and stuck in their homes. Even if Merlin waved his magic wand and somehow it was all lover right now, most of us would be in a bit of a pickle, with no money in the bank, and the hounds at our doors. I don't think just giving over a trillion dollars to the financial markets and less than a months worth of money to us working folk is going to get us through this. Why is it that Canada and Germany and all those commie-pinko-socialist countries are able to take care of their people, but not us? Right now, it is hard to see or even feel the effects all that much, being cooped up in our homes. But what happens come Summer, when we are let out of our cages and find ourselves in a second Great Depression? Things will have to change. I am a great believer in the adage "Necessity is the Mother invention." And it will be necessary to changes things. So buckled up, folks, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Here's a song. It's Mother Necessity from School House Rock.

And for those who like things a bit more blunt, here's the Dead Kennedys with Kill the Poor.