Bad Economy = Wardrobe Anxiety

Anyone who has left their basement since September knows about the economic tough times that this country is going through. I'm not a CNBC analyst so I'm not going to get into the logistics of it, but I do wish to talk about one effect of this recession. For those of us who enjoy fine things, whether it be shopping at JCrew and Ralph Lauren, eating out, or actually wanting to leave Borders with that book you've been reading in the Cafe for the past two hours, the economy is leaving its mark upon us. If you're like me, you enjoy all of the above. However, there are ways to solve these miniature dilemmas. Go to the library, look up the call number of the book you want, take it out for the week, and read it. Some libraries even sell books ($1 for hardcovers, $.50 for a paperback), which I'd say is more reasonable than borders. For food, you could just stay at home and eat whatever crazy concoction your madre is conjuring up in the kitchen. If you don't live with your parents, buy some lunchables. And lastly, scavenge the sales racks and outlets for anything that catches your stylish eyes. A problem I am having recently is, I walk into JCrew and everything in there is absolutely fantastic. But, nowadays I can't shell out $80 dollars for a shirt and certainly not $100 for a nice pair of shorts. I even had an anxiety dream the other night where I was wandering JCrew and I couldn't find the mens section. The workers kept telling me they moved it and the store turned into a labyrinth sprinkled with madras belts. This dream quickly turned into a nightmare when I found the men's section and all they had were $600 sweaters that looked like the ones your grandma knits you for your birthday not realizing you only liked unicorns for about a week when you were seven. Style is taking a hit and there is nothing we can do about it. All we can do is throw on our baggy college logo sweatpants and that free t-shirt for going to support our school's basketball team in their effort to not go winless for the season and hope it gets better. I realize that the economy is actually affecting people in serious ways, and I'm in no way trying to belittle the seriousness of the situation that our country is in. What in the World is going on??