New Years, Vacation & The Economic Crisis...

It's mind-boggling really, how do we balance our starving artist living with lavish parties and expensive vacations? I still constantly hear fellow Hollywood Asst-Listers talking up their Christmas Vacay's in the Caribbean and their New Years on the Vegas Strip and wonder how? How with our meager wages, our pb&j daily lunches and our constant staking out anywhere with Open Bar (Since we never make Happy Hour anyway) can these people afford to do these things?

Well I guess part of it comes back to the rule, to survive in Hollywood, one must have rich parents. And also I feel like the "stock hoarding and saving" gene somehow missed huge parts of our generation, the incredibly silly belief that we will always have jobs and opportunities, that our parents will always be there to bail us out, and that we can always charge it to the credit card thinking that one day we'll win the Lotto.

I know I do have to be thankful to my parents for instilling good habits from a young age, but I think it was already part of my character from early on. Every year at Halloween, I would go through my bags of candy and sort them into piles, the really good ones, the good ones and the OK ones... then without eating any of them, I would put them in bags and keep them to trade for favors down the road. I knew that having what other people want (i.e. candy/money) will always put you in the power position, and me, I liked being powerful.

So where does that put me? I now have to play the bad guy, spending Christmas at home instead of off on a fancy vacation... but in the long run, I'll have more than enough saved for that 7-day cruise to Cabo when the stock market has hit its crashing point.