Calm Down, Okay? It's Only the End of the World.

My Dear Reader,

The world just seems to be going crazy lately.

2009, so far, has been extremely disappointing.

People just seem to be dying left and right, don't they? Oh, and I don't know how this happened, but Obama has turned out to be even worse than I thought he would be. I feel so foolish now for thinking that an Obama presidency would, at least, better foreign relations. In a positive light, disappointing me means that Obama (with due credit given to Biden) has actually achieved the impossible.

Amazing.

Did I mention that North Korea is launching missiles at us?

We're in a recession caused by people who bought houses that they couldn't afford, and in response, the government has attempted to fix it by spending money that they [read: we] don't have. Let's chew on that for a second.

Oh, yeah, and now the government will help you buy houses and cars that you (still) can't afford. You can't forget that. And soon, you're going to have to buy health care for your neighbors, so just get ready. I swear, they must think that being a first-world country is way, way overrated.

Besides, being third-world is so much greener!*

Oh, and to top it all off, a certain blogger with a strange real name has been displaying incendiary, brutal honesty. The nerve.

Wait, wait, wait! Get off of that ledge, Gentle Reader! I was just about to get positive, I promise. It's okay; calm down and take one step at a time. There you go, good job. Gosh, you almost gave me a heart attack! What would I do without you, mutter to myself even more than usual? I already freak out the kids at the grocery store. With you around, I can at least pass off as eccentric, which, of course, is important because eccentric people don't get put in straight jackets.**

Anyway.

What I was going to say, before you had your little, uh, excursion, was that despite all of the craziness in the world, and while I've recently been wallowing in a lot of negativity because of how purely awful 2009 has been to me personally (and trust me, even the people who live with me don't know the half of it), I've managed to find a couple of things to be happy about. I will now list them in no particular order:

• 2009 is already half over! Besides, next year is 2010, an election year. We will soon have the power to kick out all of the wackos that decided to turn the housing bubble into America's new lifestyle choice. I think it's time for them to know what it's like to be in the unemployment line, don't you?
• You can now learn all about Ninjormans. (Mormon ninjas. SO much better than regular ninjas.)
• Brooke White just released a new, awesome CD. She is still, like, the coolest person ever.
• Sure, China might put men on the moon in 2020, but I'm positive that if we all collectively poke Obama with a stick (gently but repeatedly), we could get him to send men to Mars before then. Preferably the Mars landing will be timed so that it occurs about fifteen minutes prior to the Chinese landing, at which point, we Americans can turn to them and say, "Oh yeah, and how many times did you say you hosted the Olympics?" Neener neener neener.
• There is a chance that the most powerful leaders of the world will unite against Obama's health care bill, since the socialization of our health care system would mean that they personally would actually have to get treated in their own countries. Trust me, they shudder at the thought. I had a long talk with Sarkozy about it just yesterday.
• Harry Potter 6 was, without a doubt, the best movie of the series. I mean, they even had teenage romantic drama in there and still managed to blow me away. There is still hope in American cinema! Change! [Insert mindless chant here.]
• Twilight fan or not, you can still enjoy this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z22mgGzorDk (The screaming crowd, not the other thing.)
• I have a Twitter account now (thececilyjane), so now you can get offended by my incendiary, brutal honesty every day! I know! Today I talked about getting stuck in traffic, so who knows how wild it's going to get next.

You see, Gentle Reader? Sure, the whole world is going crazy, but if you mix one part optimism with five parts bemused sarcasm, you get an anti-depression potion so strong that even the destruction of modern civilization gets bearable. Even Snape would be proud hold back his usual sneer! After all, a good sense of humor is often our best line of defense.

Oh, and on a closing note, I hope that if you happen to be a parent, Gentle Reader, that you will raise your children to completely ignore politics. It turns out that ignorance really is bliss on that one.

Regards, best wishes, and padded cell-free sanity,

-Cecily Jane

*And BTW, I pretty much want to vomit every time I hear the word "green" now, so I apologize if I inflicted nausea on you. Overexposure. And yes, I see that it's poetic that "green" turns me green. How do they always win?

**And now that you know that staying out of a straight jacket is my number one life goal, I bet a lot of the stuff I say suddenly makes a lot of sense. You're welcome.