Oh, I had homework, didn't I?

I'm finally feeling better and spent the evening decorating for Christmas!  Everything but the tree.

Five more questions:

from Anne in Reno
What do you do to keep from being depressed at the state of the world (as you see it) and the way things are going around you? How do you take control of your environment in a positive manner? 

There is nothing new under the sun.

and

Let us cultivate our garden.

with an occasional dose of

What does it matter?  We're all going to die eventually anyway.

(Which I don't expect anyone else to find as comforting as I do.  Let's agree to chalk it up to, "people are different.")

I take control by shutting out the noise.  I don't always do a particularly good job of it, but I'm learning.

SCB

My question is a three-parter. A) If you could live anywhere at all, where would you live? B) in what style would you live (I don't mean MCM or traditional, I mean opulence or simple or whatever...) C) Why?

A) Either in a decent bungalow apartment in one of the northwest neighborhoods in Chicago, or back in the Fingerlakes, on a hill.  Third choice would be Vermont, but I know I wouldn't like the social scene.

B) General (but not extreme) simplicity - the straightforward, no-nonsense kind, not the back-to-the-earth kind.  Lots of quiet and privacy (what the city would lack in these respects it would make up for in public transit and ready access to ethnic food). Small house in which everything works properly with only things I like inside it.

C) Chicago is the only large city I know where I would actively wish to live; likewise, the physical setting of central NY carries a lot of the right emotional connotations for me, plus the location is convenient.  Pleasant and easy are good.  My lifestyle fantasy is apparently to be like one of those Victorian poetesses who "lived very quietly" with a rich interior life.

Lorijo
Do you really care what kind of car you drive?

Not exactly.  As with many other things in my life, my affections lie with whatever requires a minimum of attention.  Oddly enough, my 9-year old American car with over 150k still more or less fits that bill.  I fancy a hybrid, once they've been around long enough for someone to do a lifecycle analysis that means something.

If we were to go on looks alone, a Mercedes or a Volkswagen (yes, that does sound weird).

Interpreting the question another way...I was given a PT Cruiser as a rental car on a business trip over the summer, and that felt a bit embarrassing.

Christine in DC

"If you were given $250,000 that you had to spend (i.e. no savings, like that old Richard Pryor movie...), how would you spend it?" Let's assume that's after taxes.

Either:

A.  Giving and some very good travel would account for about 50,000.  The other 200,000 would go to purchase of a residence, if the math made sense.  Then the other things I'd like to do would be taken care of by the change in cash flow resulting from having most of my housing expenses suddenly eliminated. 

Or:

B.I'd take off three years completely to study and travel.

Cookbook

What would you be doing with your life right now if you were free of all present constraints (family, money, geography, time, health, etc.)?

I'd be living somewhere in a pleasant little house in near-complete isolation with my cat and books doing the autodidact thing.  I'd venture into the nearby town once a week to replenish supplies and call my mother.


That's not to say I'd want to stay indefinitely, but it's absolutely what I'd be doing right now.  I have hermit fantasies.