You know you're in a recession when...

1) not 1 but 2 major Barnes and Noble behemoths close their doors. The one at Astor Place by NYU (I think I've mentioned this one before) and as I learned yesterday, the one at 6th Ave and 21st street. Wow. When the Dunkin' Donuts start to go out of business, head for the hills.

2) cops chase a fugitive through your backyard in Queens (again). Sunday morning at 5AM about 30 cops descended on our neighborhood, entering our building's back yard, chasing a fugitive. I don't know what the guy was wanted for, but he ended up on the roof. he was roof-hopping. It was crazy. They caught him, though. The first time this happened was during the early evening about a month or two ago. It's getting crazy in our once-safe neighborhood as the solidly middle class and working class families living there lose their footing. Everyone's on edge these days.

Freaky Singleton Strikes Again! Mayor Bloomberg Declares: "Not enough therapy in NYC to fix this catastrophe!"

I am a friggin' freak. Last night at a rehearsal I got so upset that I completely shut down, stopped talking and had pissy face on. AND I couldn't look anyone in the eye for fear of snapping.

Pissy face makes everyone uncomfortable. A couple of castmates asked me if I was upset with them. I wasn't, but couldn't articulate what was pissing me off. Really I just wanted to throw a fit in a corner and cry.

Then rehearsal was over. I got on the train home and realized "oh, I'm pissed at myself for not having had a 'perfect' run-through of the show. I messed up a bunch of times and now I hate myself. This makes total sense. But now everyone thinks I'm mad at them. I'm not. I like them; I just don't like myself." Ah perfection, my ultimate goal in life--for everything I do to be flawless as a 19th century, ceramic Japanese tea cup.

Crazy Only Child Syndrome strikes again.

Let's see, I've got a whopping $2,000 to my name. How much therapy does that buy? Probably not enough.

Posh Nosh B'Gosh

Wow. Some friends recently told me about the Brit mini mini series, Posh Nosh. A satire on cooking shows and a dysfunctional family ripe with class tensions. Quotable: "By all means buy stock cubes if you have low self esteem." It's like the subtext of the Barefoot Contessa's show on Food Network. Here you go...

You know you're in a recession when...

...people are stealing manhole covers to make an extra few bucks. You can get 10-15 dollars for each metal cover. Read the article, from USA Today, here.

You know you're in a recession when...

...grave robbing is on the rise. That's right. Grave robbers are increasingly stealing bronze vases and grave markers to seel as scrap metal. Read the article here.