Things that make me depressed:
1. At our new year's party, only 2 things disappeared: my cable bill, from the fridge (called the cable company to get all the pertinent info, no real harm done, but strange nonetheless), and my wooden ball massager thingy from The Body Shop (you know the kind, all wood, supposed to roll out your tensions or whatever). I don't understand either disappearance, but I don't like that the massager is gone.

2. The Inquirer has announced layoffs that amount to about 16% of its newsroom staff. Eric is supposedly on the waiting list for an editorial job (supposedly because he got on the list a couple years ago), but I don't know how likely it is a spot will ever open up, never mind the fact that he actually wants a reporting job now. I don't like to see his chosen field shrivel up like this. First, the page size shrinkage, then more and more consolidation (Knight Ridder, my old employer, doesn't even exist anymore), now staff cutbacks at what was probably going to be his No. 1 choice for a paper to work at. Bummer.

My mentor asked me recently, regarding Eric and his work, "Doesn't he know he's in a dying profession?" I responded, "Well, the health care system is failing and I still chose to come to medical school." "Yeah, but we don't have doctors providing diagnoses for free on the Internet [a reference to newspaper subscription rates being down because of free online access]." I didn't get the chance to respond, but the truth is, we do have that situation: sites like WebMD allow people to self-diagnose (although they usually still have to come into the office, and I have no actual problem with WebMD), and radiologists halfway around the world are being contracted out to read night-time films for half of what U.S. physicians are paid.

The Inquirer layoffs also make me stressed because we're planning to go back East for my residency, and I'm planning on applying heavily between DC and Philly. It's going to be hard for Eric to stay in journalism and not try to move up to a better paper, but the better papers are becoming fewer and farther between and harder to break into. Whatever happened to the sentiment of Thomas Jefferson, who said,

"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

?

In any case, if you want to read about the Inky layoffs, here are a few stories:
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/special_packages/cf_biz/16367798.htm
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/special_packages/cf_biz/16367568.htm
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/nation/16371748.htm
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/16370474.htm
http://blogs.philly.com/blinq/2007/01/most_of_the_nam.html
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/nation/16379732.htm

(The blogs.philly.com one is a blog, not a news story, and puts a more human spin on the situation.)

Things that annoy me:
1. Blogger is better now that it's a Google service, but I lost my ability to change my font and type size. WTF?
2. Trying to decide how much weight I can actually lose by mid-May. I need to know NOW what size I'm going to be THEN so I can order my bridesmaid dress. Maybe I'll just fast for 36 hours and then go get fitted.


Things that make me slightly happier:
1. We gained a few bottles of champagne from the New Year's party (granted, one of them is Andre so I don't think that counts) as well as half a bottle of some nice bourbon someone left. I think that makes up for the massager.