I worked today, er, rather I went to the office and hung out with Luis all afternoon.

My dad stopped by with Andrea, and I showed her the place.  Dad and I talked about how I’ve lost my life savings and how business is down 40%, and how I can’t do anything about it, and how I’m kind of screwed.

I went to dinner at Three Tomatoes with Nick and Naomi, it was good to see them both, it’s been months. They bought Chad’s condo, and are also extremely financially strapped.

Went out after dinner with Luis and Julie, we went to the Half and hung out with Pat and Shannon.  Walked Jessica to her car, and came home. I’ll probably go to the office tomorrow, because Like Luis, where else would we go when we don’t want to be home?

On Monday the stock market crashed. The market lost over 770 points, the single largest loss in the last 20 years. I’ve lost almost all of my life savings over the past 12 months. A year ago I had $400,000, today I have $125,000. To compound this, the failing US economy is having a direct and obvious impact on sales. Our sales have been roughly 20% of normal since the beginning of September, and I don’t see any improvement in near sight. I’ve lost most of my money, and am now unable to make any! I’m not emotionally upset or depressed like most people would be, I’m just disappointed. I’ve been focusing on work almost 100% of my awake hours since returning from California. Everything at the company is running as efficiently and smoothly as possible, but we can’t make people spend money in this environment.

I talked to Rach on the phone tonight. We are going to get together after work tomorrow, and she leaves Thursday. She went in for her surgery yesterday, and it took a lot out of her. She should be all recovered by tomorrow though. Hopefully her sister can get over this whole ordeal and be glad that she (barely) survived it.

Rachel told me that she likes me tonight, on the phone. I told her that she probably doesn’t like me the way I like her, and she actually reassured me that I’m wrong, which made me feel good. She also likes 2 of her ex-boyfriends as well, so I’m not jumping up and down with excitement.

Worked all day with Sasha and Kimberly.  I truly love working with both of them, they are a joy to be around and just make things pleasant at the office.  Thanks to them, I LOVE going to work for once, as odd as that sounds.

This was a big week.  Washington Mutual folded, after the massive failure of 2 other banks last week, the US economy seems to be rapidly imploding.  I’ve lost over $250,000 in investments over the past 12 months.  My life savings has gone from $400K to $150K.  Because of all of this, I’ve decided that daily dedication to my company and creative growth ideas are absolutely necessary.

This week I purchased UDG USA.  The assets of the company will be transferred from their Plattsburgh warehouse to my office in Vermont.  This is my first foray into B2B product brand distribution (rather than B2C retailing), hopefully this goes well.