My friend Dora once asked out loud, If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

Which got me to thinking about how so many people in this town have to belong to country clubs to make friends.  Isn’t that the same thing?  And in this economic recession, it’s funny how some people are just disappearing, not showing up for events and meetings and things. I bet they think they can’t afford to keep up anymore.

Look, the down turn is affecting all of us.  My income is down, even though I still have a job, but I work on commissions. I’m hanging in because I believe in recoveries and I strongly believe that when you stick with things out you come out of it better.  So with a little extra time on my hands, I decided to get an extra professional certification.  Which meant taking a trip to Salt Lake City for a seminar (I’m not a skiier, so this wasn’t fun for me), paying the course fee, then paying the testing fee.  All told, it was $1700.  At a time when I’m stretched thin to begin with.

So Dora told me to look at my Escalade. Not such a smart vehicle when gas prices are high, but it’s paid for (gawd, I miss 2005!). I realized I could get a car title loan with it, and this was a purpose that made sense. So I did it – I went to Palos Park Title Loans, a car title loans store online.  It was easy, they were willing to give me a lot more money than the $1700 (ok, I took another $300 for clothes).  And I can pay it back on my schedule, which is easy.

An education you can buy.  Your friends stick with you through thick and thin – and that includes Dora (not a Palos Park Barbie).

If you didnt know, Palos Park is also near, Worth, Chicago Ridge, Palos Heights, Orland Park and Bridgeview.

By the way Palos Park is near Bridgeview, Chicago Ridge, Orland Park, Palos Heights, and Worth.

I’m really of the opinion that he who laughs last thinks slowest.

Take my stepfather.  Please.  He tried to talk me into buying a new car last year.  Said my old Volvo, which was their car until they gave it to me when I was going to Columbia College, was looking bad in the driveway and that I should get something new.

Well, Pops, that was last year and this is this year.  My job disappeared and here I am, living back at home, with tuition to pay and health insurance and only part time income and some new tuition with classes I need to take now to get a new job. What I do have is my car, with no payments to make, and the title that enables me to borrow against it with a car title loan.  I figured this out from friend who used Orland Park Title Loans, said it was easy and he was right. I signed on, filled out a form, and found out my car could get me $2000 (I only needed $600).

Now I’m back in school, working enough to pay off that loan, and without being too obvious, laughing at my stepdad who complains his car payments are killing him.

Orland Park is also near Palos Heights, Worth, Palos Park, Tinley Park, and Chicago Ridge.

You gotta love the politics in this country. First, we had Clinton, Johnny Cash and Bob Hope. Next we got Bush, no Cash and no Hope. What will Obama bring?

Things are looking grim at the moment, but let’s give the guy time. You wanna think things couldn’t possibly get any worse, but you know they could. My personal approach is to shore up everything from the income side, cut back as much as possible on the outflow side, and develop your backups for emergencies. Here in the Chicago area we might have job options in case our companies close or cut back, but there’s no guarantee I’ll find anything in this part of Cook County.

It’s nearly impossible to save money these days, so your backup might be in an asset. For me, it’s my car. I actually found a way for the car to finance it’s own repair bill. The mechanic said I needed $1400 to fix a bunch of things, and I just hated to add that to my credit card bills (in fact, it might have pushed me over my limit). So I did my research on the Internet and found Evergreen Park Title Loans, a great resource for car repair cash. A car title loan is based on the car’s value, as long as it’s paid for. You get your money electronically sent to your checking account, so if you need fast cash, this is the place to go for it.

By the way Evergreen Park is near Oak Lawn, Bridgeview, Burbank, Hometown, and Worth.

I lost my job as an IT specialist in my company late last year.  There was a downsizing, but I think I know why I was the first one cut in the department. One of the VPs called one day because he was experiencing a malfunction, which was clearly a result of his failure to follow instructions we provided.  The e-mail we sent a week earlier said “high importance, must do” in the subject line.  So what I told him was those words, “high importance” really means “delete this because you’re too busy.”

That guy never had a sense of humor anyway.  Plus, the job was in Niles and I live in Calumet.  Killer commute in this Chicago traffic.

However, unemployment in this economy pretty much sucks.  So when I ran up against some unexpected expenses, I had to scratch around to find some fast cash.  That’s when I stumbled upon Cook County Title Loans.  This is a car title loans company that operates in the Internet era – no going to some scary store, waiting in line, talking to some lady through a plate glass window.  You sign on, fill out the forms, get approved, and get your money the next day.  All you need for a car title loan is to own your car (no payments remaining).

From now on, I keep the snide remarks inside my head.  Things are safer there.

By the way Cook County is near Oak Lawn, Worth, Palos Hieghts, Crestwood, and Riverdale.

Q. Did you hear about the new “divorced” Barbie doll that they’re selling in stores now?
A. It comes with all of Ken’s stuff.

That’s the joke a friend just sent me. I’d laugh a little more if it wasn’t a little close to home — or, I should say apartment. Because I just lost my home to my ex-wife. She kept most my stuff, too. I kept my clothes, golf clubs and my car. “Barbie” even gets about 25% of my income for the next three years. Oh yeah, laughing at that one.

In a divorce situation, it boils down to the lawyers. Sure, I was cheating with someone she knew from the Chicago Ridge Mall (which I didn’t know at first; I met her on the Metra one fine summer day). She had her own things going on too. But that’s all water under the bridge now.

Despite my diminished circumstances, I had to buy all new furniture for my new bachelor pad. Given the economic conditions, I had to get creative and went online to find Chicago Ridge Title Loans, a car title loans store. It was easy, fast, didn’t require going anywhere, and I got my money in a day. A guy needs his high-def TV, a sofa, ottoman, and of course the bedroom furniture. Glad I worked that one out. Could Ken be so smart?

By the way Chicago Ridge is near Oak Lawn, Burbank, Evergeen Park, Bridgeview, and Worth.

I’m Polish and I married an Irish girl here in Burbank. We’ve had our cultural differences, but lemme tell ya, she and her six sisters have the whole pregnancy and childbirth thing down to a tee.

Just after she give birth to our first child, I asked what she should avoid. Three of her sisters said in unison, “getting pregnant.” OK. That worked for a year. I also asked if there was a reason why I had to be in the delivery room. She said yeah, one word: alimony. Her mother came to me during her second pregnancy and said she was being moody and irrational. I said “what’s your question?”

So when Colleen announced we were having another baby, our fourth, just around the time I had to go on disability because of my shoulder injury (I’m a bricklayer), things looked a little bleak. She wasn’t working at all anymore, and these days your health care insurance doesn’t cover as much. With two kids already at the Catholic high school, we had big bills to pay. So I looked at my truck and realized this might be a time for car title loan from Burbank Title Loans, where title loans are available online and in about a day. It was just enough to patch us through until I could start working again, which in this economy is an uncertainty too. But it’s just one of the ways a guy survives these days.

By the way Burbank is near Hickory Hills, Mc Cook, Bridgeview, Oak Lawn, and Worth.