Made you look....muhahhaha

Do you think the price of gas and current economic situation is effecting your play dates?

Or you do cut out other areas of spending so you can still be naughty?

Talk to me...
J' Loren

You had me look since I thought you were talking about frijoles at first! Duh! Wrong kind of gas!!

It's the price of cerveza that is killing me!!  I am going to have to stop feeding Pedro his usual cervezas at dinner time since it cuts into my hobbying pesos.

BTW, I think I may final have enough pesos to hobby again since the dolars value is now close to that of the peso!!

I think it's a ripple effect.  Our clients have gotten spooked. So I'm a bit careful. And no, I haven't been hobbying in a while. Ordinarily when things are tight, I go to TJ for fun. But obviously things are a bit whacked over there now. So I'm just hanging out.  There have been a lot of girls on the boards asking "is it me? what's going on? i get no calls!"  And everyone is just saying things are tight.  So hang in there!  Wish I had better news.

It really hasn't effected me that much, to be honest. I don't hobby much anyway, so I'm always saving up money to see the truely special ladies.I don't have a lot of expenses, either, so it hasn't impacted me.

While gas prices continue to raise, that cost is driving up everything else.
But the main reason I have not been having "fun times" is my work place may do some big cutbacks next year.  
So instead of having a "fun" fund, I'm saving up for an emergency fund.

Yes, gas prices continue to rise, food prices continue to rise, the potential of cutbacks at work and sales being down in general.  Unfortunately the extra $$$ goes towards these necessities of life.  I am sure all the ladies are feeling the pinch as well.  Hobbying is not a necessity of life in these uncertain times.  I would say if a lady want to maintain some level of business then more specials would be the way to go.  

Just my two cents.

Anyone reading the paper, watching TV, or Internet surfing is besieged by negative news: gas, food, housing, the dollar's value, unemployment.  My take is even if you are relatively secure financially and employment-wise, many people are saving their acorns for a very long winter.  It is definitely NOT because of the San Diego ladies who continue to rock!

Yes and No.  I just look for the right girl at the right price another words I now see the lower priced ladies and I'm still having a blast.  WOuld love your company one day though.

Actually, I would toss this question back to you with a related one:

Are providers seeing a decline in their patronage by hobbyists and/or incomes?

Of course, this is a fairly charged question, and I'm not really expecting to hear responses.

Several years, I suggested on these boards that  high escort prices were due in no small part to the bubble-like prices in SoCal housing. The basic idea was that hobbyists were maintaining their lifestyle by treating their house as an "ATM", in which they periodically withdrew funds from home-equity loans. This could have accounted for high overall consumer activity in the southland, at the same time that salaries were stagnant since 2000.

With the collapse of housing prices in 2005, particularly in San Diego, it does seem as though that far fewer homeowners are withdrawing home-equity loans. Last year in the first quarter, roughly 86% of homeowners took out equity loans, while the quarter for this year saw only a ~50% withdrawal rate. All forms of credit are being dramatically curtailed by lenders.

Of course, this comes on the heels of record high gas prices, and also sharp increases in basic commodities, healthcare costs, college tuition etc.

It would not be surprising for participation in discretionary activities such as escorting to also be contracting.

One last thing has struck me is the recent huge decrease in San Diego hobbyist participation on these boards. Lately, the San Diego board seems largely to be an advertising forum for escorts...just strikes me all of these things may be connected.

You've been around a long time and remember what it was like before.  I agree with most of what you said but the conclusion of the economy driving the participation down on this board recently.

Participation here did not go down just recently.  It seems to actually be slightly on the upswing once again.  I saw several factors over the years that drove participation down on this board.  I would elaborate but don't want to give those factors any satisfaction about their influence.  

Sure the US economy is on a downturn but those in other countries that rejoice from a US downturn slowly find out that a negative situation for us turns in to less customers for them.  We live in a global economy now so old models don't fit anymore.  We are going through the growing pains of this change in dynamics but we will be OK.

-- Modified on 5/7/2008 9:11:41 PM

Have you been to the new Hawthorn's yet?

Drop me a line sometime.

Because Hollywood has run out of new ideas, maybe I should be up for Walter Huston's role in the remake of "The Treasure of Sierra Madre" (LOL).

I did indeed visit the new Hawthorn's in North Park, just after it reopened in the summer of 2006. It was indeed very good, having been forced out by all the 'development' (aka, 'condo' tower building) that was going on in the Downtown/Hillcrest area. The last time I looked in at the old 5th & Hawthorn site, the block was just an overgrown patch of dirt.

The new Hawthorn Restaurant is now situated inside the North Park Theatre, which makes perfect sense. The old 5th & Hawthorn restaurant was a favorite haunt of the downtown theater crowd. It was a crowded and happy place.

Hope everything's going well for you.

The cost of gas really makes me mad as hell when I hear the oil companies reporting profits in the billions. I guess that we just have to suffer until we run out. But it will never interfere with my hobbying, just no way.

Wow, there are a few old timers in this thread. How y'all doing?

I've seen a number posting. But havent seen a lot of specials running, so I don't think things have gotten "that bad" just yet.
I'm sure those of us that live on a budget may be feeling the pinch here and there. Maybe even changing some of our activities, etc. Savings a very big deal right now.
Tax time is typically slower,,, summer things get better. Not sure how high gas is going to go, but in the mean time it seems people are still playing as always.

As far as topic posting, we have been wishing there was more for a long time now.
It is sad when the "Discussion Board" seems like an advertising site.

Great to hear from you both. Very much miss the old discussions, which were spirited and entertaining.

Let's hope that next year will bring better days!

No, I don't forgive.

-- Modified on 5/15/2008 8:31:40 PM

Good to see everyone back! It was starting to look like a ghost town here.