So Why Recession Depression?

Like many people who otherwise might not care, I have spent far too much time thinking about economic news lately. I was inspired to create a new blog, after many I have created and then ignored, on account of an npr podcast. A month ago I started listening to the planet money podcast. I heard about the podcast through listening to the most depressing "This American Life" ever (I think it was called the "most depressing episode ever") about the current state of the economy. it isn't good. planet money is a terribly informative little internet show which explains all the current economic nomenclature in kid terms I can actually understand and they allow listeners to send in questions. So I did.
The question I asked was about how the recession would really affect my everyday life as a lower middle class young white employed homeowner. I have no idea because I have never lived through a recession that really mattered to me in an adult way. While I appreciated getting an answer from planet money (I was an npr podcast nerd star for one short afternoon), I was not so satisfied with the answer. It was a little vague, sorta just explaining that finding a new job would be hard if I was looking, businesses will shut down, inflation might be worse, but no real specifics. Maybe specifics are hard to come by in a recession, but the podcast motivated me to look more closely at my own situation and track it a little. so here is my attempt to track my financial life during Recession 08-? When is this going to end... tell me. someone. I am going to hopefully talk about all the little wierd ways I notice the economy effecting my life too.
In the name of full disclousure and contextualizing, here are some personal demographics. I am a single 29 year old white woman with no children living in Portland, OR. I work full time and atttend graduate school, payed for entirely with loans. I work at a non-profit and earn between 30-40k a year. The bank and I have a cozy home-owner relationship, which I have been in for three years. I have a fixed-rate mortgage, but I started with one of those bad loans that would have defaulted if I hadn't (just by coincidence) decided to re-finance my mortgage last year before shit hit the fan in the mortgage market. whew. I have no other financial investments to speak of. Nothing. No retirement funds or savings, my car is old and paid for, I have no mutual funds or a stock portfolio. Basically, I have a house and a savings account, and that is the extent of my financial existence. I am totally boring and totally typical.
This should be interesting for me at least. I bet I will keep much better track of my finances by writing about it regularly.