Hello it's 3am, can you teach me about the stock market?

I rarely stay up past midnight, but I was lying in bed as I have been the last few nights looking around at this same darn West LA apartment that I've been living in for the last seven years with it's dingy carpets and cottage cheese ceilings, and post-college furnishings, and yes... rent control (though steadily increasing at 3% a year).... and I'm thinking....

"I need to get out of here. I really need a space of my own."

I've tried making the move many times to buy property. Like begging my parents to help me. Like motivating myself by drawing a little thermometer set at an insane amounts of money, taping it above my desk, and barely filling it in as I made each tiny deposit. Like looking into being a slumlord in Indiana and owning my own little piece of Section 8 property for $5k.

I've read books about buying property. Done all that visualization crap from "The Secret" like lied to poor realtors at Open Houses that "I was in the market for something under $500K" (yeah, WAAAAAAY under!)-- this was my way to get into "the mindset" of being a home buyer.

Cuckoo. Cuckoo.

And as much as I've saved (and it's quite a lot for someone who works as a performance artist, mind you), it still isn't enough for a down payment on much of anything... in Los Angeles especially. And if I ever do move, I'll definitely have to buy a car because any of the neighborhoods I could possibly afford are FAAAAAAR from civilization.

I've contemplated hitting up amateur night at the Spearmint Rhino to score some cash.... having the world's most lucrative yard sale.... getting married (yuck!)... and yes, even selling my eggs (GASP!)

(Little Kristinas running about the country so that large Kristina can have her own compost bin in her own lawn, next to her own little house? Yes! It almost came to that.)

I did think about getting a real job for a second... but come on... no need to get irrational here.

And then it dawned on me!

"What a great time to buy stocks!"

Yes, it's a shitty time for the economy, but this $700 Jazillion Government welfare check should help somehow right? And even if its shit now, it will inevitably go up right??!

RIGHT?!

I have a mutual fund that I bought after 9/11 that is currently tanking (but I have faith it will climb back up, at least, when I'm 65). I'm not even sure what's in that fund-- was it metal? poultry? Hell if I know. I just knew that I wanted a nest egg. And I heard mutual funds were the way to go.

But time to get aggressive! Time to be a day trader! Or... whatever they are called. I'm going to invest in the stock market! Woo hoo!

I've tried many times to try to understand the stock market, and I just don't get it. It also gets discouraging to see people I know who invest in stocks and whose emotional Ricter scales mirror the rise and fall stock market.

Suze Orman talks a good game but I am still confused on how you even go buy stocks. And will a stock broker even work with me if I all I have is $150? Or $50? Or $10. I think they purposely turn company names into weird symbols to shun writerly folks like me who like reading words and sentences.

But I think it's time for me to play the game. I am up reading about etrade.com and scottrade.com. And there are some cheap books for dummies (that would be me) on how to use these sites. Some are a penny and I've already wishlisted them. I have no idea how these sites work, but if I can read a knitting pattern, I sure as hell can learn to do this. And I can move myself out of this apartment all by myself!

The thing is that in my profession, I sometimes feel so disconnected from the real world of dumb American consumption. When I'm in malls I feel like I've been sucked into an otherworldly hell. If I was on the Price is Right, I would totally guess the cost of things all wrong.

"Yes, Drew! I think that Ford Fiesta costs $50,o00!"

(After all, I am the one who spent $6k on a junky 1981 Mercedez Benz with 180k miles on it. Only to have it catch on fire.)

I have no idea what the kids are buying because I'm too busy pulling crap out of my fake theatrical vagina in small black box theaters as I comment ironically on my own identity.

How did the price of gold go up? What cars are people driving? My own buying habits are a very poor gauge for how the rest of America consumes. So how will I know what to invest in? This is what I must learn in order to make money on stocks in this shit economy.

If I could be sure that the rest of America spent their money the way I do, then here are Kristina's stock tips....

Hot Stocks to Invest in, if everyone in American shopped like Kristina Wong*Tidy Cats cat litter *Michael's Craft Store (or other stores where you can acquire the materials to make fake vaginas) *Metro and Santa Monica Blue Bus *US Post Office *Long Island Iced teas *Merkato (Kristina's favorite restaurant) *Alternative Live Theater spaces *Zipcar.com Kristina's Junk Bond Tips *Laundry Machine downstairs *Mexican Produce truck two blocks over that sweeps neighborhood *Thai Massage place up the block *Jdate.com Now go! Invest! See you in the little Section 8 property in the sky!