I'm not a difficult person to please, at least in the short term.
I went on a bit of a (what Tene called) recreation shopping spree yesterday. While some of what I purchased is going to be returned, it was kind of eye opening to see what I'm willing to invest money and time in.
I got flower growing kits from CVS, and I looked for appropriate flowers at a nearby gardening center/nursery before giving up (I feel I should do more investigating before spending a lot on plants that I'm unsure will fare well in small containers). I have at previous times bought various other grow kits - usually to be met with failure. I'm slowly getting the hang of keeping plants alive, and I can usually figure out what I did to kill them (the two basil grow kits from Ikea that I bought, however, are total mysteries to me - I have no clue why they never sprouted).
The other things I purchased fit nicely into two categories: Office supplies and books.
I really shouldn't be allowed into a bookstore without accompaniment, as I tend to go a little wild. Yesterday I went to four bookstores - Bell's Books, Borders (where I bought 3 books), Book Buyers (where I bought 3 books), and Books Inc. I spent most of my day in these stores.
The books I bought had to do with writing, crafts, and organizational skills - The Handmade Marketplace, Little Birds, 365: A Daily Creativity Journal, Real Simple The Organized Home, Booklife, and On Writing. I'm returning The Handmade Marketplace and the Creativity Journal on Monday - After going over them with Tene I realized that they're not right for where I'm at right now, and who I want to be. The Creativity Journal has a good idea behind it, but lacks things that I actually want to do on a day-to-day basis. And, I already have a craft-marketing book, Crafty Superstar (I am considering looking into Craft Inc, as well. Handmade Marketplace was simply not what I am looking for, and had a lot of redundant - for me - information in it).
As for office supplies, well, this has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I go a little crazy with binders and sticky notes. I don't know why, but I always have. But I have two true weaknesses. Two insidious weaknesses that don't seem like very big deals on the outset, but I swear would bankrupt me if I let them.
Pens and notebooks.
I love pens and notebooks. I think it's part nostalgia: all of my writing in Junior High and High School was done pen and paper first - and part dreamy-eyed optimism or a type of delusion or something: if I could just find the right pen and the right notebook all of my thoughts and ideas would flow to the page like water. I've also happened to catch myself thinking "But, what if I need this particular adorable notebook with an owl on it!?" So at least some part, and I'm not sure how big of a part it is, rests solely on impulse and some odd, currently empty desire to "collect" something.
I have a stack of Moleskine Cahier notebooks that have had the first few pages used and everything else is blank. I have Moleskine Volant notebooks that are similarly unused. I have eight or ten blank regular college-ruled notebooks that I got from Target when they were going all crazy selling school supplies. I have a couple more that are square-ruled. I have reams of unused lined paper.
And yesterday I bought more. I bought two more Moleskine Volants (they come in sets of two, I got grey ones), as well as two of their new "Passions" journals - Books and Wellness. On the upside - I've been meaning to start keeping both a book journal and a wellness journal for myself for ... well months now. I suspect that having a fill-in-the-blanks format, that requires no real initial effort from me will be beneficial. As for the Moleskine Volants? I'm returning them.
(As an aside I also bought two 20 oz water stainless-steel water bottles at University Art - where I got the Moleskine journals. I'm uncertain why I have an obsession with cute waterbottles - but these two make a total of nine of the things in our apartment. I'm also returning these, because they're not each worth the cost, and because, well, we already own seven.)
The only other place I stopped at was Office Max, or Office Depot ... I can never remember which. I spent a good hour or two just wandering the aisles, trying to find the best of whatever. I ended up finding my favorite go-to pen in a box of twelve, so got that. This despite the fact that earlier this week I bought a box of really cute gel pens and a fountain pen. On the positive side: I shouldn't have to buy pens for a while.
The things I acquired made me happy - but left me feeling a little unfulfilled. Sure, I had more pens than is really necessary, but was I going to use them? Even though I enjoyed acquiring them, I experienced a decent amount of consumer guilt, something that worsened after admitting my spending to Tene, who helped me to decide what to return and what to keep - which a day later, I feel a lot better about.
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