It's safer not to leave the house!

I ventured out into the big world (read not a small town but the big city of Manchester! woo woo) today because I had a dentist appointment and in all these years have not switched to one locally.  Since I'd driven the hour, it seemed foolish to just go home, so I meandered over to the health food store and purchased a $100 or so of items that caught my fancy (like locally grown kale and aloe vera juice and wild blueberry spelt tea bread) and because I used to shop there weekly, ended up putting things in my cart that I always used to.  Like wheat grass, dandelion greens, beets and whatever fruit looked palatable.

Then, trying to think ahead to the weekend, I threw in some organic turkey hot dogs.  Those are an oxymoron, are they not?  But it is so easy to throw hot dogs on the grill and I haven't eaten a real hot dog in so long I have no idea what might happen if I did -- so I thought, well ... I mean, we know they are going to be gawd-awful, but in a decent roll covered with enough mustard and relish, they might be fine.  The point here is that I didn't need any of these items.  Not one of them.

But I bought them anyway.  Oh, and I also bought Omega Truffles -- they are 99 percent organic (I hope the one percent thing isn't gonna kill me) and full of omega-3.  Seems like a match made in heaven, does it not?  Don't get your Omega 3's from salmon, get it from CHOCOLATE!  Hubba hubba.

Well, they are just gross.  I will eat them all (four) because it cost me $3.99, but I will spread out the joy and wonder over a few days.  Don't want to get too healthy too quick.  Blech.

Back to the point I am trying to make:  I buy because it is there.

I did need some bedding for the hamster cage so I went to PetSomething.  I say PetSomething because the woman asked me if I had a card and I said yes and gave it to her and she said no, that is PetCo, this is PetSmart.  Or PetSource, I dunno.   I said well that is just stupid, you both have big red signs and basically the same name.  And the other one must be nearby because I could swear that's where I was going!  Anyway, I was there for hamster bedding.  Which is quite pricey at $24.99 for a big bag, but it seems to last a long time.  I tucked that under my arm and headed toward the check-out when I recalled that I wanted a dog collar for Lucy.  Oh, and look, a fun toy, it's a baseball bat that has a little cage on the top with a ball -- Charlie can throw the ball to the dogs, oh, Lucy needs some bones too (more about that later) so I grabbed those, and at last, a new collar. 

So $60 later I headed home. And thought how much cheaper it is when I don't venture out!  I do not like to shop, never have, but I am highly adaptable to any situation and if I am in a store, well, I can play the game!  Purchase!  Got it.

I truly, truly, truly don't want or need anything.  When I state that I am not interested in being a consumer anymore in a consumer world, I mean it!  But it's very easy, once surrounded by things, to realize how much you need them.  NEEEEEEED them.  I mean, the first purchases were food, I will eat them, I will juice the wheat grass and see if it makes me sick anymore (but does a person really need Kombucha, carrot/beet/ginger/apple juice AND wheat grass daily?)  I don't think so.

Yesterday I was doing these excercises (out of one of those creativity workbooks, untap your creative juices, whatever) and you are supposed to reward yourself with a "small" reward daily and then at the end of four days, with a "big" reward.  There were not many examples given of these rewards (other than that they can't be food, which is wrong, but apparently food doesn't stimulate your creative process the way THINGS do), and I couldn't think of any rewards.  What, a manicure?  That is more torture than a reward (and one of the few examples).  I hate anything that involves being an appointment!  Maybe a small piece of jewelry at the end of four days?  I guess.  Not much of a motivator for me.  Thing is, unless I am at a store, I don't want a darn thing, reward or otherwise!

It's all interesting, truly, how I don't want anything but I am more than happy to purchase things anyway.  Even things, like the wheat grass, that I ultimately don't want.  But I know I will NEVER purchase red bones again for the dog.  Because I am leaving this blog now to go into the living room and dab away the carpet cleaner I had to put on 8 different spots where the dog was chewing the once-red bone.  Now tell me, why would you DIE a bone?  Are the carpet cleaning companies in cahoots with the bone-makers?

Exactly.  You can't trust anyone.