The Shopping Addict’s Redemption

When I was young, my mother was infamous for her habit of constantly buying and returning things. I sometimes answered the door when the man from our local department store made his weekly call to pick up packages. Once, when I didn’t know where the package was he told me, “she keeps them in the hall closet on the top shelf.” (He was right.) Later in life, my mother graduated to returning condominiums – putting down deposits one week and collecting them the next before the cancellation deadline. At the time, this compulsion of hers was simply puzzling. But as is the case with so many facets of our parents’ lives, we begin to understand them better over time and sometimes even find ourselves falling into the same idiosyncratic patterns we ridiculed as children. Consider the following: Read more

Believe me – it’s not you, it’s me

I don’t require years of expensive therapy to come to grips with this issue. I am prepared to acknowledge it up front – I have a commitment problem. Not as far as people are concerned. I have a number of friends dating back to pre-kindergarten and a husband of almost 27 years. I’m talking about my inability to commit to a purse. Mating oneself to a handbag is just too critical a decision for me to get over. After all, no other accessory, article of clothing or member of my family is as attached to me as closely, or spends as much time with me day in and day out, as my purse. I should clarify that I am referring to my everyday purse, not the occasional dressy evening bag or the abbreviated run-out-to-a-movie kind, neither of which need to come up to the rigorous standards required for an acceptable everyday purse. Read more