Packages

There might be holiday wreaths and garlands on some houses in your neighborhood but the HOLIDAYS are truly over.  We have turned the corner. 

There are lingering side effects. My desire to buy the "perfect" holiday gifts and my reluctance to go into crowded stores this Fall resulted in a new addiction - online buying and PACKAGES! "Brown paper packages tied up with string"...  except these packages come in padded envelopes with reinforced packing tape.  That doesn't have the same lyricism though. "Packages in envelopes with reinforced packing tape" does not scan.

The ease and allure of online shopping ate a hole in my credit card spending. I have a small self-imposed "cap" on my spending and every month, for the past four months, my credit card company warned me that I exceeded my cap. Don't worry. My credit line is much larger than my cap. Still, what happened to the Old Frugal Me? The Use Cash Whenever Possible Me? The I Don't Need That Me? Where did I go?

Well, the news gives me an answer to that. I turned into an homebody because it's Sickness Season and I hate being sick. I never much liked shopping in stores anyway. Too many choices and never the right one - shopping takes too much time.

Online shopping takes time, too. Why is looking at things on a screen so much better than fingering the same things in a store? Choosing online takes time and effort. But it also offers the joy of anticipation! 

Looking for packages has become the bright part of my day. A day without a package is a day without sunshine to steal a saying from an old ad. I don't even care if the package is for my husband. We open them with an eagerness unrivaled by any of our other activities. Do Not Judge!

Last night - our mail comes very late - I got a BOOK in the mail. The Paris Bookseller is completely outside my usual reading. I lean toward fiction for young readers and cozy mysteries with elderly or quirky sleuths.  It is time for me to BREAK OUT and try a new book about ... books. (You did not expect me to stray too far, did you?)

Back to packages...I like sending them, too.  And here's the best thing. I can send a package from HOME!! I have a postal scale and I can "Click'n'Ship". The postal worker picks the package up from my porch. It is truly awesome. 

OH HO! With packages and and shipping from home, I can complete my transformation into a cave dwelling hermit! Mwahahahaha! 

Next, I will give up showers. 

(not really!) 

I wonder what's in the package I hope to get today.