Resolution Watch- January 5, 2010- Five Days Without Shopping is Like Five Days Without Sunshine.
I need to work on some strategies to keep myself on track with this ridiculous no shopping until my boyfriend drinks resolution I have made. Although only day 5 and I have not yet broken down and shopped for anything other than necessities, I anticipate that it will get harder and harder.
I have developed the following strategies:
Avoid similar like-minded people. I must avoid my co-workers who insist on telling me about all the sales around town. Especially must avoid a co-worker who sits right outside my office. When I told said co-worker of my no-shopping for a month plan she simply said, “That’s dumb!” and continued to tell me about hoodies she saw on sale and how they are perfect for the gym. She maintained that it was “still dumb” even when I explained I was doing it to be supportive. She is divorced too. Must start following the football playoffs and have water cooler talk with the men in my office instead. Or I guess I could talk to people at work, about work.
There is no addiction that can’t be cured by another addition. I will run. And run. And run. And I will make everyone else run too. The Marina is too close to the Legends and I ought not to be allowed to go there alone, without people to account to or timeframes to follow. I have a half marathon in two weeks so I can obsess about that or a while. Luckily I had the foresight to book our hotel in Tempe…not Scottsdale.
When all else fails, focus on my career. Fortunately, I am busy with work and have several cases which have been kind of simmering on the backburner for a couple of months but now are boiling over. These cases are complete with pain-in-the-ass opposing counsel so I will take my frustrations out on them instead of my loved ones. This will keep me busy and distracted from internet shopping over lunch.
Spend my lunch hours that I am not dealing with pain-in-the-ass opposing counsel at spinning class at the gym. I have actually scheduled Tuesday and Thursday noon as a recurring appointment on my calendar to try spinning class. One of my other resolutions is to stop being afraid of the road bike I bought in October and actually get on it. I figure spin class will be a good way to get closer to the resolution and a little more comfortable with those pedal thingys.
Focus on other New Year’s Resolution aka “WWNPD”. My only other significant New Year’s resolution is to be nice. I have only shared this resolution with a few people because it seems pretty daunting. But I have adopted the mantra “what would a nice person do” when faced with a difficult situation. When someone cuts me off outside of the Billinghurst Middle School kid drop off, I think “what would a nice person do?” Believe it or not, trying to be nice is taking a lot of focus and energy.
Fill my non-working, non-gymgoing, non-running, non-Taylor hours with mindless crap like movies about teenage vampires and the new season of the Bachelor. Although those skanky girls do wear some pretty cute clothes.
Progress Report:
So far the only debatable necessity that I have purchased was sunscreen at the recommendation of my dermatologist. She insisted really. Based on my northern European skin and the amount of time I spend in the elements running my little heart out. I did order it from Amazon because it is cheaper there than in the doctor’s office and confessed the purchase and it was agreed to be considered “a necessity”.
So far…so good.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Resolution Blog Day 2- January 2, 2010
I have decided to give up shopping for the month of January. I am mostly doing this to support my boyfriend’s efforts not to drink alcohol in January. It seems that if he is going to give up something so near and dear to his heart, the least I can do is do the same. I am hoping for some kind of personal and financial growth in the process.
I don’t really think I have a problem. I am not going to go on record and admit that I am a shopaholic at this point. I am not sure whether there is an actual definition or warning signs to let you know you are a shopaholic. It’s not quite as black and white as say being an alcoholic. I kind of knew I might be on an unhealthy path with alcohol when I started taking the bottle of vodka to the bathtub with me so I wouldn’t have to get out to refresh my bathtub cocktail. It was apparent at that time that I was not on a healthy path. And I don’t really drink vodka now unless it is a work related event (a necessary exception) or special occasion. This shopping issue is far less clear.
I do have a lot of clothes and a lot of shoes. I’m not overly extravagant though. I don’t care so much about designer clothes or shoes. I do not own Jimmy Choos. I do not own Prada. I do own some upper end jeans but that is largely because they fit my upper sized rear end. With that exception, I stick mostly to what I consider to be practical necessities. My issue is I may have more than I need of many of these “practical necessities”.
For example, I am a runner. I am a “for real” runner. 6 full marathons. More than fifteen half marathons. I am legitimately entitled to running shoes, running clothes and running gear. But, I arguably don’t need the 5 drawers and entire armoire full plus almost an entire hall closet of running shoes, running clothes and running gear that I currently possess. Running shoes that are too cute to run in are probably not a “practical necessity”. I probably don’t need running shoes that are too cute to run in. Nevertheless, I have three pairs that fall into this category. One pair I can justify as “charitable shopping”. I have a super cute pair of Nike running shoes designed by a teenager with cancer through a kind of “make-a-wish” type Nike charity. They have embroidered hearts on the toes. Those however, are legitimate as a portion of those proceeds did go to the charity. The other two pairs I cannot justify in this way. Three pairs of running shoes that are too cute to wear running are perhaps beyond the scope of “practical necessity”.
Similarly, I live in a cold climate so I am legitimately entitled to warm puffy parkas. However, I probably cannot justify as necessary 5 such warm puffy parkas. Although I will say that they are all in very practical, necessary, basic wardrobe colors. Black, white, white, white, and pink. Also, it seems practical to have a pair of Uggs to keep my feet warm. Arguably, it is not practical or necessary to have 9 pairs of Uggs. Again, three of the pairs are the basic wardrobe color of beige and go with everything. But…three pairs are pink. Three other pairs have flowers all over them. They are all amazing. None are practical or necessary.
Thus, upon reflection, taking some time off from my favorite pastime of shopping altogether for at least a month is a good idea. I am faced with some immediate concerns and challenges which is why I have decided to publically document this personal journey.
My first challenge is to avoid the overwhelming need to track down the sequin- covered sparkly boots that I saw on a complete stranger in a friend’s pictures from New Year’s Eve posted on facebook last night. They were pretty damn cute and certainly a practical necessity. But no…I will resist a full scale, time consuming internet search for these practical amazing boots.
I am also going to resist going in search of the metallic gold puffy parka that I have been patiently waiting all season to go on sale. As mentioned above I have a lovely selection of puffy parkas and the gold metallic is not really a basic wardrobe color.
Further, I am not buying what seems to be the most legitimate necessity of new running gloves and will wear the goofy fleece gloves I have until February. Although I could probably justify the new running gloves under the above mentioned charitable exception since I gave my good running gloves with the hidden key pocket to a homeless person during the Las Vegas Half Marathon because my hands got to hot and I didn’t want to carry them another 6 miles. I am going to choose not to make such excuses and simply wear the gloves that I have, which I kind of prefer anyway.
That’s it for day 2. So far, so good.
I have decided to give up shopping for the month of January. I am mostly doing this to support my boyfriend’s efforts not to drink alcohol in January. It seems that if he is going to give up something so near and dear to his heart, the least I can do is do the same. I am hoping for some kind of personal and financial growth in the process.
I don’t really think I have a problem. I am not going to go on record and admit that I am a shopaholic at this point. I am not sure whether there is an actual definition or warning signs to let you know you are a shopaholic. It’s not quite as black and white as say being an alcoholic. I kind of knew I might be on an unhealthy path with alcohol when I started taking the bottle of vodka to the bathtub with me so I wouldn’t have to get out to refresh my bathtub cocktail. It was apparent at that time that I was not on a healthy path. And I don’t really drink vodka now unless it is a work related event (a necessary exception) or special occasion. This shopping issue is far less clear.
I do have a lot of clothes and a lot of shoes. I’m not overly extravagant though. I don’t care so much about designer clothes or shoes. I do not own Jimmy Choos. I do not own Prada. I do own some upper end jeans but that is largely because they fit my upper sized rear end. With that exception, I stick mostly to what I consider to be practical necessities. My issue is I may have more than I need of many of these “practical necessities”.
For example, I am a runner. I am a “for real” runner. 6 full marathons. More than fifteen half marathons. I am legitimately entitled to running shoes, running clothes and running gear. But, I arguably don’t need the 5 drawers and entire armoire full plus almost an entire hall closet of running shoes, running clothes and running gear that I currently possess. Running shoes that are too cute to run in are probably not a “practical necessity”. I probably don’t need running shoes that are too cute to run in. Nevertheless, I have three pairs that fall into this category. One pair I can justify as “charitable shopping”. I have a super cute pair of Nike running shoes designed by a teenager with cancer through a kind of “make-a-wish” type Nike charity. They have embroidered hearts on the toes. Those however, are legitimate as a portion of those proceeds did go to the charity. The other two pairs I cannot justify in this way. Three pairs of running shoes that are too cute to wear running are perhaps beyond the scope of “practical necessity”.
Similarly, I live in a cold climate so I am legitimately entitled to warm puffy parkas. However, I probably cannot justify as necessary 5 such warm puffy parkas. Although I will say that they are all in very practical, necessary, basic wardrobe colors. Black, white, white, white, and pink. Also, it seems practical to have a pair of Uggs to keep my feet warm. Arguably, it is not practical or necessary to have 9 pairs of Uggs. Again, three of the pairs are the basic wardrobe color of beige and go with everything. But…three pairs are pink. Three other pairs have flowers all over them. They are all amazing. None are practical or necessary.
Thus, upon reflection, taking some time off from my favorite pastime of shopping altogether for at least a month is a good idea. I am faced with some immediate concerns and challenges which is why I have decided to publically document this personal journey.
My first challenge is to avoid the overwhelming need to track down the sequin- covered sparkly boots that I saw on a complete stranger in a friend’s pictures from New Year’s Eve posted on facebook last night. They were pretty damn cute and certainly a practical necessity. But no…I will resist a full scale, time consuming internet search for these practical amazing boots.
I am also going to resist going in search of the metallic gold puffy parka that I have been patiently waiting all season to go on sale. As mentioned above I have a lovely selection of puffy parkas and the gold metallic is not really a basic wardrobe color.
Further, I am not buying what seems to be the most legitimate necessity of new running gloves and will wear the goofy fleece gloves I have until February. Although I could probably justify the new running gloves under the above mentioned charitable exception since I gave my good running gloves with the hidden key pocket to a homeless person during the Las Vegas Half Marathon because my hands got to hot and I didn’t want to carry them another 6 miles. I am going to choose not to make such excuses and simply wear the gloves that I have, which I kind of prefer anyway.
That’s it for day 2. So far, so good.
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