material girl

[metaphortunate]

Was talking on Twitter about how unfortunate it is that retail therapy totally works. :D: Only saving grace is that, at least for me, it's so much more helpful/satisfying if I'm filling a real need with whatever I'm buying than if I'm just impulse picking up some random crap.

For example, last week I bought a watch and a desperately needed new pair of work trousers. Behold, getting dressed in the morning is easier at least one day a week, and that is valuable to me. And the watch: I know people say watches are obsolete because now everyone has smart phones, and all I can say is, these must be people who don't walk around outside a lot or take public transportation. There are at least a couple of times almost every single day when I want to know what time it is and I really don't want to pull out my cell phone. Now I can!

In general, I am honestly a big fan of material things, as long as they are the right material things. Material things that are sort of what I want and sort of not just pile up in the house and make me miserable. Material things that are perfect give me a shot of genuine happiness every time I experience them or use them. Like:

• The gorgeous coat hooks on our stairs that Mr. E and I picked out together and he installed one day to surprise me and which mean that we have a completely convenient place to put jackets and hats as soon as we come in the house and which, incidentally, are great looking
  
• Chanel Cuir de Russie, which smells like old lady right when I put it on and within about 20 minutes has transformed into this rich, smooth, work-of-art leather aroma, so that for the rest of the day, no matter what kind of mess I look like, I smell like subtle, complex, recondite pleasures; and it makes my entire day better
  
• My purse, which took me forever to find the exact right one, and which is exactly big enough for my wallet, coin purse, sunglasses, phone, iPod, headphones, small pocketknife, tissues, hand sanitizer, pen, lipstick and enough room to pull one thing out without knocking everything else out, and not one bit bigger or heavier or more awkward
  
• Our drinking glasses, which are blue and have this smooth texture which is a small pleasure to touch every time I get a glass of water
  
• Dried persimmons, for obvious reasons!

What are your favorite material things?

Comments

[cahn]

Oh man, I love material things. I think one thing is that I always kind of have a running list in the back of my head of Things That I Am Reasonably Sure Would Make My Life Better, so when I do retail therapy (which is way too often) I generally try to pick something from the list rather than just get something random.

For the last year or so I've been buying clothes (right now it's tunic-y things that I should *crosses fingers* be able to wear even after kiddo's born) so that I can, well, actually look like a halfway attractive person instead of slumming around in baggy T-shirts and the like, which is what I always used to wear. I am starting to have a list in my head of Gaps in My Wardrobe so that I can fill them when I get a chance. It's a wonderful feeling not to look in my closet/wardrobe and have it full of things and feel like there's nothing in it I can wear!

Our old large nonstick frying pan had gotten destroyed a while back (by someone else who apparently had never been taught how to use them, grr) and we finally bought a nice new one, and life is so much better now.

I'm kind of weird this way, but my life actually tends to be much better with some shiny things in it. In particular, the intense blue sapphire ring I bought five years ago makes me happy every time I wear it (which is most days).

(Also: COAT HOOKS YES. Life is so much better with them!)