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

[jedusaur]

My skaaaaates! I did a shitpile of research before I bought them that all seemed to boil down to "whatever feels right to you," so I found a store with a decent stock and tried on every single one they had in anything resembling my size. Sure enough, after a bunch that weren't quite right I totally Goldilocksed on a pair of Reebok 12Ks and I adore them.

I threw down $60 on a decent chef's knife a month ago, after five years of using a set of the cheapest knives on Amazon, and it has made cooking so much more pleasant. I also got a wok and oh man I had no idea I needed a wok so bad. I use it way more than I thought I would.

I have bought way too much Coyotes merch lately, and wearing it is grounding and comforting to me on some strange psychological level I don't fully understand. The team has been distressingly awful this season--shouldn't I want to avoid thinking about them? But no, apparently that is not how Being A Sports Fan works. They are mine, warts and turnovers and gift-wrapped breakaway shorties in the last frickin' minute against frickin' Dallas god frickin' *ahem* and all, and wearing that logo on my chest makes me feel more firm in myself no matter where we are in the standings.

I have a big pile of stuff I'm planning to get rid of on Craigslist and eBay when I get a spare minute, maybe the weekend after next when my grad school apps are done, and I'm actually really looking forward to that. I enjoy passing things along to people who can use them when they aren't useful to me anymore, and the free section of Craigslist is really good for that. It kind of pings me in the same way as acquiring useful things for myself does, that sense of needs met and problems solved.

[jedusaur]

Scanning up over the other comments I'm seeing a lot about bags--while bags are not a particular interest of mine, I have a good friend with a bag addiction who works for Tom Bihn, and she's passed along something like 5 really nice-quality bags to me, including a shoulder bag Mike takes to work and two laptop bags (one just laptop-sized and one with plenty of extra room for books and stuff) that I use all the time. It's not something I really think of as a material indulgence, but I am certainly very grateful.