The Temptation of Favorite Places : : Anne McAllister

I noticed the other day when I was looking for a birthday present for my granddaughter that I was the only person doing her birthday present shopping in the office supply store.

Hmmmm.

What does that tell you?  That I’m a little weird – or that my 3 year old granddaughter is.  Or both.  But office supply stores simply have to appear and I need no urging to go in them.  Who needs window displays when the word “Office” suffices.

In this case I was looking for art supplies – construction paper, scissors, glue sticks, glitter, stickers, markers and crayons – all the stuff that keeps kids busy inside on cold Montana winter days, which should start any minute now and will continue until sometime next June. 

I found a treasure trove of things that will keep my girl busy.  I also found lots of things that appealed to me.  Tempted me.

I have a hard time resisted pens of many colors, though exactly why the words flow better in teal green or coral colored ink, I’m unclear.  Sharpies have new Caribbean colors that I was hard pressed to resist.  On the packet it says that they are a ‘limited edition.’  If that’s the case, I hope they hurry up and take them off the shelves so I can stop being tempted by them!

But Sharpie isn’t making the only temptation. There are all those blank notebooks.  I love blank notebooks. They have so much potential.  They are pristine and simply beg to be filled with things I know I want to remember.  The trouble is, given the state of my office and the number of notebooks in it, I always have a hard time finding the right one, even when I know it’s there.

There are Post-its and pads of every description.  There are even ‘While you were out” messages which would be useful if I weren’t here, or if someone else was when I wasn’t, which isn’t often (trips for research aside).  And with answering machines, I suppose I don’t need them. But they’re lots more tempting than answering machines. I rarely find myself tempted by them.

I have been tempted by wastebaskets.  And shredders. And even more by bookcases of which I desperately need four or five. Big bookcases, too. I wonder if I could find an office supply store that sells wall space for the bookcases I need. 

After I had my basketful of art supplies yesterday, I prowled the digital voice recorders (though God knows if I could remember to put batteries in it), and the SD cards for my camera, and those nifty little printers which you can take on vacation with you, though I can’t imagine anyone really does.  I studied the packing tape with interest, the printers’ ink with obsession, the scanners and the netbooks with itchy palms.

I had the same feeling I used to get when I got my school supplies every autumn – the tingle of anticipation (those empty notebooks again – all that potential).  Yes, I was one of those annoying kids who liked school.   I liked the tools of school. I liked the smell of newly sharpened pencils, the odor of inkwells, of calcimine paint and Elmer’s glue.

I know I don’t need any of those things right now. I’m beyond calcimining anything.  My last glue bottle dried up.  I write with pen more than pencil these days, and I haven’t used ink from an inkwell in since my sixth grade calligraphy days. 

I bought the art supplies – the clay and the scissors, the colored paper and the Mr Sketch pens that have a different scent for each color. I bought a first days of school sticker book and a Fancy Nancy one, too.  I bought glitter and pipe cleaners and a  nice substantial glue stick for the granddaughter.  I think she’ll be most pleased.

And I got out of there almost untempted – but not quite. I bought one small notebook, pristine  and hopeful, just for me.

Are the certain shopping places that tempt you? My sister-in-law is a serious shoe shopper.  I have a friend who can’t resist toys for her dogs (mine are seriously envious!), and another who can’t pass a bookstore, new or used, without coming out with an armful (I could be one of them). 

What about you?