Addictions

The Sims is evil.

Driving aimlessly and op shopping are two of my favorite past times.

The former, driving just for the sake of driving gives me great pleasure.  We did not own a car while I was growing up and being mainly a city dweller it has never been necessary to own one.  Now that I do own a car, I love it.  I love the freedom of going wherever, whenever with whomever I please.

The latter, op shopping is an obsession originally born out of necessity.  Having been brought up by an older single mother who struggled to re-enter the workforce meant living well within our means, which was not much.  I say obsession because op shopping became a "must do" every Saturday morning. My mouth would salivate upon discovering a new store.  Each Saturday morning promised an adventure, a treasure hunt.  There was always the thrill of maybe or maybe not finding a Wedgwood or designer label jeans, retro blouses and amazing two hundred or three hundred dollar shoes for less than a tenth of hat price.

On one of these aimless drives I came across and obscure op shop.  Even though it was not Saturday, I thought I'd treat myself to a little looksie.  I cannot remember the name or the location.  I am certain it was south of the river from where I live because I crossed a bridge and drove for a very long time heading south.

In this obscure op shop I found a number of treasures, including Science books, biographies (including one for Obama which I unfortunately have not picked up), and some home improvement books for my partner. My partner is an avid DIY manly man who spends every spare moment renovating the house, himself, with no help from any professionals because "that would just be a waste of money".  I must admit it does amaze me, the number of things he is able to teach himself to do. All of these books under three dollars, I usually paid more in library fees.  I have a tendency to loose things, including but not limited to library books.

I steered clear of my usual weakness, self help books. I did, however, purchase a book on how to raise happy children- I have no children, nor do I plan to have any children, so this was a very interesting choice. Maybe something inside of me urged me to buy it out of curiosity ... had my mother brought me up to be a happy child and need I ask?

A SIMple game would answer this question anyway. On the book stand, for a measly five dollars was the complete collection of The SIMS.  Surely I could sell it on ebay for more than that, I thought to myself.  This is a fairly common thought whenever I spot interesting, ridiculously cheap items at op shops. In fact, this has led to a storage room of odds and sods destined for e-commerce sometime in the undisclosed most likely very distant future (the twelfth of never, according to my partner).

Cha-Ching, treasures come at me. Along with some other *knick-knacks and some work polo shirts (intended for the business I never get around to starting) The Sims, for the measly five dollars plus, I kid you not, an Ipod  for less than twenty dollars, was purchased. This Ipod was going to be my saviour from a life of unhealthiness, why, because now that I had an Ipod I would have the motivation to run to motivational music. Such as Katie Perry's Eye of the Tiger song, or Chariots of Fire, or the like. . * also spelled nick-nacks, nicknacks, knickknacks; this last one just looks ridiculous.

When I got home I dumped everything other than The Sims game under the house.  The books were too heavy to cart up the stairs and I did not really want the partner to see my spoils.