Yes, Virginia, You Can Impulse Buy Online

Being hundreds of in-flight miles from the nearest mall doesn't make one immune to the irresistable magnet that is consumerism... lucky for me most of my online shopping sprees have been fairly low-budget and limited to books. I wouldn't think twice about walking into a bookstore and coming out with two or three new books, so I figure powells.com can take the place of any real bookstores in my life. OK, so I DID buy some new basketball-style shorts and a pair of sweatpants, but honestly, I really did need them!!! I swear! Besides, going to the post office and finding something you've been waiting for is about as exciting as things get around here. Not that I'm complaining... there's something to be said for finding a simple routine and sticking with it.

After a year of constant schedule-shifting, insanity-inducing flux, not being able to establish strong relationships at any school or in any community, I'm just glad to be able to settle down and just live. Not worry about "Well, in two weeks I'll be done with this student teaching placement and leaving behind everyone I know here to go on to establish an equally meaningless (in the grand scheme of things) teacher-student relationship at another school, before quitting that and going back to college classes and talking about what it all really means." No more "Wake up at 6, be at student teaching placement by 7 (assuming a 15 minute commute), stay there until noon, go to university classes from 1 to 4, then work from 6 to 8... oh, and don't forget to do lesson plans, write papers, and look for a job. And maybe somewhere in there you should try to have a relationship or at least a few friends and maybe communicate with the people who brought you into this world and raised you, but really, is that stuff necessary? You've got stuff to do."

Constant excitement, complete with bells, whistles, fancy restaurants, perpetual entertainment and a constant feeling of "I've got to be somewhere doing something talking to someone or something's wrong" is an addiction I'm working on overcoming. That's one thing I really like about living here (among other things I like and some things I don't like): people are very social. "Visiting" is common... you just drop by and see what's up. No one just sits around doing nothing, but neither does anyone expect anything wild, crazy and fun to be planned out for them. Fun is picking berries or fishing with a sibling or friend. Fun is getting some friends together and watching a movie. Somewhere along the way we got the idea that we don't have the things we need within ourselves to make our own lives complete. We look outside ourselves and our friends. Life itself isn't satisfying enough... we need something more to make us happy. Except it never really makes us happy.