Style section

Whenever someone comes to visit, I buy the Globe & Mail so there's something to pick up and flip through during any lulls. Really, though, I just like to take advantage of the opportunity to do this myself, but I don't want to do it every weekend because it feels like too much extra reading.

I love the Style section. If not for the occasional visitor, I may well have no idea what is going on in the world of contemporary fashion (panic!). I like looking at the pictures and reading the captions underneath with the introductory pun, followed by required information like the name of the elite shop in which said item can be purchased (always in Toronto; never, ever in One Great City!) and the price (always outrageous. This isn't The Sun, people.). This weekend there were stools and chairs on the design page whose prices are listed as available only by request. If a chair costing $3700 can have its price listed, I really wonder what price warrants being left out. Perhaps I should put in a request?

If I were to list a few things Globe-style that I've recently acquired, my Style section would look a little like this:

Don't just talk the talk in these earthen-toned hiking boots by Dr Marten.
Brown leather hiking boots, $0 at The Laundry Room.






Darling leave a light on for me
Brighten things up with this Japanese-inspired lampshade, available in ivory only.
Paper lampshade, $0 at The Laundry Room.




Okay, I know I am coming across as very cheap; too cheap to even pay a nickel for my own stuff. And while I am not fond of shopping, these were lucky finds that I stumbled upon, abandoned in the thrift store that a corner of the laundry room has become, items I actually had in mind to look for.

Do you think that having money and rarely spending it is like wasting youth on the young, or happiness on perpetual complainers? Maybe actively avoiding spending money when you have it is as obnoxious as spending it for the sake of spending it.

I know a few genuinely cheap people and they drive me crazy. For a while, I am carried along with their frugality, resourcefulness and commitment to minimising waste, but when my offer of going out for a drink is never taken up because it's cheaper to drink at home, I start to wonder if the line has been crossed from admirable asceticism to miserable existence.

When to spend is a dilemma for me, truly. I have no interest in shopping and I don't like to buy things that aren't edible because I don't want to accumulate all that junk. More deeply, I am uncomfortable with materialism; it's something you can really hide behind, you know? But at the same time, there is stuff out there that I like and it wouldn't kill me to make some effort to keep up with the times, fashion-wise. Also, appropriated poverty? Slumming it is pretty loathsome. I guess I am aiming for some balance between enjoying the tangible parts of life and not being wasteful, and it need not matter whether it comes from the alley or the mall, but I don't feel like I'm there yet. I'm tipped too far in one direction - obviously not towards the Globe's Style section!

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I haven't been writing much lately because it's taking me forever to churn anything out. That's because I don't write often enough. And so it goes.

That said, I won't be writing for a few days because I am going to Chicago tomorrow.

I. Am. Excited.

I might buy something nice.

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The visitor, by the way, was Dad!










Can you see us? B took this photo.