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The Shopping Chronicles: BOREDOM SHOPPING
I don't know if this is just me (please tell me that it's not), but I often find myself in the car, facing the traffic, navigating the car park and pushing through the crowd at the local shopping centre, when I am bored.
And no, not just when I am brain-numbingly bored, but any degree of boredom. Even the degree of boredom that could be cured with a simple flick of the TV remote. One hint of boredom and the urge to shop kicks in, and off I go on a clothing hunt, regardless of bank balance or size of mess on the kitchen counter.
I call it: Boredom Shopping.
What confuses me here is not the fact that I urge to shop- Lord knows I've had this problem ever since my mother first took me to pick out an ice-cream from the corner store after my first day of school- but the fact that, shopping, in itself, isn't that exciting. I can't say I get an adrenaline rush from it. My heartbeat does not quicken, my pupils do not dilate, nor does my back straighten. Rather, I wander around "listlessly", as it were, looking for that one adrenaline-igniting item to pop out at me and make my life all the more exciting.
And adding to the frustration and downright bizarreness of this tendency is the fact that, more often than not, I don't really want anything, I certainly don't need anything, and deep down, usually, I don't end up liking anything. Most of the time, I can't really even be bothered taking my clothes off in the dressing room to try anything on.
I am, in a way, a shopping tease, wandering seductively past all the clothes with my purse firmly tucked into my handbag as if to say "oh, don't get excited, I'm not really ready for a relationship at the moment".
But, most peculiarly, as the shops begin to shut at 4:55pm, and as the tills begin to be tallied, a wave of panic sets in as I realise that time is running out and without a purchase, my entire day of boredom shopping will be a complete waste of time, and petrol. So off I scurry to my favourite "cheap and nasty" accessories shop (a very well kept secret, mind you), to get a shopping hit of some sort. Usually it's a pendant necklace for $9.95 or a pair of adorable dove emblem studs for $6.95- anything! Anything to hand over money for, so at least I come home with something to introduce to the rest of my wardrobe, who are at the time in question, wait in heightened anticipation to meet 'the newcomer'.
But maybe, Boredom Shopping isn't that bad. Maybe one could even consider it a blessing in disguise- at least I'm not gambling to cure boredom.
Right?
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Say what you mean and mean what you say.
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