April

Less than four weeks to go.

I had to buy five Spanish books this semester for my class and a tie for Chris to wear to a funeral. I was able to get a Spanish exercise book second hand and erase all the answers, though I will soon needs a new eraser. Also my hard drive died and they sent me another. I didn't buy it because it is under warranty, but still it counts as a new thing in the world.

We have become adept at tapping into what others don't want. Bill gave us a spare bodum, my mom sent tea towels she didn't need, John had a phone he wasn't using and I found some more sheets in the back of the cupboard. In January I went to a reception downtown at Nexen Oil as part of a hiring thing and was telling some people there about my project. I mentioned that I was learning how to do things the old fashioned way again and as an example mentioned that because I don't have a steel and can't buy new knives (a bad habit I had got into) I have relearned how to sharpen a knife on the bottom of a mug. One of the women from Nexen, Rhonda, said that she has a spare steel and would I like it. I accepted and she asked what else I needed. Not wanting to be a mooch, I thought I would mention something ridiculous so I said that the vet had suggested I get a bigger litter box. Oh, she said, I have several that I don't use and my husband has been bugging me to do something with them. What size would you like? So the next week, at our next reception, Rhonda brought a steel and a large cat box for me. Igor was thrilled, especially because Rhonda tossed in a few cat toys that she no longer needed.

The downside of the year is that all my socks are wearing out, though I do have a line on some darning wool. I have lost the button off two pairs of jeans so I now move one button back and forth between three pairs. All my underwear have holes, though I could mend them since they are all on the seam. I did have a find in the shape (literally) of the jacket that has been hanging in my office for many months, which turns out to be a fitted women's jacket, not the eighties style men's jacket that I recall leaving there. I wish I had muffin tins but some will turn up when garage season starts again. I am almost out of pencil leads but I think I have accumulated enough scrap paper from the recycling bin at work to last a life time. We have kicked the paper towl habit--though it was a bonus when a roll turned up when we cleaned out the trunk of the old car to give it away.


It has all been going so smoothly that I had even been thinking that I may never shop again. And then I went to the mall.

Chris was going for a haircut and I decided to go to the library and hang out until he was done. The quickest way to the library is through the mall. By the time I had window shopped my way to the end of the mall (and it's a small mall) it was time to go back and get Chris and I had lust for shopping in my hear. I was positively drooling over the new spring greens in Reitman's. I felt oddly consoled that they didn't have my size in the cardigan.

I have taken up watching "What not to wear" and alternate between being charmed and appalled. They turn everyone into clones, but those clones wear what would be ideal for me for work. My friends at work were getting so tired by mid-Feburary of my one jacket that they threathened to take me shopping when my year was up. I did do a bit of thrift shopping in Vancouver in Feburary and found a jacket and a sweater to expand the wardrobe a little.

I read Judith Levine's year of not buying anything. She and her husband were hardcore--buying only necessities-- so no eating out, no bought entertainments and no second hand buying. I can't see going that far. One thing I enjoyed this year was spending more money on plays and things because I wasn't spending in on other things. It seems to me to be a mistake to give up consuming things like entertainment and food. We need trade to survive, but we should trade things that don't create piles of cheap, useless, ultimately unwanted stuff.


I am undecided what to do next. I think I will definitely go back to buying books. I have missed them a lot. But perhaps I won't go back to buying newspapers and magazines. I have become accustomed to having my news a day late and sometimes not at all and libraries have magazines. I do have my eyes on a pair of shoes that would be perfect to take to Nicaragua if we go next year, but then again maybe not.