Back To School

You are an obsession, I cannot sleep
I am a possession unopened at your feet
There is no balance, no equality
Be still I will not accept defeat

I will have you, yes I will have you
I will find a way and I will have you
Like a butterfly, a wild butterfly
I will collect you and capture you

You are an obsession, you're my obsession 

I love back to school time.

I have a life-long love of all things "back to school", especially school supplies and organization tools, which seem to be in abundance and reasonably priced from mid-July until the end of September.

My obsession started in grade school.

At the end of the year, my teachers would set aside one day to clean out the supply cabinet and would ask for volunteers.  Being the shy, geeky child that I was, I would always volunteer.

I would get to neatly stack and inventory all of the textbooks, writing tablets, workbooks, etc.  Then, I'd get to help organize all of the construction paper, scrap paper, and art supplies.  I love the smell of tempera paint.  To this day, I can still close my eyes and smell those fat bottles of primary colors.  I love the fat-bristled brushes that went with those jars of paint.  I'd get to wipe down all of the bottles and soak all of the brushes in the sink in the oh-so-private "teacher's lounge" area.

We'd wipe down the shelves and re-arrange everything perfectly.

If I was lucky, my reward would be some supply that was not needed or wanted any more.  Workbooks that had missing pages.  Textbooks that someone defaced.  Paint bottles that were almost empty.   I would scavenge them all and take them home for my own faux classroom.

Fast forward thirty some years and I still love school supplies.  My two favorite things to buy are notebooks and pens.

I love a good spiral bound hardback notebook.  I don't go for the flimsy 39 cent single-subject crap.  Give me a good solid notebook that will last me months.  I buy them to take to work (where you have to practically sell a kidney to get office supplies).  I buy them to make my lists at home.  I buy them to do my budget.  I buy them to just caress and lovingly own.  "Oh, my precious, you are mine," I coo as I hold them to my chest.  OK, I'm not that creepy but they are special to me.

I also love a nice .5mm felt tip pen.  I don't like regular ballpoint pens.  Gel doesn't really appeal.  My absolute favorite pen is the BIC Z4+.   You can't buy them in stores.  I have to buy them from Amazon or eBay.  Every year for my birthday and then for Christmas, I treat myself to a new box.  I love these pens so much that I give them to friends and co-workers and dare them to not enjoy them as much as I do.  I often joke that my soul mate will also have one of these pens in his secret stash at home and I'll ask to borrow a pen and he'll say, "Use this" and our eyes meet, the music swells and lightning crashes...   OK, yeah, I don't really fantasize about that, but it would be nice to meet someone who shares an affinity for a good writing instrument.  Right before I left my last job, I met a guy who was a member of pen club.  He even went to pen conventions.  Sadly, he was more of a fountain pen kind of guy. 

This morning's Sunday paper was a bit on the chunky side.  It was filled with sales ads for back to school items.  I think I'm going to go indulge myself and see what kind of trouble I can get into today.

It could be worse, right?  It could be liquor, cigarettes, drugs or gambling.  I mean, what's the worse that can happen?  I get a paper cut?