Self Control

There I was on a Friday afternoon, having found the perfect scarf for my new green jacket and made my way to Domestics. Or is it Tabletop? You know the department: dishes, platters, vases. Porcelain, pottery, crystal. Five minutes later I was lost on a world tour—China, Portugal, Italy—looking for red clearance tags on things that, albeit on sale, I do not need. I do not have room for. I know. It is a sickness. As far as I can tell, infection occurrred during my employment at Crate and Barrel. I have been symptomatic ever since.

Some things were easy to pass by, like the kitschy pilgrim and turkey salt and pepper shakers, and anything in cat motif. Then I found an adorable tea cup and saucer (here I remind you that I am a COFFEE drinker)—made to look like terra cotta whose off-white glazed has been worn on the edges. And another. Three. All slightly different, their own patterns. They’d look so cute on my dining room table on a serving tray with a tea pot, maybe a bud vase. OMG. Four cups and saucers!

[CRASH.]

Make that three cups and saucers. I knew I should have taken a cart.

Then, as I put them on a shelf so I could rearrange them in my hands so as not to break any more, it occurred to me that I should not be buying any of them! That was my sign.

I walked away.

But they were so pretty….